ISSUE 17 FIFTYF UR DEGREES Lancaster University Management School | the place to be WhyGender Matters Addressing inequality across business and society 10The elephants in the room 18The fashion industry's gender problem 34Careerprogression- bangoutoforder
Cyber Security EMBA (CEMBA) Duration: 24 months, part-time Fees: £36,000 (October 2023 start). We offer a range of scholarships and bursaries to help cover the cost of tuition fees and/or living expenses. Designed for: Middle and Senior managers who want to develop cyber security leadership and literacy skills. No prior cyber security skills nor knowledge is necessary. Entry requirements: 2:1 Hons degree in any subject, or an equivalent professional qualification. We may also consider non-standard applicants. Additional Requirements • A minimum of five years' full-time professional/managerial work experience • An interview with the programme director • All successful applicants are required to complete the CEMBA admissions essay. • English Language Requirements: We may ask you to provide a recognised English language qualification, dependent upon your nationality and where you have studied previously. For more details, and full entry requirements, visit: www.lancaster.ac.uk/cemba Key Facts LUMS is a quadruple-accredited Management School
FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 3 Female, gifted and black Howdo black female entrepreneurs succeed in the South Africanwine trade? Dr Funmi Ojediran shows howwomen overcome traditional barriers to build their presence. 30 In this issue... 26 Coping with never-ending uncertainty Dr Sophie Alkhaled explains how female Syrian refugees have taken up unfamiliar roles running their own businesses to help their families survive. 42 B-Corps and Degrowth Celia Gaze, Victor Giannandrea and Duncan Pollard set out the meanings and effects for business of two trending sustainability concepts. 38 Paying the Mafia premium How do the Mafia affect the operations of firms outside their operation. Dr Justin Chircop finds tax avoidance increases as businesses try to compete. Fashion's gender inequality problem The fashion industry relies onwomen for its success. But Ophelia Chidgey shows how it fails themwithin its structures. 4 The herd of elephants in the room Lopa Patel, Chair of DiversityUK, investigates inequalities across the tech sector. 10 Taming thegreenmonsters Matt Healey, a long-time outdoor learning practitioner, fears an increasing disconnect with the Earth. 22 Foreword ExecutiveDeanProfessorClaireLeitch outlines thecontinued importanceof gender research inbusinessand management schools. Bang out of order Professor KatyMason outlines the obstacles facingwomen andminorities when it comes to progressing in management academia. 34 Are the gaps closing ProfessorValerieSteadandDr Lara Pecisexploregender gapsand issues with insecurework increasedby the Covidpandemic. 6 The gender gap: Insecurework in theUK The Work Foundation's Rebecca Florisson discusses why women are more likely to be affected by insecure work than men. 14 46 18 Putting gender on the business school agenda The TARGETED-MPI team in LUMS detail how their work is making a practical difference in addressing gender inequality in our own sector. GENDER MATTERS
FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 5 Professor Claire Leitch is the Executive Dean, Lancaster University Management School c.leitch@lancaster.ac.uk The bulk of this issue showcases the wide range of work we have taking place across Lancaster University Management School focused around gender. There has been research on gender in business and management for decades – as well as great levels of activism beyond the realms of academia. But we still have discrimination; we still have inequity. It is rife in society. That is whywe continue towork hard in the School under our social justice research banner, andwithin centres such as the Academy forGender,Work andLeadership, to address these inequalities, to highlight issues, and to pursue positive change. You can see from the work taking place across the School – indeed, throughout the whole of our University – the many different areas of society and business where gender inequalities exist, and the ways in which its manifests. For us, as a business and management school, we need to have a theoretical understanding of the issues, and to encourage, inform and introduce positive change. We are a research-intensive School – our world-leading experts produce work that informs and underpins everything we do, from teaching to business engagement and beyond. You know that research being produced in a School like ours has been conducted according to the highest ethical standards; that excellent data has been collected and analysed with rigour and subsequently peer-reviewed before being published in leading international journals. That is important. It is not that activism does not have its place. Of course it does, but what we do complements that work, by providing a strong evidence base. We need to understand how gender plays a role in the actions and behaviours of everyone – here in the School and outside in factories, boardrooms, living rooms – and the complexity of its relationship with what we do, because the ramifications of discrimination are not always clear to see. Our endeavours do not just apply to the outside world. As much as anywhere, we must apply them to our own practice. For instance, the insights and tools produced frome TARGETED-MPI, an international research project involving a consortium of business and management schools, should help inform our approach to overcoming gender inequalities in the UK, Europe and beyond. As institutions, we still tend to be very masculine, very patriarchal, so it is critical that insightful work continues toovercome this. Having research expertswho are passionate and knowledgeable advocates and positive rolemodels is helping to influencewhat is happening in LUMS and thewider University by shaping our policies, procedures, practices and behaviours. You will see many examples of the excellent research conducted around gender at the School in these pages, from the work of the Academy in addressing gender inequality in business through the Gender Matters project, through to the studies of our PhD students on the South African wine industry and the global fashion sector. There ismuchmore beyond the sample of work we are able to feature. We have researchers in