Women's Own

Do high-flying Welsh women need an extra hand from the Welsh Government
to break the glass ceiling? The National Assembly debated it yesterday.
(Pic : RBS)

Yesterday, the National Assembly held the first Member's debate of 2015, with a motion noting progress (or lack of) made in gender equality since almost 100 years of women's enfranchisement and the forthcoming 40^th (sic, it's actually 45th) anniversary of the Equal Pay Act 1970.

The debate's main focus surrounded the headline-grabbing proposal that the Welsh Government should no longer award procurement contracts or grants to companies that have no women board members.

Antoinette Sandbach AM (Con, North Wales) started off by saying (clip) there was still some way to go towards gender parity in the workplace, noting the National Assembly's 50:50 gender split between 2006-2011 (which has since gone backwards), stating that the "modern workplace benefits from having women at all levels".

Antoinette said Wales can "learn from what our European neighbours are doing" to promote gender equality. In 2013, the European Parliament and Commission approved plans to impose a 40% quota on the number of women board members in publicly listed companies by 2020 (the FTSE100 currently has around 23%). She believes this vote means any legal arguments against using the Welsh Government's £4.3billion recruitment spending to push for greater female representation may no longer apply.

Christine Chapman AM (Lab, Cynon Valley) – chair of the cross-party group for Women in the Economy – said (clip) she was unsure of the legality of imposing the restrictions called for in the motion, even if she supports the principle. She said the question should be, "Can we afford not to (promote women to board level)?", believing it was a necessity as it's healthy for the economy, citing academic research which shows companies with women board members are more effective.

Angela Burns AM (Con, Carms. W & S. Pembs.) - one of the few AMs who've run a business before entering politics – said (clip) targets boost women's share of board seats. She paid tribute to women role models who show that you don't need to "act tough in a man's world" to success in business – citing her own role model, Marjorie Scardino (publishing), Karen Brady (football), Hayley Parsons (former CEO of gocompare.com) and Jacqueline Gold (Ann Summers).

Angela produced one of the more memorable quotes, saying, "Our society does teach little girls that they're either Cinderellas or kittens and there's not much in between". She suggested vocational courses that are popular with girls should teach business skills, as she has experience of being told that her daughter could be trained to perform a role but not aim higher and run a business.

Angela abstained because of the proposal relating to grants rather than procurement. She knows herself how hard it is to "put everything on the line to start a company", while the dynamics within start-up and small businesses (which often are the recipients of grants) are often different to bigger companies.

Julie Morgan AM (Lab, Cardiff North) said (clip) women "still suffer discrimination in the workforce", especially younger and older women, who are often targeted because of pregnancy or are trapped in low pay. During an exchange with Antoinette Sandbach they both said that high-profile women are always asked about work-life balance resulting from children. Julie said unemployment amongst women aged over-50 has risen faster, and they earn 18% less than men. Generally speaking, sectors which employ women – what she called "The Three C's : Caring, cooking, cleaning" - are also amongst the biggest users of zero hour contracts.

Bethan Jenkins AM (Plaid, South Wales West) said (clip) that although women make up 51% of the Welsh population,  "in no avenue of working life, public or private, do women exceed that figure" except in the National Assembly previously * - and the situation isn't changing quickly enough.

A Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) report says FTSE100 companies are now slightly exceeding (20.7%) a 20% target, but further down the FTSE250, women's board representation remains low. Bethan believes this limits talent, and it might be a confidence issue where women are themselves failing to recognise the skills they could bring to companies. Bethan doesn't believe positive discrimination would be "patronising to women" as such actions wouldn't need to be in place forever, only until it brings about a cultural change.

Eluned Parrott AM (Lib Dem, South Wales Central) make a connection between under-representation of women in politics and under-representation elsewhere (clip). She said how public money was spent is part of combating that.

Eluned did, however, wisely caution that although changes to procurement may be effective, this is only the "start of the conversation" and more details were needed on precisely how such a policy would be developed, with a clear understanding of precisely what it would mean (turnover thresholds, companies without directors etc.) to prevent unintended consequences arising. She finished by saying she wants her daughter to, "assume the world is open to her".

Responding on behalf of the Welsh Government, Communities & Tackling Poverty Minister Lesley Griffiths (Lab, Wrexham) said (clip) the government wants to ensure Wales is a country with a diverse workforce. They were committed to introducing and supporting modern, inclusive work practises, improving work-life balance and tackling gender stereotyping – which causes gender segregation in some industries (like natural sciences) with men and women dominating certain sectors.

