How to realise more gender-balanced workplaces was the theme of the latest ASOSH Covid-19 webinar.

Hosted by ASOSH Vice President Louise Hosking, the panel explored the pandemic’s effect on women in OSH and ways to build back better.

Lockdown has exposed the gender divide and Anne Gardner-Aston, Group Health and Safety Director of Places for People, shared her experiences.

Overnight, she effectively had two more jobs – home-schooling and being a sandwich carer – and stress started affecting her physically.

“What I had to do was zone in on each of those jobs as individual areas and control what I could control and let some things go, like not worrying about the state of house,” she said.

So how can women be empowered to reach for the top, when figures show that only five per cent of FTSE 100 CEOs are female?

Kizzy Augustin, Partner at Russell Cooke LLP, said: “The gender gap doesn’t necessarily exist on entry but gets wider as you try to get up the ladder.”

Change needs to be led from the top. Kizzy said: “Unless we get over the stigma about alternative ways of working, we won’t be able to change culture or an organisation.

“Businesses also need to know there are benefits to having true gender diversity at senior level, such as improved decision making.”

The ‘new normal’ has shown flexible working in a positive way, she added.

Male allies have a part to play. Lorenzo Visentin, Group Head of Environment, Health and Safety Corporate Affairs at Arriva, explored masculine and feminine traits and how some of the latter – such as being helpful – can work against you.

Lorenzo said: “A good thing a male ally could say to a woman executive is don’t bring in a notebook to a meeting or taking notes will be an expectation.

“We need to use the wellbeing agenda to start breaking down masculine culture.”

Power, or soft, skills such as emotional intelligence are also key, said Busola Alofe, Registrar/CEO of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria.

“It’s very important to be able to understand how genders are similar and how they aren’t in each of the contexts we speak about,” she said. “Take time to understand the other person, how they perform and act and then figure out what style one needs to adapt into to suit the other person and/or the context