Economics looking at the gender imbalance of students studying the subject – with impact both on education and on economic outcomes; theWork Foundation – whomwe include in these pages for their work on the gender gap in insecure work – are highlighting the gender imbalance when it comes to the bonfire of EU regulations the UK is set to face later in the year; in entrepreneurship and leadership, my own field, issues around women’s access to resources if they are starting and growing businesses, the continued existence of the glass ceilings and walls, and the need for more women in the leadership pipeline are all interrogated. We are not just talking about leadership positions, but those all the way from top to bottom on the corporate ladder. You have people outside of what we see as regular business structures as well, people suffering in adverse situations like those refugees featured in Sophie Alkhaled’s work in this edition. I certainly hope our collective work can make a practical difference. To ensure it does, it is important that we communicate our knowledge, to those who need to hear it, and to those who can implement change. Thus, we reach out to external audiences and raise the debate. That is essential. It is about raising awareness, but it has to bemore as well. There have to be concrete actions. This is where the impact of our work and the effect of that impact is important. There is a lot of education to do still within business andmanagement schools, within corporate boardrooms, within government. There has been progress, some enlightenment, but there are areas where wemust improve, gatekeepers in place with outdated – wrong – attitudes whomwe need to influence. I hope that the work we do means that in the weeks, months and years to come the picture will change. We should not need to have a gender pay gap report for any organisation, we should not need quotas to have appropriate numbers of women on boards. So please take the time to delve into an area of research that plays such a key role in our organisation over the following pages. I hope you find inspiration to act, determination to make a change – however big or small – in your own practices, and hope that there are many of us working hard to encourage a positive evolution of behaviours and attitudes. Foreword Welcome to this special edition of Fifty Four Degrees, whose focus is on an area very close tomy researching heart. Subscribe online at lancaster.ac.uk/fiftyfour SUBSCRIBE
6 | GENDER MATTERS Are the gaps closing? Women continue to face challengeswhen it comes to achieving equality in theworkplace – both in terms of overall participation, andwhen it comes topromotion to leadership roles. ProfessorValerieStead and Dr LaraPecis explore howtheCovid-19 pandemic has increased the existing gender gaps and insecurework, as highlighted in the GenderMatters2022 brochure.
FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 7 Participation and Pay in the Labour Market Leadership pipeline Managing the Personal and the Professional Gender equality and inclusion are fundamental concerns for business. Legislation requiring gender pay gap reporting, and increased media exposure of sexist and discriminatory practices and behaviours in public and private sector organisations alike are strengthening the pressure for change. Yet, progress towards gender equality is slow. Women continue to be under-represented in positions of power and organisation decision-making, and progress towards inclusion can be hampered by organisational policies and practices. The Gender Matters project, established in 2018, has been reviewing a range of workplace gender challenges every two years in response to this enduring need for inclusive business practices, and as a resource to stimulate discussion and action. Since our 2020 reviewof gender challenges, we have experienced a global pandemic that has had a significant and continuing impact onworking practices and lives. Times of crisis bring inequalities into stark relief, and the pandemic years have shown the detrimental effects of existing inequalities. Many jobsmoved to home-basedworking, resulting inwomen taking on themajority of domestic care. Combinedwith a lack of access to schools and care facilities, these pressures put women’s jobs and career advancement at risk, jeopardising the hard-won achievements of the past decades. In 2023, the effects of the pandemic are joined by uncertain times with the rising cost of living and an impending recession. Our 2022 Gender Matters brochure, funded by the UKRI ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, and in collaboration with The Work Foundation and Diversity UK, provides a clear indication of the entwined effects of Covid-19 and the growing challenge of insecure work. Our review, published in late 2022, highlights the significant negative effects on women’s equality and ability to progress, and in particular, the additional disadvantage faced by Black and Minority ethnic women. Three core challenges persist for women at work. PARTICIPATION AND PAY IN THE LABOUR MARKET Despite some improvements, on a global scale women’s economic participation in the labour force remains far behind men’s. Research by TheWork Foundation finds that women are far more likely than men to experience severely insecure work (26%of working women compared with 14.1%of working men). External factors have an impact too. In the UK, Covid-19 has made it even harder for women from minority ethnic groups to get into the workplace. 53% Secure UK GENDER WORK INSECURITY GAP 39% 33% Low/ Moderately insecure 35% 14% Severely insecure Men Women 26%