Lesley said the Welsh Government has the most robust equal pay commitments in the UK, and aims to achieve a 50% gender balance in senior civil service posts by 2020. However, the Welsh Government could not support the motion, despite supporting the sentiments, as it would be illegal to bar procurement to companies that have no women board members.

Rounding off the debate, Jenny Rathbone AM (Lab, Cardiff Central) underlined (clip) that this was a "very intractable issue". 40 years (sic) after the Equal Pay Act, women still generally earn 82p for every £1 a man earns.

Jenny believes this is linked to women's role as child bearer and primary carer, where some companies avoid appointing women of childbearing age, which affects career aspirations. She believes having more women on company boards would stop this institutional discrimination.

Jenny said there's an assumption that progress is being made, but that's "not necessarily the case" – it's gone backwards in NHS Wales senior posts, the number of female council leaders (just one AFAIK – Ceredigion's Ellen ap Gwynn) and no female Police & Crime Commissioners in Wales. She did, however, point to Admiral Group as a sign of changing attitudes as more than 60% of their board members are women.

The motion was passed, but not without considerable reservations – 21 votes for, 1 against, and (an extraordinary) 32 abstentions. If this were a binding vote then it's likely it would've been rejected.

(Pic : 1funny.com)

* After talk of kittens, Bethan Jenkins said she "prides herself on being compared to a terrier"; well I can be a Rottweiler when it comes to politicians doing their homework. It's not the worst thing in the world, and I'm presuming it was just a result of sloppy drafting as Bethan's normally more astute than this, but it only took three minutes to disprove her claim : nursing (~90% women), teaching (74.4% women), headteachers (57.2% women), dentists and doctors aged under-30 (61% women - so the workforce is changing pretty quickly), retail (58% women, but 37% managerial and likely to grow).


Cart before horse?

Would it be better to support more women to come forward for
senior roles before enacting more punitive measures?
(Pic : National Assembly for Wales Flickr)

When I saw the Assembly would be debating this, I was worried it was going to be a bunch of privileged, middle-class women pulling the drawbridge up behind themselves to look after the interests of their own kind. While there were hints of that, it was good there was some emphasis on the problems that still face women further down the food chain.

I'd also be very careful about believing correlation implies causation when citing anything about gender balance boosting company performance. Some of the findings from these reports have negative connotations too, implying companies with more women executives are more risk-averse and less decisive.

Promoting more women to the top in business (especially those who've climbed the career ladder properly) may help those at the bottom; but it just as likely won't, as free enterprise is hardly the most conducive atmosphere for equality.

Though this was a non-binding vote, there's no point focusing too much on the specifics of policy implementation (as there was nothing on the table) or the legality – it's quite clear this procurement policy, as proposed, would be illegal. As a principle though, gender equality in all areas of public life is sound – as I've said before, gender is the primary distinguishing feature between groups of people and the easiest way to ensure everyone is represented fairly.

There's no problem (morally) with the Welsh Government setting whatever criteria they want when awarding procurement contracts. The trouble with proposals like these is that there are always unintended consequences if there aren't very clear guidelines on what's acceptable or not – which both Antoinette Sandbach and Eluned Parrott touched on.

Angela Burns (clip) hit the nail on the head. As the pace of change in women's representation on boards has been so slow, many companies which otherwise provide a good standard of service won't have caught up yet – especially Welsh companies (99% of Welsh businesses are SMEs that may only have one or two directors, even those with a big turnover). Under this proposal these businesses may miss out on procurement contracts and grants awarded by their own government because they don't tick a box.

If there were no legal qualms, the National Assembly itself - as a separate body from the Welsh Government – could enact this policy too, and could probably do so immediately. But, of course, that would affect AMs directly. They might struggle to find an electrician, plumber, or even someone to take away the rubbish based on these rules.

Boosting women's representation using targeted support measures – like the good work Llywydd Rosemary Butler (Lab, Newport West) and organisations like Chwarae Teg are doing - before instituting "strong arm" policies like those proposed yesterday, might be better. That way it does minimum harm to businesses and women start to make their way to the top on their own merits. It'll take some time, but everyone wins.

After all, the National Assembly hasn't become one of the best places for LGBTs to work through quotas and statutory measures, has it?

My personal preference is that senior appointments should be diversity-blind (no information on age, gender, race, disabilities or sexual orientation) so the best people for the job will be shortlisted in each and every case without prejudice. If it's then down to equally-qualified male or female candidates, and the company is under-represented in one or the other, then a choice based on gender would be justified.