- Conference
- 2022 Virtual National Women's Conference
- Date
- 8 October 2021
- Decision
- Carried
“This conference notes:
That because of the pandemic and its subsequent lockdowns, home working increased in the UK from around 5% to around 30%.
Research carried out in the US identified that women were three times more likely to be the main care giver in the pandemic and that only 37% of women had a positive experience of working from home during lockdowns compared to 79% of men.
Women on average carried out 49 more minutes of housework than men during the pandemic, increasing the “second shift” phenomena.
Despite the Government’s pressure to return all office-based workers to the office, many organisations are considering hybrid ways of working moving forward.
Furthermore, this conference notes:
That home working could have positive benefits for women, including reducing the maternity penalty and presenteeism.
However, as we have already seen during the pandemic it can place women in a worse position and could result in women being less visible in the workplace and therefore less likely to being promoted or seen as less committed.
A recent study from The Behaviour Insights Team suggested working from home could help reduce the gender pay gap, as part of an overall positive approach to flexible working means women may be less likely to reduce their hours. However, they noted it requires organisations to communicate positive messages and build working models in which flexibility around work is encouraged at all levels and that it is not seen simply as a way of accommodating women with caring responsibilities in the workplace.
Therefore, this Conference asks the National Women’s Committee to:
1)Provide opportunities for women members to discuss their experiences of working from home with a view to providing responses on the Government’s proposed extension of flexible working rights, recognising a one size fits all approach will not work.
2)Work with the service groups on any proposals from large employers on hybrid working to enable a woman’s perspective to be heard;
3)Work with labour Link on any proposed changes to flexible working rights to ensure those rights are real rights.”
ENDS