Academic shares research on gendered employment and pay disparity

Cardiff Business School’s Executive Education Breakfast Briefing welcomed Dr Alison Parken from the Women Adding Value to the Economy (WAVE) programme.

The Women Adding Value to the Economy (WAVE) Programme was funded by the European Social Fund, through the Welsh Government (WG) and key partners: the University of South Wales, The Women's Workshop @ BAWSO and Cardiff University (CU). The first phase of WAVE ran between 2012 and 2015 with the aim of understanding how gender pay inequality is consistently reproduced through inequalities in employment structures. WAVE has now entered its second phase.

Attendees at the Breakfast Briefing, which formed part of Cardiff Business School’s 2016 Research Fair, an opportunity to celebrate and share its socially and operationally relevant research, were afforded the opportunity to hear directly from Dr Parken about her research and findings.

Dr Parken, from Cardiff Business School’s Management, Employment and Organisation section, discussed how pay disparity was often thought of in terms of a comparison of men and women in the same or similar jobs. However, the issue is more wide-reaching and the differences in how men and women are employed contribute significantly to gender pay inequalities. Sector, occupation, workplace hierarchies, contract type and hours all had a part to play.

Analysis of these contributory factors and their impact has allowed for the design and implementation of change action plans within the organisations who agreed to work with the WAVE programme. Those action plans began in 2014 and will run in to 2017.

The Breakfast Briefing audience, a mixture of private, public and third sector, were deeply engaged with the topic at hand and the research presented. During the Q&A that followed Dr Parken’s presentation discussion centred on the potential impact of new policy areas (e.g. parental leave directive), the contribution flexible working patterns could have and the need for working structures to reflect contemporary lifestyles and realities.

Further information on the WAVE programme and downloadable case studies from the research are available from the Cardiff University website.

Registration is now open for the next Cardiff Breakfast Briefing which will be held on Thursday 14 July 2016. Entitled Collaboration to 'SPARK' Innovation, Professor Rick Delbridge, Cardiff University’s Dean of Research, Innovation & Enterprise will discuss the University's New Innovation Campus, an initiative that offers a unique opportunity for organisations to actively engage within world leading research.