Gender pay gap: Focusing on fathers can reap rewards

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Last week saw Equal Pay Day – the day when women effectively stop earning due to their pay gap with men – but also International Men's Day. Organisations need to see both sides of the gender divide in order to really address pay inequality, says Sarah Jackson.  If you believe the theory that ‘men are from Mars and women are from Venus’, you may be miffed that we had two major gender campaigns jostling for attention last week. Equal Pay Day on November 18 highlighted our continuing UK gender pay gap, while International Men’s Day the very next day promoted positive conversations about the concept of masculinity and the role of men and fathers. Yet these two seemingly separate campaigns, like their cheek-by-jowl dates, actually share many solutions. Equal Pay Day, run by the Fawcett Society, marks the day in the year when UK women effectively, on average, stop earning relative to men because of the gender pay gap. A major contributor to the gap is the motherhood penalty – women’s earnings drop by almost half after the birth of their first child. The price of being the primary carer is high. On the other side of the gender coin, younger fathers talk increasingly about their frustration at being stereotyped as the breadwinner, as well as their unhappiness at not being able to be the engaged father they wish to be. International Men’s Day highlighted the challenges faced by men as parents, particularly new fathers and separated fathers, and set out to promote positive conversations about manhood and masculinity.

Reverting to stereotype

Many of us hoped that Covid lockdowns would shift attitudes about which parents pu