Companies must ‘bring women back’ after pandemic jobs blow, says The 30% Club chair

Mastercard executive vice chair Ann Cairns called on companies to "bring women back" as they rebuild this year as latest data revealed women in London have suffered a heavier jobs blow from the pandemic.

Studies have suggested up to two thirds of the jobs lost around the world since March 2020 have been lost by women.

Latest City Hall analysis of Office for National Statistics data, released today, revealed that female unemployment in the capital has increased 3.5 percentage points over the last year, compared to 2 percentage points for men. Female unemployment stood at 7.2% in the three months to December, compared to 6.7% for men.

Cairns is also global chair of The 30% Club, which campaigns to increase gender diversity at board and senior management levels.

She told the Standard: "It is about fixing the system, not fixing the women.

"In recent analysis, one quarter of women interviewed said they were struggling so much with things like home schooling and balancing family that they were thinking about stepping back from the corporate world. And therefore I think companies should be encouraged to put an emphasis on retaining their female staff, and any minority hard-hit by this.

"In the next year they should be examining themselves really closely to make sure that they are not continuing the trend, and that they are putting fair recruitment practices in place so that they start rebuilding and bringing women back."

Cairns said chief executives should start by "setting very gender balanced HR policies", including mid-career hiring and offering equal maternity and paternity leave periods - actively encourage men to take that leave.

Publishing gender pay gaps is also "crucial", she said. The Government suspended the requirement for companies with more than 250 employees to report their gender pay gap last year after the pandemic hit. This year companies have a six month grace period to publish.