Our founder Joy Foster, who was recently shortlisted in the Rising Star Category at the Women in Business Awards, was also invited to spend the morning at 10 Downing Street. Here’s what she had to say about her meeting:
“It was very productive discussion. I’ll hopefully be involved in many more. They wanted to know how TechPixies was getting on and encouraged us to keep up the good work we are doing to help women upskill and return to work.
I took the opportunity to highlight what we think is working in our strategy (face to face learning + coaching) and the top three struggles that women in our programme have faced when returning to work:
1) Childcare is often more expensive than wages can cover – meaning women work for nothing AND sacrifice time with their children if they go back to work.
2) Women who have children with disabilities face difficulties going back to work as their children need additional support, which if not provided externally falls back to a parent, often the mother. In many cases this can lead to 15+ years of caring and a big career gap.
3) Employers are still not offering women roles which are truly flexible, part time, and well paid.
What I didn’t get a chance to reflect on, but what I also think is really important is the long term impact that these three struggles have on women who stay home to raise children: less pay, lower pensions, threat to mental well-being and a perpetuation of business as we know it. BUT… one step at a time.”
If you are interested in reading more opinions on the discussion of women in the workplace, there have been some really good articles written recently on this conversation in light of the pay gap highlights that have surfaced:
- Seeing the system behind gender pay – by Sacha Romanovitch, CEO of Grant Thornton
- Cindy Gallop: “I Get Very Annoyed When People Talk About The Mommy Track”
The discussion of women in business and women returners is an important one to continue having, TechPixies is honoured to have a seat at the table to help keep these discussions alive.