8 | In short, women’s participation in the UK labour force is halted at the point of entry. This is particularly stark in innovation-intensive contexts, as highlighted in LUMS research on Inclusive Innovation. Women’s participation and pay is also affected disproportionately in the public sector. Mary-Ann Stephenson (Director of the Women’s Budget Group) presented her view as to why women are hit hardest in the public sector at an event we held with our partners in November 2022. Firstly, women are more likely than men to work in the public sector, and therefore more likely to feel the negative impact of public sector cuts. Secondly, women are more likely to use public services than men, for themselves and for the people they care for, and therefore cuts will affect the extent to which they can access support. Thirdly, women are more likely to fill gaps in care with unpaid work when public sector services are cut back. ADVANCING INTO LEADERSHIP ROLES Whilst more women are today in work, they continue to be underrepresented in key leadership roles. LUMS research as part of the international TARGETED-MPI project investigating gender equality in business and management schools (see P30), finds that women experience promotional processes differently, and is looking at how organisational factors affect women’s delay in going for promotion. Women of colour are particularly underrepresented in leadership roles. Figures from the Fawcett Society’s 2022 Sex and Power Index, for instance, show women comprise just 8%of FTSE 100 CEOs, with no Black and minority ethnic women. Lopa Patel, MBE, entrepreneur and chair of Diversity UK (see P10), noted women are often told they need to be more assertive in asking for promotion or a pay rise. However, when women do so, especially women of colour, they are often deemed aggressive or having a chip on their shoulder, with attempts at progression met with the mentality of “you should be grateful for the job you have, you should be grateful I am asking you to take on more responsibility”. Pointing to the need for organisations to take responsibility for helping women progress, Lopa recalls her own personal experience of unfairness in the system that calls for women to prove themselves over and over again. What can organisations do to address this issue? Dr Doyin Atewologun (Director, Delta Alpha Psi and Dean of the Rhodes Scholarships at the University of Oxford) called on organisations to think how they can compensate people – many from underrepresented groups – for their time and insights that are instrumental in enabling organisations to develop more inclusive practices. According to Doyin, organisations capitalise on many employee resource groups, including women’s networks; black, Asian and minority ethnic networks; and LGBTQ+ networks. These networks gather information, advocate for social equality within the organisation, and give guidance on what is going on with customers. Much of this labour that benefits organisations is left to members of underrepresented groups who ordinarily do not have power. An important challenge for all organisations, including corporates, the public sector and charities, is to identify how they can quantify that labour, and to start thinking about compensating people engaged in this additional work that often lands on women’s shoulders. MANAGING THE PERSONAL AND THE PROFESSIONAL Overall, the pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities between women and men, rolling back on the hard-won achievements of the past years. This is particularly so in relation to childcare demands for women in the UK, which WOMEN REMAIN JUST 8%OF FTSE 100 CEOS AND THERE ARE NOWOMENOF COLOUR
FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 9 Professor Valerie Stead is Director of the Academy of Gender, Work and Leadership, and a Professor in Leadership and Management in the Department of Entrepreneurship and Strategy. Dr Lara Pecis is a Lecturer in Organisation Studies in the Department of Organisation, Work and Technology. The Gender Matters project was established in 2018 to reflect and stimulate change on the persistent and complex nature of gender inequalities. More specifically, the project seeks to track progress towards closing the multifaceted gender gaps. Drawing on multiple sources, the project has produced brochures in 2018, 2020 and 2022, alongside a series of events and podcasts that have produced evidence of the range and scope of gender challenges in organisations. Dr Lara Pecis and Dr Anindita Banerjee co-authored the report Inclusive innovation: Sustaining productivity and socio-economic inclusion through innovation centres, hubs and districts for the Productivity Insights Network. v.stead@lancaster.ac.uk; l.pecis@lancaster.ac.uk have increased over the course of the pandemic. Women still disproportionately carry out more caring duties than men. Associated to this is the likelihood for mothers of being in an insecure job; UKmothers of children aged 9 or under were 2.7 times more likely than fathers to experience severely insecure work, according to research led by The Work Foundation. Jo-Ann Robertson, Chief Executive, KetchumUK and Chair of the YoungWomen’s Trust, highlighted how women encounter multiple layers of complexity in managing personal and professional lives with societal expectations to care for the home, children and elderly parents. Simultaneously, they experience pressure to have a stable job, and to succeed as leaders. Jo-Ann advises that unless we have a combination of societal and business intervention into these systemic issues, the gaps are just going to get wider. Taken together, these challenges reveal how inequalities combine to hinder gender equality at work. The insights from our guest speakers illustrate how external factors, such as the cost-of-living crisis and falling real wages, combined with the rise of insecure work in the UK, create destabilising effects that hinder progress in closing gender gaps. Particularly worrying is the real possibility that gaps in terms of participation in the labour market, progression and management of personal and professional spheres will widen further. These effects further put at risk any real progress, especially in addressing the significant negative impact for Black and minority ethnic women. It is therefore more important than ever that policy makers and businesses place gender diversity and inclusion at the forefront of their agenda for change. 198 200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Average time (mins per day) across all days, GreatBriatin 120 53 30 72 63 All childcare Non-developmental childcare Developmental childcare IMPACT OF LOCKDOWNS ON FAMILY RESPONSIBILITIES IN THE UK Women Men
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FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 11 Addressing theherdof elephants intheroom The tech sector has traditionally been the domain of men – and though there have been improvements in recent years, the gender gap remains. LopaPatel, Chair of Diversity UK – a partner organisation alongside the Academy for Gender, Work and Leadership and the Work Foundation on theGender Matters 2022 project – explores inequalities across the sector, and how it reflectswomen’s overall position as entrepreneurs.
