Women in charities – are we doing enough to support them?

Over the last few years, equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) has sprung into the forefront of the non-profit sector. While the sector has taken leaps to meet these requirements, charities are not immune to the gender disparities that pervade other sectors.

Despite the sector’s progressive values, women frequently encounter significant barriers to achieving equality in terms of leadership opportunities, pay equity, and representation in decision-making roles. In this article, I survey a wide range of organisations, some who have worked with me in the past, some who haven’t, to determine and provide advice regarding how they support their female workforce.

Note that I will compare two genders, not to discount individuals who identify as other genders. Working as a recruitment consultant in the charity sector, I have a passion for looking at inclusivity and how women have developed into the inspiring leaders, CEOs and Trustees we see today.

I recently wrote an in-depth article titled “Women in Finance” where I interviewed finance leaders from Hand in Hand International, Jesus House and Avenues Group who all gave insight into how they felt about gender inequality in the sector, and their own personal experiences.

Although the individuals I interviewed felt well supported within their organisations, it was argued that, despite some charities being perceived as predominantly female focused in terms of their workforce, the non-profit sector needs to ensure that they are creating equal opportunities for women to develop them into strong, empowered leaders. Shockingly, it is also reflected on the other side of the coin, where it has been put forward that charities that support women are often chronically under funded.

When Pro Bono Economics published its ‘Women and the Charity Sector’ report in late 2023, it highlighted some key issues regarding how the charity sector approaches the female workforce. More than two thirds (67%) of employees in the charity sector are women, and as a demographic are more likely to rely on charities. We still see a disproportion of leadership and decision-making in favour of men, and boards reflect this. Find other key statistics below:

 

• 34% of the financially largest UK charities have a female CEO
• 51% of charities do not have a minority ethnic woman on their board
• Women are still paid 4.1% less on average due to a range of socioeconomic factors

 

One of the factors that the report identifies is caring responsibilities. I reached out to a number of HR/ recruitment team members with clients of ours and others who were happy to discuss this topic, to give me their insight into how their own organisations support their female colleagues, and the responses were very insightful.

Policies and prioritisation

Nearly 100% of the charities surveyed do not have a specific policy in place that prioritises the professional development of their female workforce.

The question is, is this needed? And how can your organisation continue to aid equality in the workplace when it comes to professional development?

According to a report delivered by the Government Equalities Office, evidence has shown that women are not given the same opportunities for development as men. They are more likely to receive nonconstructive feedback and told to focus on more short-term development, as opposed to being encouraged to widen their network and give them opportunities to follow long-term development strategies. It’s important to consider in your organisation how the workload is shared, and how you hold regular conversations about your colleagues’ career development.

 

It’s important to consider in your organisation how the workload is shared…

To further support your colleagues in the workplace, it could be a great idea to implement and provide performance management policies that outline and measure performance and potential, giving clear guidance on how that colleague could progress and providing them with tools to encourage hard skills such as strategic thinking to give them increased opportunities for a pathway into senior management.

Recruitment & retention

In recruitment, I have observed that many CVs are immediately rejected by clients due to employment gaps, without any effort to understand the reasons behind them. Although we take steps in anonymising applications to support an ethical recruitment process, hiring managers often interpret gaps as a ‘red flag’ indicative of unemployment.

The core issue lies not in the career gaps, but in the mentality, education, and intuition of those reviewing CVs, which need to change. Most of the time, disproportionately it is the women who will take a step back to ensure that their children are well cared for, and then returning to work can be a complete shock to the system. The impact on a woman’s career when getting back to work can start earlier than people think.

• The lack of available part-time work to fit around school hours prevented parents from returning to work.
• Geographical constraints due to commute time which could not easily be combined with childcare responsibilities.
• A study conducted by the Department for Work and Pensions cited that among the 19% of parents who had not returned to work after childbirth, 52% said this was because they could not find a job which paid enough to cover childcare costs and 45% said that they could not find suitable childcare.

It is also crucial to highlight that women will lack access to learning, continued career development and networking outside of working hours, and are last to be chosen to work on a larger or more in-depth project. This sets a precedent whereby women are discounted from celebrations, accolades, awards and opportunities to progress.

If this pattern continues, it will lead to demotivation and decreased morale within the sector, resulting in high turnover rates,
stagnation in the diversity of leadership and boards, and a persistent gender pay gap.

How can I support women within my organisation?

Firstly, and this may seem very simple, but make sure you conduct a survey for your colleagues regularly. Foster a collaborative conversation where women’s voices feel heard. Open questions such as “What can we do better to support you?”, “What changes can we make within the organisation that would make you feel more comfortable?” are ideal in a survey because it allows your colleagues to provide more details as to the change they would like to see happen.

An organisation I surveyed said that they are lucky enough to have colleagues send them emails to say that they feel more supported in comparison to their
family and friends’ roles – receiving feedback like this from your female employees means that you are doing something right in supporting them.

It is valuable to determine diversity and inclusion goals within your team as the two are deal-breakers when recruiting new talent.

Gender-inclusive policies are a great way to set your organisations’ goals to improve your support of all colleagues and putting them in place and reflecting on where the organisation stands on a regular basis is a great way to hold account. It is valuable to determine diversity and inclusion goals within your team as the two are deal-breakers when recruiting new talent.

Employee-led support groups for shared identity are voluntary groups created by and for employees who share a common background, like women in an organisation. These support groups give women an opportunity to create mentorship and collaborative opportunities while supporting each other throughout their career, and contributes to achieving diversity and inclusion goals, which can lead to a stronger and more successful organisation overall.