Working women feel less entitled than their male counterparts, says Edwina Dunn OBE, one of the masterminds of Tesco’s Clubcard and chair of educational charity The Female Lead, and Covid has exacerbated this. Here’s how to tackle this huge issue.

As we rebuild from the devastation of Covid and in the run-up to this year’s International Women’s Day, it’s crystal-clear that we need to capitalise on the skills and talents of women in retail and all areas of business.

Women comprise 51% of the population and I am adamant that a sustainable economic recovery must take advantage of their capabilities.

Last week, the education charity I chair, The Female Lead, published a ground-breaking report on mid-stage career women and identified the concept of an unentitled mindset, which we need to address with urgency and determination.

Unentitled mindset, a psychological condition, does not mean that women are less or consider themselves less. Women have been socially conditioned to feel less entitled than men, in all areas of their lives.

What does this mean? Under pressure, in the complex work-home matrix, it is inevitably women who fall on their sword.

In truth, women often feel they need to make more sacrifices because they see themselves as the safety net for their family.

The landscape for women in business is mixed. I often think of the opening line of Charles Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

On the one hand, women are making progress in business. Last month’s final report of the Hampton-Alexander Review showed welcome improvement in the number of women sitting on FTSE boards. 

Younger women are shaking up traditionally male-dominated professions in a way that was unimaginable during the immediate post-war era.

On the other hand, the picture is not rosy for women in business. Women have been at greater risk of job losses during the crisis since they work, in large numbers, in the most affected sectors such as catering and hospitality.

The uphill struggle

A report by The Female Lead, carried out with Cambridge University psychologist Dr Terri Apter and based on in-depth interviews with 60 working women aged between 27 and 42 over the past year, highlighted the struggles and challenges of these women, who often suffer from an unentitled mindset.

This unentitled mindset manifests itself in various ways. First, many women experience a lack of confidence at the pay negotiation table because of the lack of transparency in promotion criteria and ambiguity in the decision-making process.

The report also identified the problem of lower expectations around contribution, whether that was women returning from maternity or just being ‘of that age’ and therefore deemed at risk. This reduced expectation by colleagues and leaders often limits what responsibilities and challenges women are offered.

Part-time working women can suffer a ‘flexibility penalty’, positioning these women as ‘less than’ other employees.

The uphill struggle faced by women who experience bias gets worse when it intersects with race, ethnicity, disability, sexuality and religion. Furthermore, working women suffer from the mental load of planning and maintaining the household, even where the domestic chores are split relatively evenly.

“While working from home has helped in some cases, this is enforced remote working rather than authentic flexible working”

Certainly, progress has been made since Dr Apter’s prior major report on the subject in 1994, punchily titled Working Women Don’t Have Wives, but there is still some way to go.

The pandemic has increased the mental load for women. Some are looking after children and have had to organise homeschooling during lockdown, while many are caring for other dependents such as elderly parents.

Almost all are primarily responsible for maintaining their household and bear the brunt of these complex and time-consuming responsibilities. While working from home has helped in some cases, this is enforced remote working rather than authentic flexible working.

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What government and business can do

Covid has, therefore, exacerbated the problem of the unentitled mindset. However, this shake-up has given many businesses a chance to create new ways of working and new employee engagement models.

This psychological imbalance in entitlement has developed through many years of differing gender expectations and career paths so it won’t be solved by a silver bullet, but there are concrete actions that can be taken by the government, business and civil society.

First and most immediately, the government should reinstate gender pay gap reporting. This first came into effect in April 2017 and was trumpeted by then prime minister Theresa May.

The requirement was understandably suspended last year when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Now would be an opportune time to reinstate it. 

The Women and Equalities Select Committee’s report in January was unequivocal about this. Such a move would demonstrate the government and the corporate sector’s commitment to greater gender equality.

Second, we would like to see companies proactively invite pay and promotion discussions to encourage greater transparency and clarity around the criteria and hurdles.

“We would like to see the entrepreneurial revolution be fully inclusive of women. As things stand, only one in three entrepreneurs are women”

Businesses also need to develop high-value jobs, which offer true flexibility. If too many women give up on work because it’s too hard, corporate Britain will not only have failed them but will suffer economically as a result.

Third, we would like to see the entrepreneurial revolution be fully inclusive of women. As things stand, only one in three entrepreneurs are women.

A report published in 2019 by Alison Rose, now chief executive of NatWest, showed that there are 1.1 million “missing” female-run start-ups. If these developed, the economy would be given a £250bn injection.

We need to encourage female endeavour. Some will choose the corporate route, whereas others will be attracted to setting up and running their own businesses, perhaps for the control it gives them over their lives.

Certainly, that was part of the attraction for me when I left a safe corporate job in 1989 to set up dunnhumby with my husband Clive.

Through tenacity and hard work, we built a global billion-dollar business and sold it 20 years later.

Clive and I were co-directors and jointly responsible as parents. We agreed never to travel overseas on the same trip so that one of us would always be at home to provide stability to the kids.

Covid-19 has created challenges for everyone, not least the hugely valuable mid-career women workers.

By creating female-friendly flexible workplaces and transparent career paths unfettered by post-baby bias, we will not only close the ‘entitlement gap’ and support stronger families, but give real impetus to our critical economic recovery.