The elephant in the room – something everyone knows about, but no-one wants to discuss. It makes some of them uncomfortable and is personally, socially, or politically embarrassing, controversial, inflammatory, or dangerous. In business, there is often a herd of elephants. Inequality has been laid bare during the pandemic: women trapped in insecure work, as identified in the Gender Matters research carried out by the Academy for Gender, Work and Leadership and the Work Foundation with our support; race barriers faced by Britain’s black communities, highlighted by Black Lives Matter; inadequate access to funding for women entrepreneurs, shown in the Rose Review; and the issue of unequal pay, evidenced by gender pay gap and ethnic pay gap reporting. Inequality seems to pivot on all the axes of race, sex, gender, age, faith, class, and wealth. Addressing inequality is perhaps the single largest elephant in the room, but given most businesses find it difficult to tackle all inequalities at once, progress has been glacially slow. At equality charity Diversity UK, we have addressed many of these issues over the last decade, focusing most recently on the British tech and digital sectors, where gaps are acute but where opportunities to close them are the greatest. In 2022, Tech Nation reported the tech workforce is now 26% female, a significant rise from 19% in 2020. However, women are underrepresented in senior leadership roles. With so few female decision-makers, tech products continue to reflect the gender biases of the industry, discouraging the next generation from entering the room. A recent report by BCS: The Chartered Institute of IT, Coding Black Females, found just 0.7%of the tech industry are Black Women. The imbalances of sex, gender and race persist. The pandemic exacerbated problems. Women are more likely to leave tech sector roles, according to research by InnovateHer. They found 45%more women than men leave their roles, and half of the women in tech leave before the age of 35. In the face of a shortage of skills, InnovateHer reports: • Just 3%of female students say a career in tech is their first choice • Only 20%of Computer Science GCSE students are female • 61%of girls say they have been put off a career in tech • 8%of women progress to a level 4+ STEM qualification We have a cocktail of opposing forces: a lack of skills and attractiveness of an industry desperate for new workers, combined with a high attrition rate of female employees will only add to the chronic shortage of women in tech at a time when UK economic growth depends upon businesses resolving these inequalities. INVESTING INWOMEN ENTREPRENEURS The Rose Review, commissioned by the UK Government in 2019, highlighted stark inequality gaps: • Only 5.6%of UK women own their own companies • Only 13%of senior investors are women • 48%of investment teams have no women • £250 billion could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as men PitchBook calculated only 2.2%of venture capital (VC) funding went to women-led start-ups in 2020. That dropped to 2.0% in 2021. Atomico’s State of European Tech report showed that in 2021, 1.1%of capital raised overall went to all-women founding teams, and 8.8% to mixed-gender 12 |
founding teams. It also showed that, of the total amount of funding raised by companies in its sample, only 1.3% went to ethnic minority founding teams, prompting the publication to comment “fostering diversity can help to align profit and purpose. But discrimination remains across Europe.” Investing inWomen Founders has been a topic Diversity UK has championed for some years via the Asians in Tech list and Tech Showcases. During the Diversity Tech Summit in July 2022, Deepali Nangia, partner at seed investor Speed Invest stated women are, “over-mentored and undercapitalised”. Nangia and Saloni Bhojwani, Co-Founder of Pink Salt Ventures, explained that women founders tend to be questioned far more about risk and downside than male counterparts. This materially affects funding. WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN THEWORKPLACE The pandemic unduly impacted women’s participation in the workplace. Progress has been set back to 2017 levels. As illustrated in the Gender Matters 2022 brochure, women still bear a disproportionate burden of childcare andmany were in unreliable jobs, like those with zero-hour contracts, at the start of the pandemic. TheRoseReview 2022 update suggests ‘despite the rapid growth in female led start-ups, female entrepreneurs have spent twice as long on caring responsibilities during the pandemic as their male counterparts, and their businesses have been less likely to recover.’ There is a glimmer of hope. The report cites data showing ‘more women than ever are starting new businesses, with 145,200 all-female-led incorporations in 2021, up from 56,200 in 2018.These incorporations comprised 20%of the total in 2021, up from 16% in 2018.’ The growth has been supported by new initiatives. In total, 134 institutions with an investing power of nearly £1 trillion have signed up to the Investing in Women Code. The code is a commitment by financial services firms to improving female entrepreneurs’ access to tools, resources, and finance. Then there is the launch of a nationwide Women Backing Women campaign from the Women Angel Investment Taskforce to support women to become business angels, and thereby ensure that female founders across the UK have a better chance to access early-stage investment. The UK has also seen a number of new women-led VC firms; more female partners being employed at established VC funds and a considerable level of funds being raised – some of which will be invested in female-led funds. So, the willingness to invest in womenled ventures and the funding is there, but the problemof nurturing and supporting women to create businesses persists. Incubation Nation estimates 81 programmes have definitely closed in the last five years, potentially it could be as many as 164. This, combined with a change in focus to support established firms, further reduces access into entrepreneurship at a time when the UK economy needs to foster greater entrepreneurship and economic participation at grassroots level. SKILLING AND RESKILLING THE WORKFORCE Ultimately, start-up founders play a part in overcoming challenges by investing in their business; fundraising for growth; seeking newmarkets; developing new products and services; and employing more people. There are nearly five million people working in UK tech start-ups and scaleups, with regions across the UK enjoying strong hiring growth for tech. Tech job opportunities have hit a 10year high with the explosion in demand for products and services over the past two years, according to data by smarter job search engine Adzuna. The research reveals tech roles nowmake up 14%of all UK job opportunities. There were around 870,000 tech and digital vacancies available between January and May 2022, the highest number recorded since Adzuna began collecting data in May 2012. Many of these start-up businesses could go on to scale, and several could be the future unicorns Britain so desperately needs. FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 13 Lopa Patel is a digital entrepreneur and the Chair of equality charity Diversity UK, a partner organisation on the Gender Matters 2022 project, with the Academy for Gender, Work and Leadership at Lancaster University Management School and the Work Foundation. Diversity UK is an equality charity that aims to research, advocate and promote ideas for improving diversity and inclusion in Britain. It is an evidence-based initiative that seeks to influence policy, enhance civic engagement, and improve the perception of the minority ethnic community in Britain. Diversity UK aims to advance the education of the public in diversity and inclusion in the workplace, in particular by carrying out research for the public benefit in all aspects of that subject and to publish the useful results.
