Billy is learning [to] embrace equity

We have a parrot in our house. He is an African grey, called Billy and is getting to be 30 years old now. He has lived with me for 26 of those years. He’s likely to live for another 30 years, and might outlive me. Billy has a wonderful repertoire of phrases, words, whistles and noises. He also knows how to whistle the blues. He has acquired his ability to talk, laugh, whistle and so on through a combination of observation and repetition. Billy also has an uncanny ability to be contextually correct. So, for example, if I walk into the kitchen with a wine bottle, he will immediately make the sound of the screw cap coming off and the glug, glug of the wine being poured. If I open the front door, he will say ‘see you later’ or ‘bye Billy’. He calls the cats in every morning and afternoon for their food, and will tell Dylan the dog off, if he thinks Dylan is being a pest.

There are some things Billy struggles to say. For example, and thankfully, he can only manage ‘Alec’ rather than ‘Alexa, set the timer’. He is currently learning to say ‘what’s occurring’ and is almost there with that. He has a phenomenal memory too. When my youngest daughter comes to visit, he will say things that she once said, and in her voice too. She is now 40 years old. The most common word used when she is here, is ‘what’ - still said in that surly voice most teenagers have. After she has gone, we seldom hear it for more than a few days. Sometimes he will come out with something that he hasn’t said in a while, and I don’t know why. Last week he exclaimed ‘women, they’re a b****y nuisance’. Not sure where he’s heard that being said, or by whom, and of course, they’re not.

We witnessed and acknowledged this last Wednesday, on International Women’s Day. This year’s theme was Embrace Equity. In my own world, health care and the NHS, women make up 75% of all staff. The NHS is one of the largest employers of women in the world. Whilst there is an ambition to support women from all backgrounds to achieve their personal and professional ambitions, there is still plenty of inequity to be seen. In many NHS organisations, there remains a gender pay gap. This doesn’t mean that men get paid more for doing the same job as women. That would be an equal pay issue. Gender pay gap relates to the difference between the average pay of males and females in the same organisation.

Across the NHS, many people in the lowest paid jobs tend to be women and men are more highly represented in higher paid jobs. So, reducing the gender pay gap implies, therefore, that either we increase the proportion of men in lower paid roles or increase the proportion of women in higher paid and more senior roles. At my Trust, we are due to take a paper to the Board in April that looks at our gender pay gap position. I don’t know what the pay gap might look like for this year, but I am pleased that our Board, (the most senior roles in the organisation), has 10 women and 6 men. The most senior role of all, the Chief Executive, is held by a woman. And she is, without doubt, an outstanding leader.

It is not just pay where there are inequities. It’s true that, on average, women live longer than men, women also spend a significantly larger proportion of their lives in ill health when compared to men. It is also true that whilst women make up 51% of population, the health and care system they use has, historically at least, been designed by men for men. The consequence is that often we don’t know how men and women experience the same health condition, and perhaps even less about health problems that only affect women. Just consider how long it has taken mainstream medicine to recognise the health and wellbeing issues of women experiencing the menopause. Last August, the Department of Health and Social Care published its first Women’s Health Strategy for England. You can find it here. Judge for yourself as to whether you think we have made progress in addressing any of the issues.  

Personally, I think we have a way to go before we can be sure that women receive the same care as men for major health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, or chronic respiratory conditions. Likewise, I believe we also need to ensure this care is provided using gender-sensitive, equitable and evidence-based approaches. Then we might truly make a difference.

And last week I met some wonderful women who were doing just that. Making a difference. I was privileged to spend some time with colleagues working in the Sector 3 organisation. Sector 3 is a charity that provides infrastructure, support and networks for the voluntary, community and faith-based groups, social enterprises (VCFSE) and charitable organisations across Stockport. I was impressed with what they have done and continue to do, particularly in response to the pandemic and the cost of living crisis. One tangible outcome from our conversations was the agreement to work more collaboratively with each other in developing resilience, opportunity, and healthy communities. It is something we have already made a start on. So many thanks to Jo, Soraya, Nadia, Laura (and Kirit) for giving me your time and welcome. I just hope I wasn’t too much of a nuisance.

 

Ps – the BBC have started a 3 part series on the life and work of Frida Kahlo – you can play catch up here. She died a year before I was born. By any measure she was a remarkable women, and remains one of my favourite artists of all time.