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Experts and economists have raised the need for more women to be celebrated on British banknotes as only three women have appeared so far on Bank of England notes since 1970. Moreover, the low level of representation of women in banknotes reflects a deeper issue of gender equity women face across countries, races, sectors, and other industries.
Women in the workforce have been disproportionately affected despite not experiencing sharp job losses amid the pandemic facing greater mental health strain and disproportionate responsibilities for managing home and family as working from home became the norm in the last year.
Representation in Banknotes
Florence Nightingale, the Crimean War nurse, was the first woman to have feature on the £10 note valid between 1975 and 1992. The second personality was prison reformer Elizabeth Fry, who appeared on banknotes from 2002 to 2016. The most recent woman to feature on banknotes was famed author Jane Austen. However, men have featured on the £5, £20, and £50 notes.
Felicia Willow, CEO of the Fawcett Society, said while women made up 50 per cent of the population, when it comes to currency notes, their representation is just 25 per cent. She added that strong representation is needed for the public recognition of women’s achievements, which are best examples for the society.
Also Read: Women’s Day: 5 FTSE 100 Companies That Have Female Bosses
Pandemic impact on women’s career
According to data from the Living Wage Foundation, women in UK didn’t witness job losses as a majority of them work in essential sectors. Women are majorly employed in key sectors such as health care, schools, social care and supermarkets, with 4.8 million women employed in these sectors compared to 1.6 million in others.
However, women were more likely to earn less than the real living wage than their male counterparts. About 22 per cent of women earned below the real living wage vs 8 per cent of men in their schools. In supermarkets, 50 per cent of women earned below those levels compared to 41 per cent of men. The real living wage is calculated as minimum wage based on basic needs. It is about £9.50 per hour and more for those based in London.
According to a survey conducted by Natwest/Royal Bank of Scotland, about 71 per cent of women entrepreneurs, compared to 55 per cent of their male counterparts, reported to have found the pandemic stressful. The difference between genders was wider when asked about struggling with business responsibilities and their family life. Furthermore, working from home setups due to the pandemic put a disproportionate amount of workload on women in terms of childcare and home schooling, besides housework disparities continue to persist.