14 | With the cost of living crisis laying bare problemswith low income and uncertain employment, theWork Foundation’s Rebecca Florisson investigateswhywomen aremore likely to be affected by severely insecurework. THE GENDER GAP: INSECURE WORK INTHEUK
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More women are working now than in the past, and women’s participation in the labour market is higher in the UK than average across the OECD. But women still earn less than men and are more likely than men to be in low-paid, insecure work. This means that women are now at the sharp end of the cost of living crisis. Insecure work can takemany forms. It is more than just low pay or a zero-hours contract: there aremany different types of contracts, personal finances and levels of access to rights and protections, that can introduce uncertainty into people’s lives. Notably, many people experiencemore than one kind of insecurity simultaneously. TheWork Foundation estimates that in the first half of 2022, 19.9% (6.25 million) of the UK workforce was in severely insecure work – this means experiencing involuntary part-time or involuntary temporary work, or several forms of insecure work at the same time. We describe this as ‘severe insecurity’, as this is where negative effects aremost likely to be concentrated. Insecure work has a wider impact on people’s lives. These effects include a higher risk of job loss, a lack of progression in work, and a higher risk of experiencing anxiety and depression, and other impacts on wellbeing. This is a problem, particularly when we consider that the experience of insecure work is profoundly unequal. Some people aremore likely to experience insecurity, or become trapped in it than others. This greater risk is concentrated with those who are subject to other forms of labour market disadvantage, such as disabled people, young people, ethnic minorities, and – as the Work Foundation explored recently – women. This means women aremore likely than men to bemissing out on essential rights and protections at work, including sick pay, redundancy pay and protection fromdismissal. This insecurity can have negative long-term impacts on women’s careers, their health and wellbeing, and their financial security well beyond their working lives. WHY AREWOMEN IMPACTEDMORE? There aremany reasons for differences betweenmen and women’s experience of insecure work, including differences 16 |
in the types of jobs people do and the sectors they work in. Highly insecure jobs tend to be concentrated in sectors such as hospitality, retail and domestic household services. Women aremore likely to be in these roles. Broadly, women tend to work in lowerpaid sectors and jobs, which drives the gender insecurity gap. Even when women work in higher-paid sectors, they tend to occupy lower-paid roles, with senior roles dominated by men. However, the Work Foundation found that even when women are in senior roles, they are still twice as likely as men to experience severely insecure work (9.2%compared with 4.5%). The effects of this gender insecurity gap are compounded when gender intersects with disability, ethnic minority background andmotherhood. Some of the differences in the jobs that men and women tend to domay be driven by preferences, but a less optimistic interpretation suggests it is at least partially driven by lack of choice and opportunity for women, and the experience of constraints particularly for those who are juggling caring responsibilities with work. Many women are forced tomake tradeoffs when they become parents that can impact their job quality and future career progression. Somemothers told us in previous research that they looked for roles that would let them stay close to their children’s schools and work hours to fit around available childcare. As a result, women experience a motherhood penalty: mothers of young children are six percentage points more likely to experience severely insecure work than women without young children (30.4%compared with 24.7%). Factors such as childcare costs and limited flexible work continue to affect mothers more than fathers: mothers of children aged under nine were 2.7 times more likely than fathers to experience severely insecure work (30.4% compared with 11%). A CHANGE MUST COME In forthcoming work, we will explore the extent to which people have limited options in deciding to engage or remain in, insecure work. Further, we will explore the differences in the experience of insecure work across local areas in the UK, investigating local drivers of insecurity and potential solutions. Alongside that, we will be working to shape changes in policy and practice to tackle the persistent gender insecurity gap that this analysis has revealed. Tomove towards a more equal labour market, wemust use existing policy levers to improve financial and contractual insecurity in insecure jobs andmake sure that a wider range of workers are eligible for important employment protections. Further, wemust reject the idea that flexibility should come at the expense of job security and we should ensure that options for flexible work are embedded in all roles, and accessible to bothmen and women. FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 17 Rebecca Florisson is Principal Analyst at the Work Foundation. The report The gender gap: insecure work in the UK was produced by the Work Foundation, and authored by Rebecca Florisson and Dr Olivia Gable. r.florisson@lancaster.ac.uk
FASHION’S GENDER INEQUALITY PROBLEM 18 |
Fashion has a problemwithwomen. They dominate the industry’s customer base, but workers suffer fromdeeply engrained gender inequality issues throughout the garment manufacturing process. PhD researcher OpheliaChidgey explains howa sector which relies onwomen for its success fails themwithin its ownwalls. FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 19
