Nearly 60% of businesses believe that if working practices don’t develop, they are at risk of forcing out female employees unintentionally. In addition, over 70% of businesses feel that there will remain a limited number of workers who come from low-income backgrounds unless working practices are developed.
Women who come from low-income backgrounds are a particular concern, with many stating they will need to stop working due to caring responsibilities. Future-focused sectors need to encourage female workers from low-income backgrounds to join them. Barriers stopping women from reaching these sectors need to be prevented.
How to attract women to the future-focused sector?
In order to attract women with the right skills, businesses need to offer more flexible attitudes towards flexible working hours in order to make job roles accessible for women from these backgrounds. Without this flexibility, both ends will suffer.
There are many other factors which are stopping working women from lower-income homes with children from staying in or even applying for jobs in the first place. These factors include care duties for children or relatives or simply not feeling confident that they have all the skills listed on the application. Employees need to attract working women in their job descriptions and make it clear that part-time, remote and flexible working patterns are available. The issue is that currently, future-focused industries are hunting for full-time workers who can work on-site. This needs to change to encourage more women to enter the sector.
For a more diverse economy, it is vital that we make sure female workers have access to the right resources and tools so that they can compete for and thrive in jobs in the future-focused sector.
In July 2023, the Flexible Working Bill became a new law, This law will introduce a straightforward process in relation to flexible working requests. This is an excellent development, but more can be done to make future-focused industry roles more accessible to women. One idea is to implement the four-day working week. Another idea is to approach women directly who are looking to get back into work, as well as collaborate with training providers. Furthermore, one idea was to create training courses and tailor-made career programmes to appeal to women from low-income backgrounds.
Final Thoughts
There are various challenges when it comes to encouraging women from low-income backgrounds to return to or stay in future-focused industries. These challenges go beyond care responsibilities, as there needs to be more focus on funding, training and support for these workers. Not only do we need to change our attitudes toward women working in this sector, but we need to implement policy changes as well.
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