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
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