An industry dependent upon female consumers and workers, fashion perpetuates women’s discrimination and suffering. The fashion industry has a global revenue of approximately $2.5 trillion; and around 60million people work in garment factories. Between 70-80% of these factory workers are women, with millionsmore employed elsewhere within the industry. Women are also fashion’s biggest consumers, spending roughly 226% more than men on its products. Despite the essential role women play in the fashion industry, there is gender inequality in all corners. FROM TOP TO BOTTOM Women suffer gender inequality throughout fashion’s supply chains, from top leadership roles to those sewing our clothes. Despite making up the majority of consumers and 78% of fashion school students, women constitute less than 50% of designers and 14%of executives at top brands. Only 4.8%of CEOs of clothing companies listed in Fortune 500 are female, this increases to a meagre 12.5%when looking at Fortune 1000, and 26%of board members. The lack of female leadership in the boardroom is mirrored within garment factories. The women making our clothes bear the brunt of fashion’s gender inequality. Women within garment factories predominantly hold low-skilled, lowpaid jobs, whereas their managers and supervisors are overwhelmingly male. In conjunction with challenges of progressing into leadership roles, the gender pay gap amongst garment workers means women earn approximately 18% less than their male counterparts. Gender inequality manifests in a variety of ways within these garment factories. For example, the gender imbalance between workers and managers creates an imbalance of power. This can include female garment workers being subjected to sexual violence, harassment and even murder at the hands of their male management. Women are unequally affected by poor health and safety within factories, as some of the chemicals still used in garment production are known to negatively impact reproductive health and cause fertility issues. Alongside this, pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to abuse and discrimination. Some women face routine pregnancy testing, or in extreme cases are forced to consume contraceptives to prevent pregnancy. Often, women who do become pregnant are dismissed from their job, not provided with time off, and receive inadequate or nomaternity benefits. In some cases, pregnant women have beenmoved tomore physically demanding jobs within the factories as a punishment, which has caused serious health problems andmiscarriages. Long hours and forced overtime often put women in situations that are less safe. They are finishing late at night and have to travel or walk home in the dark. These issues are exacerbated by the lack of female leadership or representation in many labour unions within the garment industry, creating an additional barrier for women to overcomewhen it comes to gender inequality. PART OF THE PROBLEM Clothing consumption has increased 400% over the last two decades. The rapid growth of the garment industry, and the development of ‘fast fashion’, has greatly exacerbated abuses and issues. Previously, brands would release four seasons of clothing, but now there can be as many as 52 new lines a year. This has put exceptional pressure on suppliers to produce large volumes of garments at the lowest prices possible. 20 |
Harmful buyer practices are putting downward pressure on suppliers, and this in turn is being passed on to the female workers, as well as driving subcontracting. When lead times and payments are decreased, abuses such as sexual and physical abusementioned above increase for womenwithin factories. Furthermore, auditing teams that lack gender diversity are found to be less effective thanmore diverse teams, which have been found to identify gendered issuesmore effectively. This further highlights why gender needs to be prioritised further within all corners of the fashion industry. THE BUSINESS CASE Gender equality has been increasingly prioritised and included on the global agenda. From the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal Number Five, ‘Gender Equality’, to TheWorld Bank, International Labour Organisation, andmanymore, major world organisations recognise the need to act. Fashion brandsmust adapt to these circumstances and prioritise gender equality within their supply chains. There are widespread benefits involved for companies who take this step, financially as well as socially and ethically. Greater gender diversity within a company makes themmore likely to outperform their competitors by up to 22%. Promoting gender equality within their supply chains can help firms perform better by reducing worker turnover and creating higher worker satisfaction, which contributes to greater efficiency and productivity. From the boardroom to the factory floor, the fashion industry cannot escape its gender equality issues. They affect millions of women working around the world. A lack of women in leadership no doubt has a profound effect on addressing many of these issues. Additionally, the large female consumer base has the power to positively impact gender equality within fashion, by shifting away from fast fashion and brands that lack transparency, and by making more conscious and sustainable purchases. A focus from firms and NGOs on gender diversity, sensitive policies and disaggregated data will continue to help identify and mitigate gender inequality within the industry. FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 21 Ophelia Chidgey is a third-year Management Science PhD researcher and a member of the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business. Her research focuses on gender equality and socially sustainable supply chain management within the garment industry. o.chidgey1@lancaster.ac.uk
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FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 23 Female, gifted and black Decades after the end of apartheid, it is still far fromeasy for blackwomen to succeed in business in South Africa. Dr Funmi Ojediran discovers how a group of thesewomen have built a presence in the country’swine industry – traditionally dominated bywhite, middle-classmen – bymaking people see beyond the colour of their skin and their gender.
