New employer guidance on taking an anti-racist approach to tackling gender inequality in the workplace.

Racism and sexism are the causes of the inequality and discrimination that racially minoritised women face in their everyday lives. It’s no different in the workplace.

Gender and racial inequality at work are issues for all employers, irrespective of the diversity of their workforce. Racially minoritised women face prejudice and discrimination in the labour market every day. It’s time to act.

It’s not enough to think about gender inequality or racial inequality on their own – you need to understand how these intersect to create double discrimination for racially minoritised women.

By tackling racism and gender inequality together, you’ll also be contributing towards greater equality for racially minoritised people and women more widely in your workplace. Taking an intersectional approach is necessary to advance equality for all groups that face discrimination.

Our new guidance

Close the Gap has developed new guidance for employers on taking an anti-racist approach to tackling women’s workplace inequality. It contains information on:

• the intersection of racism and sexism in the workplace
• the barriers faced by racially minoritised women
• how to take an anti-racist approach to tackling gender inequality in your organisation

There’s also a suite of quick-read resources to enable you to:

• gather and use data to better understand your organisation
• make sure your key people know what their role is, and are supported to play their part
• take positive action to increase diversity at all levels of your organisation
• build a tailored action plan to create real change

Many employers want to take action but may not be sure where to start. Our guidance can help.

We held an online webinar to launch the guidance, where we heard from experts on gender sensitive anti-racist practice and taking an intersectional approach. The keynote address was delivered by the Minister for Just Transition, Employment and Fair Work. You can watch the webinar here.

What employers need to know about racism and sexism at work.

Racially minoritised women still face deeply rooted prejudices, racism and sexism in their lives, which contributes to their inequality at work. While racism and sexism each exist on their own, they also change where they occur in combination. This produces specific inequalities for racially minoritised women, known as intersectional inequalities.

This combination of racist and sexist attitudes and behaviours, and in-built bias in employment policies and processes, creates intersectional inequalities for women in the workplace. It isn’t just about isolated incidents of bullying and harassment between individuals, but a part of a wider problem with workplace culture, and intersectional inequality in the workplace.

A majority of racially minoritised women have experienced a combination of racism and sexism at work. Just because you haven’t received a report of racist and/or sexist behaviour or discrimination doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened in your workplace. Racism and sexism are embedded in workplace reporting systems, creating barriers to reporting. Most women won’t report incidents because they don’t think their employer will take the matter seriously, or they fear a backlash for doing so.

What employers can do?

One of the first things you need to do is acknowledge that racism, sexism and intersectional inequality are issues for all employers – regardless of whether you’ve had a report, or how diverse your workforce is. A willingness to be objective and honest about the challenges you face is key.

You can show leadership by openly acknowledging that employers have a responsibility to challenge racism and sexism, and their interaction, at work and communicating to staff the actions you will take to do this.

You can build trust by seeking honest feedback and reflections from staff, and demonstrating that you are taking action.

You can also build trust by showing that you’re willing to be accountable. This means following through with meaningful actions and progress updates on your work to deliver equality for women in your organisation.

Because racially minoritised women face specific inequalities, you can’t just combine work to tackle racism & racial inequality with work to tackle sexism & gender inequality. You need to work to understand and address the specific challenges facing racially minoritised women if all racially minoritised people, and all women, are to obtain equality. Our guidance will help you do this.

It's important to recognise that action to tackle incidents of discrimination is only part of the solution. You can use our guidance to take a gender sensitive anti-racist approach to reviewing your workplace culture and employment practices.

This means proactively identifying and tackling gender inequality and racism, which involves taking an objective view of your organisation and being honest about the challenges you face. This is what gender sensitive anti-racist practice means.

Create change in your workplace and communities

Change doesn’t happen overnight. But with commitment and sustained effort you can create real change for women, and your organisation, and become a sector leader in equality, diversity and inclusion. You’ll be able to attract and retain the best talent, making your organisation more productive, more innovative and more profitable. You’ll also demonstrate to your workforce that you’re committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, building trust and loyalty in your customer or service user base.

Employers have the ability to take meaningful action and create change for women in your organisation and in the communities you operate in. You also have a responsibility to do so.

Download our guidance now and learn how you can build anti-racist leadership on gender equality.

Guidance for employers on taking an anti-racist approach to tackling women’s workplace inequality

Supporting resources:

• Core actions for key people
• Capacity building for key roles
• Using data
• Level the playing field
• Key messages
• Action plan checklist

Watch our webinar and hear from experts on gender sensitive anti-racist practice and taking an intersectional approach.

