The Women and Work APPG provides a forum to constructively examine and debate the role that policy makers can play to deliver gender balance within the economy.
About the Group
While in recent years we have seen a change in the way that UK businesses work to increase the number of women recruited into the workforce, women still face financial hardship and barriers when it comes to employment. The issue is not just about getting women into work but ensuring retention of female employees by rapidly improving workplace systems and infrastructures to enable women to thrive. We aim to take an intersectional approach to women in the workplace, enabling all women to succeed and be valued in their chosen area of work.
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This year we will look at a variety of issues that impact women’s earning potential, including maternity costs, pension inequality, post-maternity pay freeze and the need for better gender pay reporting and pay transparency to assess and quantify, where possible, what “the cost of being a woman at work” is.
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So let’s take a glance at the current situation:
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In only April 2021, the gender pay gap was still high at 15.4%, moreover a report by the 50Plus Choices Employer Taskforce found that a quarter of women consider leaving work due to symptoms experienced from the menopause, that consequently will decrease their pensions, further adding to the issue of pension inequality. New studies by London’s South Bank University highlighted that half the women surveyed explained that maternity leave had negatively effected their carer. Additionally, research suggests that the percentage of women employed in tech in the UK has barely moved from 15.7% in 2009 to 17% in 2021, highlighting the serious need of the government and employers to take levelling up for women as a high priority. This is because women, especially black and ethnically minoritised women, were hit extremely hard by the ongoing pandemic.
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These statistics highlight the need to act now, showing the ever more important work of this APPG.
Ultimately, only by addressing the challenges and costs faced can we help ensure women don’t get penalised financially further and can pave the way for women in the workplace to be treated as valued employees.
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We welcome all to our discussions to advocate for this positive change.
Officers
Co Chair: Jess Phillips MP
Jess Phillips has been the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley since 2015. She has committed her life to improve the lives of others, especially the most vulnerable, and spent five years working for Women’s Aid supporting and defending women. Jess became a councillor in 2012 through the Labour Future Candidates Programme. In this role she worked tirelessly to support residents, with her work being recognised when she became Birmingham’s first-ever Victims Champion.
Co Chair: Flick Drummond MP
Flick Drummond is a British Conservative Party politician. She has been the Member of Parliament for Meon Valley since 2019, having previously represented Portsmouth South from 2015 to 2017. She was a member of the Women and Equalities Select Committee and set up the Women and Work APPG. She also established the Cybersecurity APPG. In 2019 she stood down as the Conservative candidate to become the Hampshire Police and crime commissioner in the 2020 England and Wales police and crime commissioner elections. In 2020 she was the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Anne-Marie Trevelyan as Secretary of State for International Development.
A full list of APPG Members can be found here.
Information on all the group’s officers can be found here.
Contact the Group
Connect provide the Secretariat to the Group on behalf of the Group sponsors. For information on Connect’s clients, please visit the PRCA Register.
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If you have any questions or would like to find out more about the APPG, please contact us on 0207 592 9592 or email at womenandworkappg@connectpa.co.uk.
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This is not an official website [or Feed] pf parliament. It has not been approved by either House. APPGs are informal groups of Parliamentarians with a common interest in particular issues. The views expressed are those of the group.
Upcoming events: The Sixties: Pensions, Prejudice and Grandparenthood
Date: Tuesday 27 February
Time: 17:00 - 18:00
Venue: Meeting Room R, Portcullis House, Westminster and via Zoom
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This session will explore:
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The gender pension gap
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Ageism
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Childcare responsibilities in later life
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Additional info: Please allow up to 30 minutes to get through security.
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Women and Work APPG launches 2023 annual report: The Cost of Being a Woman at Work
The past two years have proven to be amongst the most challenging in living memory, with no exception for women in the workplace.
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With the All Party Parliamentary Group in its sixth year, we have wanted to focus on the factors that still to this day affect women in the workplace, from a structural point of view and on societal pressures around the delivery on unpaid labour. The issue is not just about getting women into work but ensuring the retention of female employees by rapidly improving workplace systems and infrastructures to enable women to thrive.
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Our Women and Work APPG events have highlighted the need for employers to involve their employees, especially those affected by pay gaps, in conversations around action plans. Employers and employees must work collaboratively in creating action plans that make real changes to the workforce, understanding the intricacies and needs of all the workers.
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The APPG’s meetings have seen excellent attendance with a broad range of industry-leading stakeholders. The insights and research from our APPG’s sponsors and wider contributors have formed the basis of this report and have helped us to formulate recommendations for the UK Government and our parliamentary colleagues.
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Ultimately, we can only ensure equality in the workplace and prevent further damage by acknowledging and addressing the unique challenges and costs that women face.
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We will continue to raise these issues with Government and engage with stakeholde
rs; and we will continue to listen to women to discover and solve the problems that still plague women in work.
We sincerely look forward to making progress on this important agenda in 2023. Read our report here.
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– Jess Phillips MP and Flick Drummond MP, Co-Chairs of the Women and Work APPG
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The Group is supported by a range of organisations across the business world who help fund the running of the Group via its secretariat, Connect.
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If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of the Group please contact womenandworkappg@connectpa.co.uk.