In South Africa, the era of apartheid still looms large. It may be more than 30 years since NelsonMandela was freed fromprison, and almost three decades since a new constitution enfranchised the black population and other racial groups, but it is not so easy to eliminate prejudices built up over a much longer period. Black women, in particular, suffered repression during apartheid, and still today are battling for equal recognition in business and the workplace. In these unique circumstances, a group of determined women have broken down barriers, overcome social stereotypes, and become successful entrepreneurs in the wine industry – a hugely significant sector that contributes more than US$2.6 billion annually to the country’s GDP. Before the annihilation of apartheid in 1994, the South African wine industry was a no-go area for black women. It was dominated by the established white, landed, settler elites. The presence of black people was solely as cheap labour. There is a centuries-old history of suppression based on race, gender and class, a history entwined in black and white identities within the industry. Under apartheid, black people could not lease or own land, farms or vineyards. Instead, they provided the labour to work on them. Black women were the most negatively affected. They were ‘non-white, female and poor’ – denied access to work and education, pushed towards domestic labour for white masters. Even now, they are seen as the field workers, not the business owners. This is the establishment into which black women entrepreneurs are trying to break, where they want to be a legitimate presence. As one of them, Elena, told us: “I thought I could do what our people had never done before… I started my winemaking venture.” It is not easy. They may aspire to be recognised and accepted as legitimate, but they can be rejected – openly or covertly – just for being black women. They must challenge the norms and prejudices that frame their identities – they are not expected to fit into a socially constructed, entrepreneurial, white, middle-class, male archetype. USING CAPITAL We wanted to understand how they do it; how they utilise capital to frame their entrepreneurial identities separately from their social identities. We spoke to nine black women entrepreneurs in Cape Town to discover their experiences. All had been in the wine industry for at least 10 years, and had operated their own business for at least two. All have a resolute desire to succeed as entrepreneurs. We found they rebel against the expectation they must fit into a predetermined role, they challenge barriers, alter perceptions of what is socially legitimate in the industry, and demonstrate the importance of cultural capital, in particular, in building their legitimacy. Instead of being framed by society’s expectations of what black women ‘should’ be, they convert and use various forms of capital – both possessed by and available to them – to frame entrepreneurial identities. As they possess little or no economic capital – monetary income and business assets – given the legacy of apartheid, there are three forms of capital these women might use to 24 |
boost their positions and become accepted: Social capital – resources accessible through networks, relationships, group memberships, be they family, social or professional. Cultural capital – know-how gathered through socialisation, embodied in taste and style, institutionalised through qualifications. Symbolic capital – the status, prestige, and positive reputation that entrepreneurs possess in the eyes of others. All our interviewees consider their education (cultural capital), previous job experiences (human capital) and contacts inside and outside the industry (social capital) as preparing them for entrepreneurship and bolstering their identities. It is cultural capital that stands out. They talked of their struggles, of prejudice, of how their ability to operate a wine business has been challenged, of how they are persistently not taken seriously. So they focus on non-economic capital, highlighting the importance of their education and professional training, and disengaging from their social identities as black women. They needed their skills and professional experiences – cultural and human capital – to lay the foundations for acceptance. All possess competence in wine appreciation, and used their capital to overcome embedded bias and assumptions of illiteracy and the impossibility of being both a black woman and a business leader. They are disrupting the status quo and slowly transforming the industry, gaining recognition from established figures and earning legitimate entrepreneurial labels. Elena said: “The unacceptance that comes with looking like me in this business was intense… But my education helped a great deal… Also, my connections within and outside of the industry were handy.” CHOOSING AN IDENTITY Those we spoke to equate being black women with mental fortitude, and yet they do not prioritise these words in discussions of their entrepreneurial identities. There is a friction between entrepreneurial self-identity and the social identity of being a black woman. Who, what and how black women selfidentify as entrepreneurs is not the same as how others identify them. The women assign their difficulties to their marginalised social identities of black women. Their supposed deficiencies restrict their access to the established networks, so they ignore social practices that exclude them, instead embracing the characteristics of the entrepreneur. Whether consciously or otherwise, these black women entrepreneurs have internalised the heroic qualities expected of entrepreneurs and claimed them as their self-identities. They have learned and adopted the language and behaviour of other winemakers – those white, male, middle-class businessmen who have dominated the industry since it began. They do not see adopting the male stereotypes as being a negative thing – even if it leads to them being seen as an ‘angry black woman’ or a ‘bitch’ – as it is what has been expected of entrepreneurs in the industry, and thus if they achieve their goals, it is a good fit for them. Contrarily, if they were to be seen as black women typically are, they would feel at a disadvantage. This is not to say they are not proud of being pioneers – of being the only black woman in the room – rather that they feel the need to fit into the established structures if they are to be a success and lay the groundwork for others to follow. They assist other disadvantaged young black females through training, helping to shape the