Written by Lyn Brieseman on April 1, 2020.

 “would want to “smarten” its society by attempting to resolve the inequities that currently exist among humans…. We probably want to clean up our act before this happens – and we’ll be much happier if we do even if AI never appears.” (written in 2008!)[1]

The uneven impact is also seen in New Zealand. Recent analysis of the changing occupational mix in New Zealand[4] found that the New Zealand workscape changes are broadly similar to the US or Australia and that there has been pronounced growth and change in the mix of occupations within the 'community and personal services' occupation group and within 'clerical and administrative' occupations.

Recent analysis of our remuneration database[5] highlights that a key contributor to the overall gender pay gap is occupational and vertical segregation – i.e. where and at what level women are employed.   The McKinsey report identified that healthcare and accommodation stand out as sectors where women could make significant employment gains relative to men, so occupational segregation may not be such a hospital pass for women after all. However, our data also shows that in New Zealand, while women make up 85% of the healthcare workforce, they are clustered in roles at the lower end of the pay scales in this sector (see graph below).

So while females are currently employed in sectors where job growth is predicted, gender inequity will not reduce if women remain in the lower paid roles with the result that the ongoing growth in the healthcare sector could magnify the pay gap. Addressing inequity now remains as important as ever.

Technology is affecting both the nature and mix of jobs and also affecting how and where we work.  Organisations have been forced to consider totally different ways of working to deal with the automation and now digitisation/computerisation of many work functions. Many manufacturing and clerical roles have been completely re-framed.

Organisations also had to consider different ways of working as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. During the lockdown phases of the pandemic many people were required to work from home and widespread adoption of technology allowed many more of us to do so than would have been the case in the past. Working remotely, rather than having to travel to workplaces enabled employees to balance work and home responsibilities.  Lack of the “normal” childcare options, such as school or kindergarten, required parents to manage work and home responsibilities in a different way and required their employers to allow them to do so.

The lack of flexible working options is one of the contributing factors to the gender pay gap and employment inequity, because it means that many employees, particularly women who have traditionally been the carers, have had to make trade-offs between their career and their caring responsibilities. As a result of the pandemic, new flexible working practices, such as working remotely and the flexibility that allowed, became more prevalent and more accepted. Our Pulse surveys, run during and after the lockdown, found that 70% of employers fast tracked flexibility and remote working practices and 60% developed new people initiatives or ways of working. This development has the potential to contribute significantly to improving gender equity in the workplace as organisations normalise the practice and therefore the concept of flexible working.