Business West’s International Women’s Day forum hears there’s still a way to go on workplace equity

On 8th March nearly 100 women from across the South West came together to network and talk equity in business.

As Business West gears up to celebrate its 200th anniversary, the event shone a light on the fact that while businesses have come far in terms of equity, there is still a long way to go in achieving this both in and outside of the workplace. 

The attendees heard from a panel of five inspirational businesswomen, and members of Business West, including Rachel Geliamassi, Managing Director of Stagecoach West, Lucy Ackland, Senior Product Manager at Renishaw, an engineering firm based in Gloucestershire, LaToyah McAllister-Jones, Executive Director of St. Paul’s Carnival, Jaya Chakrabarti, Founder of TISCreport, a platform for tackling modern slavery in supply chains, and Donna Speed, CEO of We the Curious, a science centre based in Bristol.

The event took place as The British Chambers of Commerce, which Business West is a key member of, has launched a three-year gender equity campaign based on a survey of over 4000 respondents. 

They found that almost two thirds of women felt they missed out on career progression as a result of childcare responsibilities while almost two in five women feel that they will miss out on career opportunities as a result of menopause. 

The event began with an introduction from Business West’s Membership Director, Emma Carter, who talked about the three steps to equity that businesses can consider; removing the gender pay gap, promoting work life balance and recognising imbalances in the workplace.

The panel drew on their experiences about what has benefitted them in their own careers, including mentoring and having role models, but also how they are trying to level the playing field in their sectors through changing language in job applications and ensuring their teams are given the flexibility they need in the workplace so they can balance work and childcare responsibilities. 

donna_speed_with_event_attendees_for_website.png

Discussions also centred around how there needs to be a culture shift in businesses to consider and recognise people’s different experiences and values. 

LaToyah said:

“It starts with the organisation. You have to very honest about where you are and have difficult conversations.

“Businesses need to check their human biases and start looking at all of those entry points to their organisation. What is your website saying about who you are? What does your marketing material say?”

Lucy said:

“I was reading some articles this week about how much unpaid work women do. It’s not just in terms of childcare or caring for parents.

“It’s even all the small tasks that we do every day. And that means that we go to work slightly more tired, and slightly more frazzled than everyone else, because of all these extra things we do.

“It’s important that we ourselves are challenging our gender bias but that businesses also recognise this and make changes to their culture and structure.”

Jaya said:

“The challenge for all businesses now is that there is a workforce shortage and a skills shortage. At the same time women are leaving, perhaps due to the perimenopause and the menopause and feeling unsupported. You've also got women who don't feel that they can come back with the skills that they took away when they went on maternity leave.

“Businesses don't have a choice, If you want to grow, you need to make room for these kinds of life changes so that you keep the skills and grow with them.

The panel also discussed the importance of being a loud, brave leader and how this can initiate positive culture change in the workplace.

Rachel said:

“If I need to leave at a perfectly reasonable time to go and do something for one of my children, everyone can know about that, because they're entitled to do that exact same thing.

“We should be proud of the fact that we've got families to take care of, and we're also doing our bit in the transport sector. Leaders should normalise this for people from the top down and show that it's okay to have other priorities and support each other to fulfil them.”

Discussions also focused around how to be a successful leader, you don’t need to ‘wear the mask’ of what you think male leaders are. We want to promote a culture where success can mean being caring and kind - be your authentic self.

Donna said:

“It’s important to find engaging ways of asking individuals about what they need to find out whether things have shifted across the organisation for people and whether your policies are still serving the real needs of people.”

The British Chambers of Commerce campaign will be based on a three-point plan, to include:

1. Short-term action: Convene employment experts, Chamber CEOs and employers to create a Chamber Workplace Equity Commission

2. Medium-term work: The commission to analyse research findings and case studies, to develop policies for Government and best practices for businesses enshrining equity in the workplace.

3. Long-term goal: Re-run the same survey with the aim of moving the dial on the findings published today.

latoyah_mcallister-jones_and_event_attendees_for_website_x_4.png