The Scottish Government

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Executive Summary

Introduction

1. In 2006, the then Scottish Executive set up the cross-departmental (now cross-directorate) Occupational Segregation Working Group ( OSWG) to take forward action within Scottish Government to tackle occupational segregation.

2. The development of this group has been framed by a number of recent policy drivers occurring at UK and Scotland level, most notably the publication of the Women & Work Commission (2006) report: Shaping a Fairer Future, and the introduction of the Gender Equality Duty in April 2007. The OSWG was also concerned to continue action in response to recommendations from the Strategic Group on Women, to support the work of the Close the Gap partnership to reduce the gender pay gap in Scotland, and to take forward issues raised by the General Formal Investigation into occupational segregation by the Equal Opportunities Commission ( EOC).

3. OSWG had an ambitious brief, which recognised that gender inequality occurs across the life-course, and that age, disability, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation play into people's experiences of gender inequality. The group held discussions on policy activity in a number of areas: early years; schooling; further and higher education; and training and labour market issues. Representatives from across these policy areas contributed to OSWG meetings, with relevant external agencies also contributing at key points in discussions.

4. Tackling occupational segregation plays an important part in achieving the Scottish Governments targets and objectives. For example, eliminating the gender pay gap will help the Government achieve its Economic Growth target. In addition, ensuring that women and men have access to the full range of careers, and taking action to address the clustering of women in low paid jobs, will progress the Solidarity target.

The Research

5. Four core activities inform the content of this report:

• Analysis of statistical data on gender inequality in Scotland.
• Review of research on aspects of occupational segregation.
• Analysis of current policy activity by Scottish Government to address gender inequality/occupational segregation - including individual meetings with policy teams.
• Observation of, and participation in, the OSWG meetings.

Labour Market Inequality

6. While women's labour market participation has increased in the last few decades, significant inequalities between women and men's labour market experience remain:

• Women are the majority of part-time workers, a trend that is strongly associated with women's role in caring for children and other family members.
• Women and men are segregated into different sectors of the labour market: women making up the majority of those employed in health and social work (77%) and education (75%), while men are the majority in manufacturing (75%), transport, storage and communication (76%) and construction (93%).
• Women are far more likely to work in the public sector than men - women represent 67% of employees in local government and 78% of NHS staff.
• Women on average continue to earn less than men. Figures from 2007 show that the gender pay gap is 15% based on the mean hourly earnings in full-time employment (and 12% based on the median). Comparison of women's part-time hourly pay with men's hourly full-time pay indicates a much more significant gender pay gap of 35% based on the mean (and 37% based on the median).

School Education and Qualifications

7. There are important differences in the attainment levels and subject choices made by pupils while at school, that impact on potential occupational segregation in employment:

• While there are Standard Grade subjects that are evenly split along gender lines ( e.g. English, Maths and Chemistry), girls are the majority in home economics (80%), administration (74%), travel and tourism (71%) and biology, while boys are the majority in technological studies (92%), woodworking skills (87%), craft and design (77%) and physics (72%).
• There continue to be gender differences in educational attainment, with girls doing better than boys, particularly in achievement of 5+ awards at SCQF Level 4 and Level 5. The same trends are evident at S5 and S6, with girls having higher attainment at all stages and categories.
• There are also gender differences in staying on rates at S5 and S6, with girls more likely than boys to stay on at school to S5 and S6.
• From primary school onward, boys are more likely than girls to encounter difficulties ( e.g. learning and behavioural difficulties) leading to specialist support being put in place. Boys, for example, made up 71% of pupils with a Record of Need of Individualised Educational Programme in 2004/05. Boys are also more likely to be excluded from school, being a significant majority of those excluded in primary school and many of the excluded in secondary school.
• Girls are more likely upon leaving school to enter full-time further or higher education than boys. Boys are more likely to go into training, employment or to be unemployed and seeking employment. While this is a long term trend, the differences in destinations of girls and boys have, in recent years, increased.
• While girls' educational attainment is higher this is so far not reflected in levels of salary attainment.

Early Years and Education Workforce

8. Discussion of the gender composition of the early years and education workforce is important both to highlight one area of occupational segregation, but also because it potentially highlights an important issue about gender inequality that may influence the school population.

