The TUC has produced a report in 2014 titled ‘Age Immaterial: Women over 50 in the Workplace,’ which details the issues that are still confronting them today.
Kay Carberry, the Assistant General Secretary of the TUC and a Commissioner on the Labour Party Commission on Older Women, states in the Foreword: ‘More women over the age of fifty are working than ever before but the generation of women who blazed a trail for women’s equality in the workplace are still struggling to get a fair deal.’
The report states that half of the women aged 50 – 64 years-old work in public service delivery (public administration, education and health) compared to one-quarter of women aged 16 – 25 years. In the past twenty years, these women aged 50 years and over have accounted for 72 per cent of the growth in female employment, which is partly due to the demographic increase and also in the higher rates of employment.
The downside is that zero hours working and other forms of uncertain working practices (such as agency work) are found in the very roles that this sector work in (e.g. cleaners, care and social workers, administrative roles, call centre workers, teachers, cooks and nurses). The CIPD, in ‘Zero Hours: Myth and Reality’ (November 2013), discovered that zero hours contracts was more prevalent among under-25s and over-55s.
Part-time work is significant among those aged 50 years or over, but the majority of them earn less than £10,000 per annum. Women in their 50s earn nearly a fifth than men of the same age, which is the widest gender pay gap of any age group.
Although two in five women over the age of 50 years wanted to work fewer hours (according to the Labour Force Survey 2012), it has been anecdotally found that it is extremely hard to do so and that many give up as a consequence. The knock-on effect for any woman who does actually work reduced hours is that the part-time rate of pay is very much lower that of a person working full-time.
These assertions have been reinforced by other research conducted by Tooley Street Research on behalf of the CIPD/John Lewis Partnership (‘Being a woman, being older and working part-time all increases your chances of being ‘stuck’ in low pay,’ CIPD Press Release, 22 October 2014). One of the findings was that the majority of those in low pay are women (64 per cent), with women less likely to escape from this situation than men, especially as they grow older and have been working with reduced hours for ten years or more.
Although equality legislation should have reduced such incidences, it is still the case that older women in difficulties in accessing training opportunities which, in turn, may be one of the causes why they remain in low paid jobs. In 2011, the CIPD stated that older workers were much more likely to receive training, with 51 per cent of those aged 65 years stating that they had received no training in the previous three years, compared to 32 per cent across all age groups.
In addition, they are often in what might be termed as the ‘sandwich generation’ – looking after their children (with 35 per cent of mothers aged 45 – 54 years who have school age children) and/or grandchildren as well as having caring responsibilities for their ageing parents. This competing task would be hard enough as it is, but there are also the demands of work that have to be taken into consideration. It is often the stresses of being a carer that women (more than men) that causes them to request flexible working, reduced hours or retirement. The biggest reason for a woman aged between the age of 50 years and state pension age not being in employment is that 24 per cent of women (compared to 3 per cent of men) were looking after their family or home.
The TUC online survey of its members of the age of 50 years discovered that 60 per cent of respondents juggled caring for a family member together with work. Of those, 72 per cent undertook this responsibility on a regular basis.
Ninety per cent of these women with caring responsibilities had requested flexible working or reduced hours to accommodate those needs, 80 per cent had used annual leave to care for a friend or relative, and 20 per cent had taken unpaid leave.
At is at this point in a person’s life that they are to experience more illnesses and disabilities, which the pressures of the workplace can exacerbate. The examples of the needs that are often overlooked concerning women in particular range from stress and other mental health issues, to the menopause.
Women aged 45 – 50 years reported higher levels of work-related stress, depression and anxiety than any other age group (HSE Self-Reported Work-Related Illness and Workplace Injuries 2009), which may also include the pressure from their ongoing and co-existent caring responsibilities. Symptoms included: poor concentration (51 per cent), tiredness/poor memory (51 per cent), feeling low/depressed (42 per cent), lowered confidence (39 per cent), sleep disturbances (37 per cent), irritability (36 per cent) and hot flushes (35 per cent).
The issue of the menopause is a hidden one in the workplace with 70 per cent of respondents in the survey having not disclosed to their manager that they were experiencing symptoms of this change in life (Amanda Griffiths et al, ‘Women’s Experience of Working Through the Menopause,’ University of Nottingham/British Occupational Health Research Foundation 2010). When they were asked what adjustments could be made to assist them, 75 per cent stated that it would help if their manager was aware of the issue and 63 per cent commented that flexible working would help them cope with the symptoms.
To add to an already complex situation, women in this age group can also experience both age and sex discrimination (which may co-exist with other forms of discrimination such as race and disability). An interesting fact is that there has been a 86 per cent decrease in the number of sex discrimination claims made by women in 2012 – 13 – this may be because of other factors such as the downturn after the rush (as has happened with claims for other form of discrimination) or that employers are now more aware of possible consequences of any discriminatory actions. It is now possible to bring combined claims in cases of direct discrimination, so that the two protected characteristics can be presented in one case before a tribunal.
There are many examples in the Bible of women working, often in conjunction with their husbands or in such capacities as keeping the house (e.g. 1 Samuel 8: 13). Another example was Lydia (Acts 16: 14 – 16) who seems to have been self-employed or running a business, and we do not know how old she was. In all of these instances, there was no such thing as retirement and certainly not a pension that went with it. Indeed, the wife of noble character (Proverbs 31: 10ff.) is described as working ‘all the days of her life’ in various activities such as buying and selling (verse 12). Being a woman working in the Bible was regarded as a noble attribute, regardless of age.
As the working population increases in age due to longevity of life and to the later entitlement to pensions, it is important that we encourage the women in the 50s and beyond, and treat them with equality and respect.
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