Deputy Kirsten Morel, who is vice-chairman of a Scrutiny Panel reviewing Jersey’s gender pay gap, said it made ‘no sense’ for businesses not to harness the talents of their female workers. He believes Jersey’s economy could be strengthened by closing gender divides in the workplace and within society.
‘You can almost pick any company in Jersey and look at its board and you’ll be struggling to find a woman, and if you do you’d probably find she’s in HR or marketing,’ he said.
‘Many of Jersey’s best, most imaginative and most successful entrepreneurs are female, a fact that on its own shows what the Island’s boardrooms are missing. It would be interesting to find out whether some of these entrepreneurs chose to start their own businesses because of a lack of senior opportunities in existing firms.’
With half the Island’s workforce being female but most of the top jobs held by men, including within the civil service, he said it was now time to ask what is stopping the progress of women into the boardroom.
‘Sadly, we have so few statistics on the matter that it is hard to know from an empirical perspective what the barriers are, or whether Jersey has specific issues,’ he said. ‘Collecting regular statistics is one of the aims of the Gender Pay Gap Review Panel because it is only by knowing exactly how Jersey operates that we’ll be able to effect meaningful change.’
He added: ‘Looking at other developed nations, we can see that the barriers are likely to be a mix of cultural and structural attitudes that span the range from women being less likely to be promoted at all levels within businesses to false cultural beliefs, such as mothers being less singularly dedicated to their work than fathers.
‘Inflexible working hours are an issue. Jersey is still fixed in a nine-to-five attitude, even though this doesn’t suit most people and particularly not families, but because women are more likely than men to be the primary carer, many feel forced to reduce their hours or stop working altogether.
‘It’s also true that school times and holidays, as well as the cost of childcare, don’t make it easy for parents and again, because we have a prevailing attitude that women should be the primary carer, it is often the case that they leave the career pathway in order to care for their children. Jersey needs to get to grips with the availability and cost of childcare, as well as changing attitudes, so that men become just as likely to stay at home to care for their children as women.’
He added that important developments had recently been made in maternity and paternity provision in Jersey, but work now needed to be done to ensure that when mothers return to work they are able to continue along the same career pathway as before.
‘The strength of the German economy shows us all that it is perfectly possible to have generous maternity and paternity provision while also continuing to support healthy, growing businesses,’ he said.