Equally Safe at Work: New learning and development resources to address sexual harassment at work

High levels of sexual harassment remain consistent in the workplace, which has a detrimental impact on women, colleagues and the entire organisation. In our Equally Safe at Work employee survey in early adopter councils, three-quarters (75%) of respondents had either experienced or witnessed sexual harassment in the last 12 months and 70% didn’t report it to their employer. We know that women rarely report sexual harassment, and violence against women in general. This is because some think nothing will change, or that they won’t be believed. In some cases, women worry it will affect their career progression. As well, women have shared that they tried to report to their line manager, and received little to no support to make a formal report to HR.

Sexual harassment has serious physical, psychological and professional impacts for women, leading to many taking time off work, changing jobs or leaving the organisation. This is costly both to women’s careers and to employers as they lose key people. It harms women’s employment prospects, and as such is both a cause and consequence of women’s wider inequality.

It’s essential that employers take steps to address sexual harassment in their workplace. From previous scoping work undertaken, by Close the Gap, it was apparent that there was a gap in existing learning and development resources on sexual harassment that recognised it as a gendered phenomenon. Without addressing the underlying power dynamics and gender inequality inherent to sexual harassment, little change will be made in challenging it.

What we did

As part of Equally Safe at Work, Close the Gap developed a learning and development resource for employers to increase awareness and understanding of sexual harassment in different staff groups. The development of the resource was funded by Rosa and includes:

• key messages for all employees,
• guidance for line managers,
• e-learning modules for line managers,
• awareness-raising material, and
• an expert workshop for staff involved in investigating sexual harassment.

The resource aims to provide organisations with essential information on sexual harassment including, what sexual harassment looks like in the workplace and what employees can do to address sexual harassment and prevent it. It further provides employers with tools for engaging with different audiences, such as the key messages and awareness-raising material.

Line managers have an important role in tackling sexual harassment. Equipping line managers with the knowledge and understanding of how best to address sexual harassment is key for building trust in the reporting process and for creating a positive workplace culture. Our guidance provides information on the factors that facilitate sexual harassment which include gender stereotyping, everyday sexism and male-oriented workplace culture. It also outlines how to recognise the signs an employee may be experiencing sexual harassment, such as changes to the work performances or changes in behaviour. The guidance also includes ways to start a conversations and steps to take when responding to a disclosure.

For more information, you can visit the Equally Safe at Work website.

We have also developed a self-assessment tool for SMEs on sexual harassment. More information about the tool and the supporting guidance can be found here.

Register for the online launch of Close the Gap’s new guidance on taking an anti-racist approach to tackling gender inequality at work

Join Close the Gap for the launch of our new guidance on taking an anti-racist approach to tackling gender inequality at work.

This event is for managers and senior leaders, HR practitioners, and business owners who want to make sure their organisation is working to proactively identify and tackle racism and gender inequality in the workplace.

The event will include information and guidance on:

• racism and sexism in the workplace
• the barriers faced by racially minoritised women
• how to take an anti-racist approach to tackling gender inequality in your organisation

The keynote address will be given by Richard Lochhead, Minister for Just Transition, Employment and Fair Work.

There will also be a panel discussion including experts on anti-racist practice and gender inequality at work.

AGENDA:

10.00: Welcome and introductions

Anna Ritchie Allan, Executive Director, Close the Gap

10.10: Keynote address

Richard Lochhead, Minister for Just Transition, Employment and Fair Work

10:25 Presentation on new guidance for employers on taking an anti-racist approach to tackling women's workplace inequality

Lindsey Millen, Policy and Development Manager, Close the Gap

10:45 Panel session and Q&A

Chair: Gillian Neish, Principal Consultant, Neish Training

Mariam Ahmed, CEO, Amina

Aarti Joshi, Radio and Podcast Presenter

Sharan Virdee, Equality & Diversity Partner, Heriot-Watt University

11.25: Closing remarks

Anna Ritchie Allan, Executive Director, Close the Gap

11:30 Close

Employers have the ability to take meaningful action and create change for women in their organisation and in the communities they operate in. They also have a responsibility to do so.

Register today and join us on Zoom on Thursday 1^st December from 10-11.30am to learn how you can build anti-racist leadership on gender equality and drive change.

How to help prevent sexual harassment in the workplace?

Sexual harassment is an endemic problem in our society. In the past decade, the global "#MeToo" movement has helped to raise awareness of its prevalence, helping it to become a high-profile issue.

Sexual harassment can happen virtually anywhere, and it often happens at work. We need to see real, substantive action to tackle it, and we have developed a suite of resources for employers to help them create the change. They are designed for SMEs, but all employers can benefit from using them in therir organisation.

The resources include a self-assessment questionnaire that provides tailored feedback and actions for employers to take away and implement in their workplace. This is supported by step-by-step guidance on:

• how to develop a workplace policy on sexual harassment,
• how to deal with reports, and
• how to fix workplace culture issues that enable sexual harassment to happen.

