Hybrid working alone will not fix workplace inequality

A hybrid working policy is not enough, we need to keep talking about workplace inequality to make positive changes, says Hannah Johnson, global executive director at Blue State. 

It’s been over 100 weeks since, for the first time as a nation, we were asked to work from home if we could.

At the time I was 16 weeks pregnant, balancing a three-hour round commute from the very west corner of London (it’s Middlesex if we’re being honest) and we had no idea what was coming.

Two years later, we’re edging back into the office – most of us, including Blue State, towards a hybrid model. It’s been hailed as a huge change to the way we work. And it is!

But on its own, it won’t fix the problems we face in terms of equality. In fact, we’re only just starting to understand the scale of them.

The pandemic deepened gender inequality

It’s been suggested that the pandemic was in some ways, a great leveller. But things haven’t evened out yet, according to the headlines.

In fact, the opposite is true: for the past two years, our industry was working at home, but even less equal.

More women were furloughed, paid less, cheated out of maternity leave and pushed to the brink having taken on the bulk of household and parenting duties.

46% of mothers that were made redundant during the pandemic cited lack of adequate childcare provision as the cause.

Legal advice lines have also been inundated with calls from pregnant women who have been made redundant while male workers have been kept on.

And if the #showusyourleave campaign taught us anything (a social media campaign where companies were encouraged to be transparent about the parental leave they offer), we still have a long, long road to true equality in the workplace.

There is still a lack of women in senior roles, still a disparity between women and men in creative roles, and still a huge lack of diversity, including in class.

There’s still a line of thought, very prevalent in some spheres, which says that you need to be ‘back at your desk’ – or seen as a slacker.

So: if working from home almost entirely for two years didn’t fix anything, working from home part-time now won’t either.

We need communication on all fronts

There are signs of hope – more men taking parental leave, asking to work part-time, and a new focus on mental health.

But if anything, we’re now at a more crucial point for equality in work than at any point since the pandemic began. We now know the way we work is broken. Do we close the door on the problems again, or do we now start to fix them?

So where does that leave us for the future? In the absence of the changes we’d really hoped would happen, this conversation can’t be over. This is the chance to start talking more, not less, about how we work.

Hannah Johnson

We need dialogue between couples talking about how to equally split household and parenting duties. To consider as a couple, when having or expanding your family how to accommodate the needs of both parents and the ability to balance work and raising little ones – should that be the choice you both want to make.

We need conversations between employees and employers, who need to have agile and responsive policies. Juggling income and children in the first few years of children’s lives is different for every family, so it’s impossible to think a standardised policy is going to cut it.

We need communication between the government and its constituents (us!) to fix an out-of-date support system.

Yes, the government is finally increasing Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) – a whole 3%! And this pay also only reflects about 30% of a usual average salary. It’s a huge drop at a time when living expenses rise hugely with a new dependent.

It used to feel like we paved the way for gender equality and now we are falling irretrievably behind, as we continue to undervalue women.

The Swedish government entitles parents of both sexes to 480 days (16 months) of paid parental leave at about 80% of their salary. I think we can all agree we are nowhere near that.

So today, on International Women’s Day, consider where inequality is failing you or the women in your life and workplace, and ask: Who can I talk to about this? My boss? My partner? A letter to management? A letter to your MP?

The scale of the challenge is apparent. Let’s not stop talking, and taking action, on how to fix it.

Hannah Johnson is global executive director at Blue State.