Minister for Women and Equalities will today (21 November)
announce a fundamental shift in focus for the Government
Equalities Office (GEO) which will include putting marginalised
women at the heart of its work on gender.
In a speech today at Bright Blue’s Women in Work conference Ms
Mordaunt will set out that the GEO has made significant progress
in working towards closing the gender pay gap, getting women into
work and being a driving force behind getting more women on
boards in top companies, but that often low-paid, low-skilled
women were left out of the conversation.
Ms Mordaunt will highlight that in the UK today:
· Around 1.8 million women are currently economically inactive
because they are caring for their home or family, more than 8
times the number of men in that position
· Women are disproportionately more likely to work in caring,
customer service and cleaning roles, which tend to be less well
paid, and three times more likely than men to work part-time
· Nine out of 10 potential returners to work in the UK every year
are women. Nearly a third of all those women who could
potentially return to work have GCSEs as their highest
qualification, and 16% have no qualifications at all
White British women have an employment rate of 73.3%, and
Bangladeshi women have an employment rate of 32.8%
· The gender pay gap increases from over 6% for those in their
twenties, to around 23% for those in their forties. McKinsey
estimate that bridging the gender gap in work could add £150
billion to the UK economy by 2025
The shift in focus on gender is part of Ms Mordaunt’s drive to
put equalities at the heart of the government’s work to tackle
‘burning injustices’, which will see it move to a permanent home
in the Cabinet Office, from 1 April 2019. This move will enable
the Government Equalities Office to have even more influence and
leverage within government, working with the Race Disparity Unit,
and the Office of Disability Issues, and others, to drive
meaningful progress on equalities.
Minister for Women and Equalities is expected to say:
“It will be our mission to ensure that every woman in the UK has
as much freedom, choice, capacity, resilience, support and
protection, to do whatever she wants to do.
“To do that we need to broaden out the work of the Government
Equalities Office to focus on women at every stage of their
lives.
“I will be shifting the focus of the GEO’s work to look at how we
can help women who are economically inactive, women in low paid
and low skilled jobs and women on legacy benefits - trapped into
limiting their hours or income, and women facing multiple
barriers to being independent.”
As part of the shift in focus on gender Ms Mordaunt today is
announcing:
· A £600,000 fund to help women who are especially vulnerable to
return to work when they are ready – a new phase of the returners
programme to help people who have been out of work to care for
others. Organisations from across England will be able to bid for
grants from this pot of money to help women who have experienced
issues like homelessness, domestic abuse and mental health
problems. They will support these women back into the workplace
through training, refreshing skills and facilitating work
placements.
· This includes £100,000 to support women facing multiple
barriers – such as limited English language skills – to becoming
more independent, including those who have never worked. This
fund will include women in integration areas of Blackburn,
Bradford, Peterborough and Waltham Forest. Government is bringing
divided communities together by boosting English language skills,
increasing economic opportunity, and ensuring that every child
receives an education that prepares them for life in modern
Britain.
