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The Gender Agenda: Top Tips To Attract Women Into Traditionally Male Roles

By Equal Approach Diversity Partner, Vanessa Boon, Director of Energise

Aren’t We There Yet?
Progress has been made to make more use of women’s skills in the economy and to open up more career options for girls and women, but the pace of change is slow. Over 50% of women work in just 10 (out of 77) occupations, meaning that many sectors are still missing out on the skills and experience of women.

The Institute of Employment Studies (IES) published a report last year showing that the 5 C’s: cashiering, caring, clerical, cleaning and catering still characterise the major share of women’s work alongside teaching. Men are more likely to be managers and senior officials, process, plant and machine operatives and in ‘skilled trades.’ This occupational concentration is particularly high among women working part time, whose range of occupations is far more limited and much more confined to stereotypically ‘female jobs’ .

"Nothing at all to do with the much dreaded and unlawful ‘quotas’ and ‘positive discrimination’ – which always strikes me as a contradiction in terms"

But does it matter? Let’s start with our rationale for change, which is much more than just ‘making the world a fairer place’ and has nothing at all to do with the much dreaded and unlawful ‘quotas’ and ‘positive discrimination’ – which always strikes me as a contradiction in terms.

 

Why bother?
The business case for a varied workforce, rather than a samey one, is well established. In the 1970’s Meredith Belbin presented the importance of a balance of different skills and work styles for a productive team . In the 1980’s Irving L Janis highlighted the limitations of narrow ‘groupthink’ and the benefits of wider, different perspectives for business creativity . Throughout the 1990’s management gurus warned employers about the changing labour market, forecasting an ageing population, with fewer men than women of working age by 2018; they urged employers to attract more diverse talent to avoid skills shortages in key industries that traditionally relied upon a supply of male workers, which is shrinking.

The changing domestic and caring roles of men and women are also affecting the labour market. A recent survey of 1,000 parents for Aviva suggests that around 6% of fathers, or 600,000 men, are now their child's primary carer, up from 60,000 in the year 2000. The results also suggested that 18% of mixed-sex couples share childcare responsibilities equally, changing traditional patterns of availability for work.

"Men [are] becoming aware that they haven't had it all...in their relationship with their children they've had less contact"
Adrienne Burgess, the Fatherhood Institute

Opportunity Now highlights recent research showing the link between diversity, effective teams and innovation: “Teams of problem solvers…do better when the diversity of perspectives is greater than the overall ability or talent of the team’s members. In other words, diverse teams outperform [other] teams”

A good gender mix delivers measurable business gains
The CBI’s 2008 report ‘Talent Not Tokenism’ highlights employers that have identified tangible benefits for their core business. These include:

• Increasing employee satisfaction, which helps attract new staff and retain those already there, reduces recruitment costs, and can increase productivity
• Understanding better how the company’s diverse customers think and what drives their spending habits, or how to access markets they have not previously been able to tap into so effectively
• Finding enough workers to fill skills gaps in areas with tight labour markets, where there are not enough ‘obvious candidates’ for the vacancies they have

The UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering & Technology points to a study by McKinsey (2007-08) that showed that organisational performance increased sharply once a threshold of at least 3 women on management committees, with an average membership of 10 people, was reached. Another McKinsey study of a number of European companies with influential female presence in the top positions showed that these companies outperformed their peers in terms of return on equity and operating profit.  

"Organisational performance increased sharply once a threshold of at least 3 women on management committees, with an average membership of 10 people, was reached"

There are lots of examples of a lop-sided workforce with lop-sided results. The traditionally male computer games sector failed to fully tap into the female market until very recently – as the number of women entering the industry started to grow. The NHS, with a female majority on its staff, is seen by men as more orientated towards women, with low numbers of male receptionists and more female-friendly support groups for weight-loss and family health, going some way to explain that men under 50 use GP services half as much as women, often leading to late diagnosis; over 50 there are twice as many hospital admissions among men (yes, gender imbalance works both ways – though the span of men’s occupations is looking better)

BBC Business Editor, Robert Peston, recently highlighted the noticeable absence of senior women in the finance sector saying, “I routinely characterise the credit crunch as 'men behaving badly' - because it's almost impossible to find a woman to blame”.


