WISH Midlands Spring Newsletter 2021

WISH Midlands Spring Newsletter 2021

WISH Midlands recognised IWD this year by looking at the impact the pandemic has had on working women. Rose Klemperer, our Co-Chair, in her video piece for IWD,  highlighted the fact that the gender pay gap has widened during the pandemic.  In 2018, research highlighted that it would take 200 years to close the gender pay gap at current rates.  The pandemic has seen this worsen with a high percentage of working women’s employment being affected. Approximately 33% of working women lost hours or lost work during the pandemic due to childcare issues etc. and this rises to 44% for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic mothers.  At WISH we are looking to employers to consider this and work to lessen and eventually eradicate the gender pay gap as things slowly open up. At WISH we pledge to continue to forge a gender equal world. 

Rebecca Clark, member of the WISH Midlands board, in her IWD video piece, focused on the benefits WISH has had on widening her network, especially during the pandemic. She highlighted the incredible support she’s had from the WISH network.  We know from our research that improving networks is one of the key reasons that our members join WISH and many of our members are missing the face to face networking our events gave them.  We pledge to bring back face to face events as soon as it safe to do so but until that time we are working on events that enable online networking.

As the world slowly opens up and we return to whatever the ‘new normal’ is, it is clear that the issues and challenges that women face in both gaining and maintaining employment have worsened during the pandemic.  Many women have bore the brunt of home learning/caring whilst juggling their work.  Our plea to employers is to develop flexible working policies that truly supports women in the workplace and also back into the workplace.  We at WISH also challenge the issues many women still face in gaining senior positions in the housing sector and pledge to challenge this.