The issue of the gender gap, particularly in the workplace, has long been a topic of debate. Despite significant advances in gender equality over the past few decades, men and women are still not being treated equally in terms of their experiences at work, including pay and career progression. Our latest research sought to analyse the experiences of over 1,000 working women and mothers in the UK and demonstrated that some sectors are definitely better than others when it comes to progressing and supporting female talent.
What was clear is that while many women feel like they are being supported, there is a disconnect between this and the realities of their day-to-day working life – evidenced by the high incidence of prejudice in even the best-rated sectors. Solving this paradox should be top of all organisations’ lists of priorities and in our research we look further at what can industries do to make a difference to women at work.
What we also wanted to do, however, is showcase the many women that are making it work and how they’re doing it, in spite of the obstacles that may be in their way. We work with hundreds of women every year who are progressing through the talent pipeline and who are using coaching to help them do this. For that reason, we are beginning a blog series next week featuring interviews with coachees talking about their experiences, their top tips and thoughts on coaching. They give an encouraging but brutally honest account of what working life looks like in today’s world and have been kept anonymous for that reason.
There is much to admire and learn from all of the interviews – we hope you enjoy reading them as much as we did!