• Women were 98% of the childcare and early years workforce in 2005 and 97% in 2007. Women were also 98% of Classroom Assistants.
• Reasons for women's dominance in this area of work focus on the perceived low status of the work ( e.g. poor pay, conditions and opportunities for promotion) and a view that this work in not suitable for men due to suspicions about men who want to work with young children and a view that this is feminine work.
• The primary school workforce is also predominantly female - in 2007 92% of teachers, 90% of deputy head teachers and 83% of head teachers were female.
• In secondary schools the pattern differs: women are the majority in the overall teaching workforce (60%), but are much less likely than men to be head teachers (26%). While women continue to be under-represented in senior positions in secondary schools, there is an increase in women working as head teachers in recent years.
• There are gender differences in the subjects that women and men teach in secondary schools in Scotland. Women are more likely to teach languages, business studies, English and music, while men are more likely to teach technical education and physics. Almost all home economics teachers are women, while women are also the majority of teachers delivering teaching to meet additional support needs.
• While there is an almost even split in teaching staff within colleges, men remain the majority working in management positions across the college sector (58% in 2004/05). In higher education, men continue to outnumber women among the academic staff (60% of all academic staff in 2003/04) although the number of women working in higher education is rising. The types of work that women and men perform do however differ, with women less likely to be in senior academic positions within universities.
• Similar to the position in schools, there are gender differences in the subjects that women and men teach in higher education. Men dominate in many subjects, but notably in engineering, architecture, physical sciences and mathematics, while women are most likely to teach 'subjects allied to medicine' and education.

Vertical Segregation

9. There is evidence that women continue not to reach management and senior positions in employment at the same rate as men. Two issues are said to explain women's limited movement into senior positions: 'glass ceiling' and 'sticky floor' effects:

• The 'glass ceiling' describes the invisible barriers that women (and other disadvantaged groups) face in reaching the top of their chosen field, while the 'sticky floor' suggests that women are stuck in low paid, low skilled jobs due to limited availability of training and promotion opportunities. The 'sticky floor' effect is thought to be particularly acute within part-time employment.
• Accurately measuring the extent to which 'glass ceiling' or 'sticky floor' effects are at play is not easy. At best, we can suggest that various issues affect women's ability to enter and progress within senior positions in organisations, due in part to the long working hours' culture associated with senior positions in organisations, and the lack of opportunities for flexible/part-time working.

Current Policy Activity

10. A range of policy activity has been taken forward in recent years to challenge gender segregation within the early years' workforce e.g. through improved career pathways and leadership opportunities within the profession.

11. The Scottish Government's reform of the education system through Curriculum for Excellence is intended to ensure that children have every opportunity to participate in every aspect of learning and, through this, that gender stereotypes are challenged. The Career Scotland Career Box is a further useful tool to encourage children from 3 to 18 years when thinking about careers to question gendered assumptions around jobs.

12. Shaping a Fairer Future highlighted concern to improve take-up of vocational skills training. Skills for Scotland (Scotland's skills strategy) is taking forward this commitment, drawing attention to the need to offer opportunities for participation by a range of equality groups.

13. Recent policy activity in relation to the teaching workforce has focused on increasing teacher numbers at both primary and secondary school level, and reducing class sizes. There is also activity currently taking place - which Scottish Government is involved in - to address the pay and conditions affecting Classroom Assistants.

14. The Review of Scotland's Colleges recognised that attention needed to be given to addressing equality issues in colleges, specifically addressing the gendered subject choices of male and female students. The Scottish Funding Council is committed to tackling this issue, with research to be commissioned to explore gender equality issues within the college environment. Identifying, sharing and promoting good practice in colleges is also to be encouraged.

15. The review of higher education in Scotland focused centrally on promoting lifelong learning. While not explicitly highlighting issues around gender inequality, the Scottish Funding Council is aware of its responsibility to continually improve the opportunities for learning and progression beyond education. A key part of this is ensuring that women and men in higher education have the full range of opportunities available to them.

16. The Close the Gap partnership, which includes Scottish Government, is continuing to take forward activities to tackle gender stereotyping and occupational segregation, as these are recognised to be major contributors to the continuance of the gender pay gap.

17. Achieving long-term sustainable economic growth is a central priority of the current Government in Scotland. Much of the responsibility for in-work employment conditions falls to the UK Government. At local level in Scotland, various initiatives are being progressed to promote employment opportunities. Focusing on the potentially different needs of specific groups of women in relation to the local labour market is important to this activity.

18. While there are a range of activities being taken forward to tackle gender inequality and occupational segregation in Scotland, there remains a significant amount of work to do.