How do we do it?
OK, so a good gender mix improves business performance in a variety of ways, but how do you actually attract women into roles that are still seen by many as ‘a man’s job’.  Here are some top tips:

Start them young
Schools, careers advisers, colleges, work-based learning providers, employers and parents can help to show girls and boys that their career options are wider than they might think. Exposing girls and young women to a wider range of hobbies, subjects and even household tasks (i.e. help fix the car, not just help wash the dishes) will help to keep more career options open to them as they progress into further and higher education and employment.

Action points for employers

• Engage with your local schools and colleges to offer careers advice and work experience and make it clear that the girls are welcome in all roles
• Run a ‘bring your daughter to work day’ to give girls and young women a taster of some less conventional career options
• Invite women who are already working in unusual roles to share their story in local schools or the newspaper – give a girl the feeling ‘if she can do it, maybe I can’ – studies show that a visible role model at a young age has an impact on later career choices

Promote your gender credentials
Women will be interested to see if you have more than the usual ‘we are an equal opps employer’ line in the job advert.

Action points for employers

• Encourage women to see you as an employer of choice by taking part in events such as International Women’s Month each March, engaging with schools and highlighting the achievements of female employees in your publicity campaigns
• Place job advertisements in places where women are likely to find them
• If you use images in your recruitment literature, ensure a gender balance
• Invite your female employees to be ambassadors, helping you to encourage women to consider a career with your organisation and giving advice on job advert design
• Get publicity for your good work on gender equality – if you offer a women’s network, childcare vouchers, a diverse management team, etc – shout about it!
• Monitor and publish your gender data and your action plan to achieve a good gender mix across your organisation

"Being the only sixteen year old girl in your peer group to study mechanics, or the first woman to head up the IT department can be lonely"

Put support in place
Being the only sixteen year old girl in your peer group to study mechanics, or the first woman to head up the IT department can be lonely. It takes some courage and resilience to pursue an unconventional path; support systems such as buddying, a female mentor from the industry and tackling any negative comments from others will go a long way to making sure that their talent is not lost.
 
Action points for employers

• Engage your staff as volunteer mentors for students at your local College
• Offer female-friendly work placements and apprenticeships – people will not assume you welcome women, you need to be explicit
• Provide opportunities for girls and women working in isolation to meet with others through buddying and networks such as the Women’s Engineering Society
• Deliver respect and inclusion training for your staff to ensure that the atmosphere and culture enables women to flourish

Give people the chance to change direction
Many people re-evaluate their career path and would welcome the chance to try something new, which could help you to address skills shortages.

Action points for employers

•  Offer job swaps to give employees a taster of a different department or specialism
•  Provide sponsored study opportunities or re-training grants to attract women into areas where you are missing out on their experience and insights
• Highlight female role models from traditionally male departments in the staff magazine  - ‘how I got this job – and how you can enter this specialism’
• Offer women’s development courses such as the award-winning Springboard programme to help women consider all of the options open to them and build the confidence to go for it

Although the span of men’s occupations is much broader than women’s, all of these tips can also work in areas where men are under represented, too.

Useful websites
UK Resource Centre for Women in Science Engineering & Technology
http://www.theukrc.org

Wise (Women into Science Engineering & Construction)
http://www.wisecampaign.org.uk

Women’s Engineering Society
http://www.wes.org.uk

Women in Property – a network for women in property and construction
http://www.womeninproperty.org.uk

Where Women Want To Work – employer comparison website from Aurora
http://www.wheretowork.com/women

Business in the Community – corporate good practice on inclusion and diversity
http://www.bitc.org.uk

Government Equalities Office
http://www.equalities.gov.uk

Equality & Human Rights Commission
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com

Have Your Say
The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills is seeking input from across the business world on the subject of ‘Women on Boards’ to influence a report on the barriers to women reaching senior positions and solutions to break down these barriers. To take part in the consultation, please visit the website and respond to the short online survey by 30 November 2010:
http://www.bis.gov.uk/consultations/women-on-boards

 

Vanessa Boon, MCIPD, Director, Energise

You can read more about Energise on our Diversity Partner microsite. Click here to read now.

 

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