Samsung & Zurich | Top firms share insights into supporting women at work

Today marks International Women’s Day (IWD). According to the International Women’s Day website, it is “a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women”. The website also added that the day “marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality”.

Inequalities at work

Data has pointed towards some of the inequalities that remain in the workplace. For example, Office for National Statistics (ONS) data found that, among all employees, the gender pay gap increased to 15.4% (from 14.9%) in 2020, but is still down from 17.4% in 2019. While this progress is promising, it is clear that more work needs to be done to close this gap.

A report from the Hampton-Alexander Review – a Government initiative to increase the representation of females in senior leadership roles – revealed that women hold a third of Board positions in the UK’s 350 largest companies. Although this marks a 50% surge in a five-year period, it is clear that more female staff are needed at Board-level.