A fairer balance
October 2009
Jenny Berry reports on ACEVO’s first women’s special interest group and her own experiences as a female CEO
I didn't expect to be involved again with setting up a network for women's issues. As far back as the late 1960s and the early 1970s I thought we had changed the world, established our place and gone some way to improve equality issues for women at work. Just as I thought that highlighting the problems would change society by bringing the issue to the public domain when I volunteered with Erin Pizzy to set up and run the very first Women's aid refuge in Chiswick in 1971. Women’s aid refuges are now established all over the UK providing safety and advice for over 900 women per day; proving that the scale of the problem has not reduced.
Like many CEOs, I worked through both of my pregnancies, returning to work just two weeks after my eldest girl, Hollie and four weeks after Eppie. In those days, maternity leave was not taken seriously, and returning to work so quickly, even as a single mum was vital if you were to have any career at all.
I spent many years in the transport industry and was CEO of the UK's Community Transport Association. There, I worked with the Department for Transport on their women in transport network – formed to redress the gender imbalance in transport planning and services. We thought that through raising this issue in the 1990s that things would move on.
The latest report from the Women and Work Commission, Shaping a Fairer Future [1], published in July this year, shows this isn’t the case. While the number of women in work has grown from 56 per cent in 1971, to 69.9 per cent in 2009, women are still paid on average 22.6 per cent less than men.
Findings of ACEVO’s 2008 Pay Survey
Back in November 2008, when the ACEVO Pay Survey 2008
[2] revealed a widening pay gap between male and female third sector CEOs, it was clear that there was still work to be done. Our research showed that median pay for a female CEO was £11,000 less than that of her male counterpart. Perhaps more worrying was a trend which showed men saw their pay rising quicker with an 8 per cent in their remuneration, compared to women who received a 5 per cent increase.
I started speaking to ACEVO members about this and very quickly picked up unrest. After two weeks I had received over 80 emails from female CEOs raising their specific concerns and asking ACEVO to take the lead on this debate. It was then that I made the decision to establish ACEVO’s first women’s special interest group.
Common themes in these emails related to work life balance, peer support for women by women, public policy developments and how they impacted on women, the existence of a third sector ‘glass ceiling’, succession planning and encouraging young women into third sector senior roles.
Like for other under represented groups, achieving equality at board level, is one of the most important changes which needs to take place. This is an issue both within and beyond the sector. Research by Bird & Co has developed the ‘Glass Ladder’ programme to develop and promote women on to boards
[3]. We will be looking at how we can further develop this for ACEVO.
What next?
So what next? The women’s special interest group will have its second meeting in October, in advance of the launch of the ACEVO Pay Survey 2009. It will be looking closely at how in particular the recession has affected the pay and conditions of female CEOs.
The Equality Bill due in 2010, signals a major step change but without action the pay gap will not close until 2085. Third sector organisations already performing well in this area should take the credit, telling their service users, funders, commissioners and constituents what they are doing. In the future this will make all the difference.
Many of us have taken it in our stride that we deserve a place at the top table, to be heard and valued and it has been interesting to hear from women who feel that the battle is still to be had. I am personally pleased that the energy, enthusiasm and indignation remains a force for change.
[1] www.equalities.gov.uk/pdf/297158_WWC_Report_acc.pdf
[2] www.acevo.org.uk/index.cfm/display_page/publications/control_contenttype/publication_list/display_open/publications_1384
[3] www.bird-co.com/executivementoring/the_glass_ladder.pdf
Author: Jenny Berry
Jenny Berry is director of ACEVO north and leads the expansion of ACEVO’s influence and support services in the three northern regions. The role includes relating to a wide range of policy makers in the government offices, development agencies, local authorities, PCT’s and connections with all the third and voluntary sector CEOs.
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