October 11, 2024

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Employers Are Failing Women On Healthcare, U.K. Research Shows

Employers Are Failing Women On Healthcare, U.K. Research Shows

Employers are sabotaging their own productivity and competitiveness by failing to provide female workers with adequate care and support for certain health conditions, according to new research based on the experiences of more than 5,000 workers in the U.K.

The study, conducted by healthcare provider Benenden Health in collaboration with the Fawcett Society—a charity dedicated to promoting women’s rights—found that women in the U.K. miss an average of nine days of work each year due to health issues.

Of the female workers surveyed, more than two thirds—or 70%—said that they find it problematic dealing with their menstrual cycles at work. A similar proportion—62%—said that they face challenges related to pregnancy, and 64% said they have struggled with symptoms of the menopause while doing their job. Nearly two thirds of women said that they believe their health issues are not taken seriously.

“​​Research like this shows just how much work there is still to be done in even just beginning to understand how stark inequality is in the U.K. today, and in ways that can seem ‘invisible’,” said Jemima Olchawski, chief executive of the Fawcett Society. “The current system doesn’t work for anyone: women are being let down and the cost to business is enormous,” she added.

Extrapolating from the data, the researchers concluded that almost 150 million working days are lost each year on account of women workers being absent.

A Health Gap Laggard

More broadly and across all genders, recent research has shown that the U.K. is contending with a health recession, of sorts.

Last April, The Institute for Public Policy Research, a think tank, published a report which found that between 2015 and 2022, chronic physical conditions are estimated to have driven 700,000 people in the U.K. to leave employment, forgoing all their earned income. That report concluded that better health would improve economic prospects for all, but it also found that it could boost women’s earnings twice as much as men’s.

Indeed, separate research has found that the U.K. has the largest gender health gap in the G20 group of economies, and the twelfth largest globally with women, for example, receiving worse treatment for conditions like dementia. Women are also more likely to experience mental health problems than men, and generally less is known about conditions that only affect women, like common gynecological conditions that have the potential to dramatically undermine health and wellbeing in the workplace and beyond.

The Benenden Health and Fawcett Society research also found that four in ten, or 42%, of respondents said that they had heard derogatory comments about a female employee’s health in the workplace, often related to that employee taking time off work, being difficult to work with or not able to do their job properly.

And as a result of this particular finding, it’s perhaps unsurprising that some 42% of women questioned said that they were reluctant to discuss their health issues with a manager. That figure drops dramatically, however, when the manager is a woman.

“It is crucial that managers not only support their teams but understand that each individual will have their own specific needs and health concerns—and should be able to comfortably voice these experiences,” Rebecca Mian, head of human resources at Benenden Health, commented. “Understanding and adequately addressing women’s health issues in the workplace is not just good for the employees, it is integral to building stronger, more collaborative and successful businesses.”

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