News / Women's Work Lab
Award-winning social enterprise on the need to get more women into work
An award-winning all-female social enterprise has urged the incoming government to step up and create a strategy to remedy a growing level of economic inactivity among women “beyond the sound bites”.
Women’s Work Lab has urged the incoming government to create a strategy to remedy a growing level of economic inactivity among women
Women’s Work Lab expressed concern over the staggering levels of economic inactivity among working-age adults that contributes to mass scale skill shortage and economic damage amounts to billions.
The organisation is referring to the recent Office for National Statistics indicating 22.3 per cent of adults aged 16 to 64 are not economically active (meaning the percentage of people who are not in employment and have not been actively seeking work within the last four weeks).
This the highest level of economic disengagement for the last nine years.
Of this group of economically inactive members of the society, women represent a huge proportion as a result of myriad of factors which are often beyond their control, said Women’s Work Lab.
Camilla Rigby is the co-founder of Women’s Work Lab – photo: Camilla Rigby
Speaking to Bristol24/7, Camilla Rigby, co-founder of Women’s Work Lab, Rigby said that the reasons for the economic inactivity among working-age adults, especially women, are complex and multi-faceted.
But she urged the politicians to come up with a coherent and intersectional strategy to address the situation, reiterating the need for a strong political will from the next government to tackle the issue “head on”.
“By the end of 2024, we would’ve supported 500 unemployed mums back to work – many of whom are single parents and classified as economically inactive,” said Rigby.
“People’s reasons for not working are complex and nuanced and in our experience, rarely down to a lack of will or laziness.”
Rigby went on: “For the women we support in Bristol for example, a third identify as a survivor of domestic abuse, which can have a catastrophic effect on someone’s confidence and sometimes financial position.
“We also support many mums who have children with special educational needs – people know about the on-going SEND crisis in the city but many will consider how this affects the caregivers and their ability to work.
“Another barrier to working that we see time and again is a lack of affordable childcare. The entire sector is on its knees after so many years of under-funding and the knock-on effect is that many of the mums we support simply cannot afford to work.
“Recent research from Pregnant then Screwed states that for single parents with a child under five years old, almost two-thirds (66.5 per cent) accrue debt to pay for childcare, including 50 per cent who borrow money.
“This should not be happening in a modern economy.”
“We’d like a new government to look at economic inactivity as the intersectional problem that it is – unpicking the causal effects and then working with specialists to help solve them,” said Camilla Rigby (third from top left), co-founder of Women’s Work Lab
The all-female social enterprise believes that all mothers should be supported to achieve their potential and supports unemployed mums back into the workplace through training schemes to build confidence, ambition and employability skills.
As an organisation, they also raise awareness on impediments for women of working age not to be contributing to the economy such as caring for children with special needs, unsafe work environments and domestic abuse.
Rigby said: “We’d like a new government to look at economic inactivity as the intersectional problem that it is – unpicking the causal effects and then working with specialists to help solve them.
“I get that with big issues the default is to try and find a one-size fits all but as the numbers are showing, this doesn’t work.
“Our other request is for government departments to work together and for the long term.
“We’ve seen numerous ‘things’ come and go over the last four years and often a huge amount of duplication and inefficiency – pitting organisations against one another unnecessarily.”
Rigby and Rachel Mostyn founded Women’s Work Lab back in 2018 to help unemployed mums who are in receipt of benefits by rebuilding their confidence and helping them to find careers that work for them and their families.
Rigby concluded: “Often the only losers are people in the communities that we’re trying to support.
“A joined-up approach that recognises there are rarely quick wins but with a holistic approach that pulls together the different support needs an individual needs, many more people will find work that works for them and their families.”
All photos: Women’s Work Lab
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