Gender Equality and Business in Leicester

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The issue of female presence in the business world is evolving. There are significant areas of improvement with studies finding the UK to be leading the way in board level gender representation, plus a reported eighteen percent increase in small businesses run by women since 2017. However, this increase is in a still male-dominated arena and within industries like finance, a global workforce of fifty percent female equates to just 18% at executive level. 

 

Equality for women is in everyone's interest. They bring alternative ideas, different perspectives, improvements in the development of existing markets and sectors due to new approaches. 

 

Currently, women are three times more likely to enter the workforce with higher qualifications than men but earn less per hour. 

 

So although things are generally going in the right direction, to achieve further improvement, efforts to promote gender equality must be strengthened. 

 

The gender pay-gap is a global issue. The pandemic has made data trickier to analyse and statistics show an improvement, however the pay gap still exists - with an average of around 15% difference in a man and a woman's hourly earnings. 

 

There are some fantastic examples to be found within the city of Leicester with lots of successful female-lead start-ups as well as established businesses. 

 

Examples such as Linda Neville who heads up SanaMente, Lauren Red running dance and fitness studio, Flight Fitness, or Gabrille Miller, Cool as Leicester Founder, Rachel Tidmarsh from Blue Sky, and Mehmooda Duke MBE, co-Founder of Moossa-Duke Solicitors, are great examples of women developing great ideas and creating high profile, high quality businesses. 

 

The more regularly we see women performing well in business, the more inspired women will be in general to achieve equality within business. 

 

Toward the latter part of 2021, Leicester City Football Club's Susan Whelan was named CEO of the Year at the Football Business Awards. Credited with playing a pivotal role in the Club's incredible success, she was also noted for her work engaging with the community, being particularly supportive to local organisations and individuals throughout the Covid pandemic. Susan paid tribute to community partners in Leicester for enabling the club to be so effective, highlighting the distinct need for quality collaborations and the importance of organisations working together for the greater good. 

 

2022 is set to be another prosperous and exciting year with a jam-packed calendar of networking events, opportunities and rewards ceremonies coming from a range of high quality organisations. 

 

The Women In Business Network (WIBN), created by females for females, holds regular events if you're looking to develop your network, plus there is Enterprising Women aiming to help East Midlands based business women support each other in going further and finding bigger successes. 

 

Business Women In, a nationwide community, have a Leicester meeting planned for December of this year, 2022. 

 

Get involved with campaigning for equality with Women's Equality, a fantastic political party with big adjustments on the agenda. 

 

Leicester is an exciting place to be in business, whether female or male, and has many great examples of excellence to aspire and relate to. 

 

Gender equality remains an issue overall but it is an innovative time to be a woman in business. 

 

At Embark CSR, we are committed to promoting gender equality. With this in mind, the first event from our new business network, Gather, will be based on this theme. 

 

So why not join us for our new bi-monthly event, “Gather, the purposeful business network”. We will be bringing together the business community, nonprofits and academics to discuss challenges and opportunities created through the United Nations Social Development Goals (SDGs) to build relationships with individuals whose values align with yours. 

 

Launching 28th Feb, 10.30am-12noon at the University of Leicester, School of Business, Gather offers the opportunity to meet new people, learn about community issues and how our local business community works collaboratively with the third sector to tackle these issues. 

 

We hope you find the information and links in this article useful and hope to see you at the event.