Future Activity

19. Children in Scotland will assist Scottish Government to take forward activities to tackle gender stereotyping and occupational segregation, for example by encouraging public sector employers to examine their employment policies and practices and address any barriers that may contribute to gender inequality.

20. The Care Commission and HMIE, as regulatory bodies, play an important role in inspecting childcare and education services as well as providing information on the effectiveness of policy interventions in relation to compliance with equalities legislation. Scottish Government will hold discussions with these agencies to explore ways of capturing data on the effectiveness of staff in helping children to challenge gender stereotypes.

21. Scottish Government have recently commissioned a research review to draw together the current evidence on attitudes to vocational learning. A key element of the work of this review is to explore the relevance of gender and socio-economic factors affecting attitudes to vocational learning. The publication of this review will be helpful in better understanding what affects attitudes to vocational learning.

22. Close the Gap will investigate with CPD Find the possibilities for developing and offering online materials for teachers to challenge occupational segregation in schools

23. To address gender inequalities across the teaching workforce, Scottish Government intends to develop a marketing campaign to attract men into primary school teaching.

24. The EHRC-led group taking forward the EOC report recommendations on Classroom Assistants will continue, with future actions to deliver on the recommendations on terms and conditions of service being taken forward through the Scottish Joint Council.

25. Scottish Funding Council will be taking forward research to explore gender equality in Scotland's colleges, including a focus on occupational segregation. The research is intended to assist the sector to understand better, identify and address any current barriers to participation in non-traditional subject choices. SFC will also undertake regular gender analysis of statistics on staff and students to track progress in promoting equalities in the college and university sector in Scotland.

26. Skills Development Scotland ( SDS) is the new agency responsible for skills development and lifelong learning in Scotland. This new agency recognises that a number of policy issues impact on its work, including: Curriculum for Excellence, More Choices, More Chances and the public sector equality duties. SDS is expected to plan for and make significant contributions to addressing occupational segregation through its work.

27. The Close the Gap partnership, which includes Scottish Government, will continue to take forward activities to tackle gender stereotyping and occupational segregation, which are recognised to be major contributors to the gender pay gap. In Phase 3 of its work (July 2008 to March 2011), it will continue to target the finance industry and the further and higher education sectors, where the pay gap is particularly high and where occupational segregation is a significant contributor. As part of its targeted work with the finance industry, Close the Gap plays an important role in advising a delivery group set up by the Financial Services Implementation Group ( FiSIG), which delivers the Strategy for the Financial Services Industry in Scotland on behalf of the Financial Services Advisory Board ( FiSAB). The delivery group has been tasked with reviewing evidence of the gender pay gap within the industry and recommending actions to address the issues.

28. At local level, Scottish Government support the Glasgow Works partnership, which aims to increase employment rates in Glasgow. The BME population, with low rates of employment among certain ethnic groups, is a priority group for the partnership. Scottish Government is funding a member of staff within Glasgow Works to implement a recently agreed action plan to increase BME employment in the city. The first priority is to increase employment by currently under-represented BME groups, which includes getting more BME women into employability activity. Scottish Government is aware of occupational segregation within sectors traditionally accessed by specific BME groups, and will work with Glasgow Works to agree actions for inclusion in the plan which consider how to address this.

29. Women Onto Work is another local initiative funded by Scottish Government. During the funding period July 2008 to March 2011, this group will monitor demand from women trainees for work placements in non-traditional occupations, any barriers that are encountered and develop contacts with employers who may be able to offer an increase in work placement opportunities in traditional male occupations.

30. There is a need to extend the work of the OSWG in its next phase specifically to investigate the data and issues affecting a more diverse group of women, including minority ethnic women, disabled women, older and younger women, lesbian and transgender women and women of different faiths.

31. To continue the good work started by the OSWG, Scottish Government will engage in wider dialogue with public, private and third sector organisations about taking forward future work to tackle gender stereotyping and occupational segregation. An effective network - including stakeholders from within and outside Scottish Government - will progress activities to tackle gender stereotyping and occupational segregation.

32. Scottish Government will carry out work to investigate whether there are any successful initiatives to tackle occupational segregation, including in other countries, which might help inform policy development.

Monitoring progress

33. All relevant policies and initiatives will be individually monitored on their progress and outcomes.

34. The network (mentioned at paragraph 31 above) will ensure that the recommendations and actions noted in this report are implemented.

35. Scottish Government will carry out work to investigate social attitudes to occupational segregation among the adult population with a view to tracking changes over time.

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