next generation in the industry – rejecting the norms that would have these successors as servants with no entrepreneurial skills. Angela, a stakeholder with 30 years of experience in the industry, told us: “These black women entrepreneurs are coming up strongly in the industry. They are well-read, they know their onions and cannot be trifled with… Now they are seen as trailblazers, a force to be reckoned with.” DISRUPTING THE STATUS QUO In using their cultural capital, these businesswomen show a great sense of how to play the game. They challenge the social structural norms of the industry, and alter the perceptions of what is legitimate. For black women entrepreneurs, becoming legitimate is not automatic, and being black and a woman have been markers of both structural and historical disadvantage, manifested in reduced access to capital and legitimacy. With their efforts, these women are altering the long-established status quo of the social structure within the South African wine industry, and driving inclusive economic growth in a country where not so long ago that would have been impossible. FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 25 Dr Funmi Ojediran completed her PhD in the Department of Entrepreneurship and Strategy in December 2022. This article is based on the paper Identities and the pursuit of legitimacy: A study of black womenwine industry entrepreneurs, by Dr Funmi Ojediran, Dr Allan Discua Cruz and Professor Alistair Anderson. It is published in the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research. f.ojediran@lancaster.ac.uk
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FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 27 The Syrian refugee crisis has leftmillions of peoplewithout a home. Dr SophieAlkhaled reveals howSyrianwomen have adopted previously unfamiliar business roles to help their families survive during forcible displacement Syrianwomen refugees– Copingwith never-ending uncertainty
It is February 11th 2011. After almost 30 years of dictatorship, and 18 days of mass protest, the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has been forced to resign. I am in the shared PhD office with my peers, many of whom are Egyptian. As they rejoice, they come up to me and say “Sophie, this is great news, Syria will be next!”. I am elated for them, nodding while wearing a hopeful yet sceptical smile, then replying: “I hope so, Inshallah – God Willing”. Born to a Syrian father and British mother, and with deep connections to the country, I know Syria’s case will be very different. Not only because of the horrific dictatorship there, but because of Syria’s strategic political connections with Russia. Amonth later, on March 15th, The Arab Spring did indeed reach Syria. Millions of men, women and children of all faiths peacefully marched hand-in-hand demanding their basic human rights. The regime answered their demands with empty promises followed by the most horrific violence. Today, 12 years later, the Syrian refugee crisis remains the world’s largest displacement crisis of our time, with one in two Syrians either dead, displaced or detained under the pervasive regime. A GENDERED APPROACH In a country where there is no freedom of speech or a free press, I was hooked on what some brave Syrians were posting on social media, what was shared in Western media and written in humanitarian reports. Whilst academic research has proactively analysed the geopolitical and economic implications of the war, little attention has focused on the gendered implications. There are currently more than five million (registered) Syrian refugees who have fled to neighbouring countries (Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq); 51%of whom are women. One in four of these women are sole providers for their families. They struggle to afford food and shelter for their children, leaving many with no choice but to force their daughters into childmarriage. In countries where work permits are almost impossible to attain for Syrian refugees (especially women) and UNHCR funding is dwindling (slashed under Trump administration in 2018), micro home-based entrepreneurship has become the only means of gaining a livelihood. Indeed, it has been reported that some women responded to these extremely harsh conditions by setting up home-basedmicro enterprises founded on traditional and typically feminised indigenous skills, such as cooking, tailoring and craftwork. I was fascinated by this, especially as I learned that many of these women had not worked back home in Syria. I began my study with Syrian women refugee-entrepreneurs in Jordan in 2015. My research over the last seven years with these formidable women has not only contributed to our limited knowledge about women’s entrepreneurship as a means of economic survival and cultural revival during extreme adversity, it also questions the viability of our “Western” understanding of the identity of the ‘the entrepreneur’ – (sub)consciously portrayed as the white, western, ‘heroic-male’ – when conducting research in non-Western contexts. ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOR SURVIVAL In Jordan, four out of five Syrian refugees live under the national poverty line, surviving on about US$3 a day. Amajority of the men in my study were husbands and fathers forced into precarious and illegal work (i.e. working without a work permit). My time in the field made me realise that despite Syria’s adherence to traditional patriarchal gender roles, there was a clear shift in this mentality, as women in these families did not believe the economic burden should fall solely on their husbands. Indeed, economic survival was now ‘a family problem’, not just the ‘father’s problem’ to resolve. Although the women were completely detached from their social networks, they set up home-based enterprises and were able to slowly curate new ties through their children’s schools, their neighbours, local charities, and even anonymously on social media. To increase the businesses’ survival chances, they ran themas a ‘family business’ where eachmember took on a task. Entrepreneurship by nomeans is the answer to poverty, nor the route to women’s ‘self-reliance’, ‘self-fulfilment’ and ‘self-empowerment’ as we are led to believe in theWestern world. It is simply their onlymethod of gaining an income to survivemonth tomonth – and it continues to be an unsustainable one. NEVER-ENDING LIMBO Whilst living in constant economic precarity, not knowing whether they will be able to pay the rent or feed their 28 |
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