14 June 2024

Any party that wants to win needs to put the issues that women care about at the heart of their platform. Fawcett has three key focus areas in the lead up to this election, chosen because these represent the issues where government can make the biggest impact on women's lives. The second is creating workplaces that work for women. 

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2. Workplaces that work for women 

Women continue to face structural barriers to workforce participation, with discrimination the norm for far too many. Fawcett research has shown that close to half of women in the workforce have experienced sexual harassment, and 75% of women of colour have experienced racism at work. 

In the context of a cost-of-living crisis and critical labour shortages, it is more crucial than ever than these barriers come down. A thriving, productive economy relies on harnessing the skills and talents of women.

There are so many ways to improve access to the workforce for women, and the simplest of them all is making flexible work the default. Making flexible work the default in job adverts gives parents, disabled people, and those with caring responsibilities more choice about how to balance their working lives. 

Fawcett research showed that in 2022, women were taking home an average of £564 less per month due to the gender pay gap. All parties must commit to closing this gap by introducing policies like flexible work by default and creating workplaces that work for women. 

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Fawcett's key calls:

• Flexible work options to be included at the point of advertising
• Tackling sexual harassment in the workplace by introducing a preventative duty on employers and protections from third party harassment 
• Strengthening workers’ rights through extending tribunal time limits, expanding redundancy protections for pregnant women and new mothers and also ensuring women experiencing the menopause have greater protections 
• Strengthening and expanding gender pay gap reporting
• Modernising equal pay legislation so that it is fit for purpose
• Introducing pay transparency practices by banning questions on salary history, mandating salary bands on job advertisements and introducing a legal Right to Know.
• Radically reforming early childhood education and care 
• Redesigning parental leave so that it supports both parents to care for their children

Fawcett's policy submissions:

• Submission to Labour Policy Forum: Better Jobs and Better Work Commission 
• Submission to Labour Policy Forum: A Future Where Families Come First Commission 
• Fawcett submission to the Liberal Democrats

More from Fawcett on workplace reform:

• Read Double Trouble: The Ethnicity Gender Pay Gap
• Equal Pay Day 2023: Unlocking Flexible Work
• Read The Ethnicity Motherhood Pay Penalty 
• Equal Pay Day 2022: Women's Missing Money
• Read Broken Ladders: The Myth of Meritocracy for Women of Colour in the Workplace
• Read about how we made the Worker Protection Act law
• Take the #EndSalaryHistory pledge 
• Read about our 2021 campaign for the Right to Know
• Make use of our Equal Pay Advice Service 
• Join the Fawcett Equality Network

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We want to hear from you.

What's important to you at the next election? Let us know by:

• Becoming a member of Fawcett and joining our movement for a more equal world 
• Following us @fawcettsociety on all social media 
• Writing to us via [email protected] 

See you at the ballot box!