When the latest Gender Pay Gap figures hit the business headlines in April 2023, they caused some frustration and surprise as the gap had failed to narrow. 

To quote The Financial Times; 

“The lack of progress has disappointed fair pay campaigners and business groups”.

More recently it was also reported that UK businesses have improved female representation on their boards, but that two-fifths of FTSE 100 firms still do not have a woman in one of their top four executive roles.

At a headline level, the UK gender pay gap - the median pay gap between men and women - has remained static from the previous year at 12% and has remarkably actually worsened since the start of UK gender pay gap reporting six years ago.

This has business commentators scratching their heads, given the significant efforts of many companies and industry groups to narrow the gap and recent trends in employee experience and social responsibility - our recent article discusses this:

Dissecting The Data

Banking, finance, insurance, education and law remain under scrutiny as some of the sectors with the biggest disparities. As the comparable lack of women in senior positions remains a key driver of the gap, this also seems at odds with recently reported increases in the number of women now on the on boards of major companies.

Progress at board level is important and symbolic.

Since ABSTRACT’s first major involvement with the topic of ‘Women in Business’ ten years ago, when we were selected by the Financial Times as research partners to develop a learning programme for board level women, we have strongly felt that building a sustainable pipeline of future senior leaders in organisations below board level is a key problem to solve and is much harder to fix.

We continue to believe that inclusive leadership and career management programmes have a part to play in the solution, along with addressing structural issues such as recruitment and pay review processes, flexible working, and childcare.

This is borne out of our experience of working with thousands of mid to senior leaders, through both women-only and mixed gender career management development programmes. Our destination data and post programme evaluation has consistently showed that around two-thirds of participants will typically be promoted or develop wider roles and responsibilities within our programmes.

Good Intentions Must Lead To Outcomes

While companies may differ, there can be little doubt that employers and society overall are very much more focused on pay equity and transparency, equality, diversity, and inclusion than ten years ago. We have seen big positive changes in how our own clients are focused on these topics.

But as a business leader, are you, your organisation and your team genuinely closing the gap between your good intention and desired outcomes?

Do your learning and development programmes make a tangible difference to successful career outcomes for your people, including women and other under-represented groups? 

At ABSTRACT, we believe that learning and development should support cultural advancement and development, helping to change behaviours, embed cultural change and build modern organisations fit for today’s social objectives.

Get in touch to find out how we can help you to harness the full potential of all your people.