Theresa May should be hoisting the flag for gender equality, not condoning the idea there are ‘boy jobs and girl jobs’, writes Megan Corton Scott

On the One Show this week, Theresa May stated there are ‘boy jobs and girl jobs’.

Any progressive worth their salt would scoff at this statement, and indeed it seems as though the last two decades of grassroots campaigns through to public policy discussion on the gendered division of labour have somewhat gone over May’s head.

There are countless articles on the subject of May’s ‘feminism’, but the fact remains that as the first female prime minister in a generation, she will be held up as role model for little girls around the country. Studies have shown that the influence of female leaders can raise ambition in young girls by a staggering factor. May is more than aware of this, championing the Women2Win scheme in parliament, a spell of being women and equalities minister and even within the same One Show interview talking about inspiring women into politics.

Which is why condoning the idea that there are ‘boy jobs’ and ‘girl jobs’ on national television seems like a very odd choice from a prime minister who lives and breathes ‘the message’.

What the Mays do in the privacy of their own home is their business, and frankly, the less I know about it the happier I will be. But as prime minister, May should be hoisting the flag for gender equality inside and outside the home at every possible opportunity. Not just because it is the right thing to do but because it makes economic sense.

At the end of 2016, McKinsey Global Institute found that improving gender parity in the workplace could add £150bn to our GDP by 2025. That is as much as government annual spending on defence, transport and education combined. Achieving full gender parity would add £600bn – a transformative figure. It is not as if the government is not aware of the gender imbalance in the workplace either – in early April, companies with 250 or more employees were told they would have to publish their gender pay gaps within the year. This move of unprecedented transparency has been applauded by cross-party advocates.

The science, technology, engineering and mathematics industries are notorious for being hostile spaces for women, and the United Kingdom has the lowest percentage of female engineers in Europe. However, even those with generous incentive schemes and flexible working hours fall behind. They say – and the research agrees – that the problem starts much earlier. Research released this year showed that much like learning a language, most girls interest in learning STEM subjects starts at age 11, and drops away at ages 16-17. Compare this to the Girlguiding research that shows 25 per cent of 11 to 16 year old girls do not speak up in class because they fear sexual harassment. Or to Accenture research, where 57 per cent of teachers admit to making stereotypes about girls and boys when it comes to STEM subjects – and we begin the uncover the roots of the problem.

A stereotyping of ‘girl jobs’ and ‘boy jobs’ in the public sphere is not the only issue – the balance of labour within the home is possibly even more important when it comes to achieving gender parity. When looking at ‘boy jobs’ and ‘girl jobs’ in the home – the ‘girl jobs’ vastly outweigh the boys, due to our traditional division of household labour: men would go to work and women would stay home and clean, cook and look after the kids. Women still do most of this work, but they also now fit in a career- there is a reason this household work is called the second shift. To fully empower women in the workplace, the division of labour at home must also be equal – yet we seem even further away from achieving this, especially in light of comments like the prime minister’s.

The bottom line remains – gender equality in the house benefits gender equality in the workplace, which benefits everyone. It should not be this girl’s job to explain to the prime minister that there are no ‘girl jobs’.

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Megan Corton Scott is vice-chair and women’s officer for London Young Labour. She tweets @mcortonscott

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