We’ve also created informational guides to help employers understand what sexual harassment is and how it happens, because this is the first step to getting it right.

Our guides include information on:

• how to deal with reports and investigations of sexual harassment
• how to create your own workplace policy
• creating a workplace culture that helps prevent sexual harassment

What do employers need to know about sexual harassment?

The term ‘sexual harassment’ covers a spectrum of behaviours which range from subtle and insidious to overt and physically violent. Sexual harassment makes women feel small, undermined, threatened, assaulted and powerless. Black and racialised women, disabled woman, young woman and those in insecure work are at greater risk. All forms of sexual harassment undermine women's safety at work and in their lives.

Sexual harassment isn’t just an issue between two people. It’s also a wider problem related to gender inequality and sexism in the workplace. Sexual harassment, and male-oriented workplace cultures that don’t feel inclusive to women, contribute to the gender pay gap and women’s inequality at work.

Sexual harassment is a gendered issue.

The vast majority of people who experience sexual harassment are women, and the vast majority of perpetrators are men. Research also shows that where men are sexually harassed, the perpetrator is most likely to be another man. This has to be acknowledged, because we can’t fix the problem if we can’t name it.

Gender inequality is the root cause of sexual harassment. Women still have less power and status than men in the workplace, and it’s this that creates an environment in which sexualised comments are dismissed as ‘just banter’, in which women are told ‘it wasn’t meant that way’, and in which women aren’t believed. This power imbalance is even more acute for Black and racialised women, LGBT women, disabled women and young women. It is also why male harassers are rarely held accountable.

Sexual harassment in the workplace.

Most employers care about employee wellbeing. They take steps to make sure workplaces are safe and welcoming. But there can be a blind spot when it comes to sexual harassment. It can feel uncomfortable to talk about workplace sexual harassment, and this enables it to keep happening.

It can be easy for an employer to think that sexual harassment doesn’t happen in their business. They may never have had an employee report sexual harassment. However, an absence of reports doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened, or won’t.

Sexual harassment is routinely under-reported. A survey found that 80% of victim-survivors didn’t report unwanted sexual behaviour to their employer. There's a wide range of reasons why women don't report. They think there's no point because nothing will change, they think that they won't be belived, and they worry that they'll be blamed or ostracised

These aren’t just imagined scenarios, these are real-life examples of women’s experiences of reporting. Women who have been sexually harassed at work see these things happening to other women, and the cycle of under-reporting continues.

Sexual harassment can have serious professional, financial, and psychological impacts. The impact of sexual harassment on employees includes:

• Feelings of embarrassment, shame and humiliation;
• Avoiding certain work situations like meetings, or particular shifts;
• Feeling less confident at work;
• Taking time off sick to avoid a harasser; and
• Leaving a role or job.

This sees women losing out in their careers and businesses losing key people. Women often leave organisations where sexual harassment is common and goes unaddressed.

Sexual harassment also has a negative effect on colleagues and the wider business. Where sexist jokes and comments are tolerated this creates a conducive context for more serious cases of sexual violence including rape or sexual assault, damage to the business’s reputation, the loss of good employees, and a toxic work environment.

It’s clear that sexual harassment has serious bottom line consequences. The negative impact on staff morale and productivity undermines business effectiveness. There can be extra costs arising from administrative difficulties from unplanned time off, lost wages and sick pay.Businesses also face wider financial and reputational risks if they fail to deal with sexual harassment.

What do employers need to do?

Employers have a key role to play in tackling and preventing sexual harassment in the workplace. It makes good business sense – and it’s the right thing to do – to support employees who have experienced sexual harassment. Employers also have a legal duty to address and prevent sexual harassment in their organisation.

The way you deal with sexual harassment at work sends a strong signal to your employees, and your current and prospective clients, how seriously you take it. If you take visible and proactive steps to tackle and prevent sexual harassment it lets your people know that you do take it seriously. This builds trust in your employees to report sexual harassment if it happens, lets everyone know that it has no place in your workplace, and creates a safe and inclusive workplace culture that will help prevent it from happening in the first place.

Our Think Business Think Equality resources can help employers meet their legal duty, deal with sexual harassment if it happens, and create a workplace that prevents it from happening in the first place.

You can find our resources here:

• What you need to know about sexual harassment
• How to: develop a sexual harassment policy
• How to: deal with reports of sexual harassment
• How to: create a culture that prevents sexual harassment

You can also watch our webinar for employers on tackling workplace sexual harassment here.

Think Business, Think Equality also includes resources on key aspects of employment practice including flexible working, workplace culture, pay and reward, progression and promotion, pregnancy and maternity, job segregation and domestic abuse.

Find out more about how your business can benefit from gender equality and diversity at www.thinkbusinessthinkequality.org.uk.