To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to reduce the gap between men and women in the workplace, in the light of the World Economic Forum report on Britain's ranking in respect of gender equality.
Answered on
11 November 2014
As a result of steps already taken by this government, there are now more women in employment than at any previous time. There are now 711,000 more women in employment and 157,000 fewer women unemployed than in May 2010. The proportion of businesses that are led by women is increasing. In 2012, 20% of SMEs were either run by women or by a team that was over 50% female, an increase from 14% in 2008. Unprecedented progress has also been made in equality on company boards, with the latest data showing 22.8% of FTSE 100 Directors are now female, up from 12.5% in February 2011.
The government continues to bring forward a range of measures to further improve equality between men and women in the workplace: a new system of shared parental leave will be implemented from April 2015, a significant step towards changing workplace culture; and almost 2m families will benefit from new tax free childcare scheme from autumn 2015, worth up to £2,000 per child.