Cerys Furlong is chief executive of Chwarae Teg, (Welsh for ‘Fair Play’) which, since 1992, has been working to help ensure women in Wales can enter the workplace, develop their skills and build rewarding careers. They produce and commission cutting edge research, as well as managing and delivering projects that serve women, employers and educators throughout Wales. Prior to this, Cerys has worked in roles at the Learning and Work Institute, the Open University and the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, as well as having served as a Councillor for Cardiff County Council for five and half years.
“…Women make up half of the population, but there is nowhere near 50/50 representation for women in any of our legislatures…”
Professional and political career
I joined Chwarae Teg as chief executive in February 2017 from Learning and Work Institute where I was Director for Wales. I worked for over ten years in the education and skills sectors, and remain a Governor of ACT Training, Fitzalan High School and Adult Learning Wales.
Alongside my career, I was a Labour County Councillor in Cardiff for six years, and spent a number of years working for Assembly Members and Members of Parliament in both Wales and England. I am a trustee and vice chair of the Bevan Foundation, a think tank that works for social justice in Wales, and a member of the Board of Trustees of Chapter Arts Centre. Outside of work, with my business partners I have set up a number of successful businesses and run a small group of pubs and restaurants in Cardiff.
Throughout all this varied experience, representing women, supporting women and championing women has been at my core. Whether that is in encouraging and promoting women in my businesses, researching the impact of education and training on women, arguing for better representation of women in local government, or simply breaking down barriers of perception by being a young working mother and Councillor. The opportunity to bring all that passion and experience together in the role as Chief Executive of Chwarae Teg was too good to miss.
My role at Chwarae Teg
As chief executive I am responsible for the strategic direction of the organisation. My work focuses on ensuring the organisation is led well, to enable staff to deliver our business and charitable objectives. That means being creative and ambitious about what we can deliver and what we can change, being a passionate advocate for women and business in Wales and looking for every opportunity to make a positive impact on individuals’ lives and the Welsh economy.
Challenges and opportunities for women in Wales
In my opinion, too many women in Wales are still held back, unable to meet their ambitions and potential whether by lack of confidence of access to skills, by barriers perceived or real in the workplace and across Welsh society.
These challenges manifest themselves in different ways; the gender pay gap which means women are still paid less on average than men for equal work; lack of affordable childcare which means that many women who want to work are unable because the burden of care more often than not falls on them; persistent stereotypes about what women and men should do. For example, in work we still see doctors as men and nurses as women, we see construction and engineering as the domain of men and caring and nurturing professions as for women.
However, there are many opportunities. Feminism is once again a topic out in the open, we need to harness this popular wave to really make a difference for the long term. It’s not enough to wear a slogan t shirt, we need to know what the structural or cultural barriers to full gender equality are and go about taking them down. In Wales, we have a Government committed to equality, and most political parties in Wales will argue that they wish to see more women participating in public life, in more diverse careers and so on.
However, too often we will be the end and not the means. At Chwarae Teg, we are committed to demonstrating the steps that need to be taken to achieve gender equality and holding those with power and influence to account to deliver.
Improving Wales’ productivity by harnessing the under-utilised workforce of women
We receive funding from a diverse range of source, from Welsh Government and the EU (via the European Social Fund), but also from charitable trusts and foundations, from businesses we provide services to, through contributions of our supporters, and via sponsorship for some of our work. This diversity of funding enables us to have a strong independent voice in Wales, identifying the things that really make a difference to enable women to achieve and prosper.
For example, our Agile Nation 2 project is working with almost 3,000 women in Wales to raise their earnings, improve their career prospects and give them confidence to achieve their ambitions in work and life. But we are also working now with 500 SMEs, helping them to better support their employees, ensuring they are the most productive and forward thinking employers they can be.
Through this project and many others, we aim to improve Wales’ productivity by harnessing the under-utilised workforce of women, either unable to access work or unable to work to their full potential.
Gender balance in Welsh politics
There is a bit of a mixed picture around gender balance in politics in Wales. The National Assembly for Wales is often held up as an example of an institution with good gender balance. In the current Assembly, just over 40% of AMs are women. However, this has fallen from over 50% when the Assembly was first created.
At other levels – such as local council and MPs – Wales is not performing so well. Following the General Election in 2015 just nine out of Wales’ 40 MPs were women. And the local government elections in 2012 resulted in just 27% of local councillors in Wales being women. Our recent joint analysis with ERS Cymru of council candidates shows that just 30% are women and a third of all council wards in Wales are guaranteed to have male councillors, so we are not expecting any real improvement in women’s representation in local government following this week’s elections.
A third (33 per cent) of all council wards across Wales have no female candidates at all. https://t.co/Fv2tsifDss pic.twitter.com/HzQExSxTaD
— Chwarae Teg (@chwaraeteg) April 28, 2017
Why it’s so important for Welsh women to make sure they use their vote
It’s absolutely crucial that women in Wales have a strong voice in politics because the decisions taken by local Councils, by the Welsh Assembly and by Parliament in Westminster have a great impact on the lives of women; whether that is on their income through policy on tax or welfare; on their access to education and skills (and that for their children); on the support they have for child or elderly care; on the laws of the land that ensure men and women are treated equally and on just about every aspect of life.
Women make up half of the population, but there is nowhere near 50/50 representation for women in any of our legislatures. This means it is even more important that organisations like Chwarae Teg and women individually speak out and speak up about the issues that are important to women. Using our vote as women is a fundamental but hard fought right. We should never forget that other women died so that we may vote, so that we might have the same opportunity to shape the decisions that are made on our behalf. In many countries across the world, women still do not have that right.
Key issues in the Welsh economy
Wales is a small economy, still dominated by public services and small or micro businesses. However, sometimes small is powerful, as we have a great opportunity in Wales to be more progressive, making significant changes to the way we do business in a way that is more difficult in larger economies or bigger countries. We do many things well, but we can always do more.
We need to think about what our priorities are when it comes to developing economic strategy. As a small economy, we should not simply sign up to the same mainstream economic strategies of most western liberal economies. A future Welsh economy built on the traditional model of attracting inward investment from large multinationals, or focus on the same ‘priority sectors’ (like advance manufacturing, construction, finance and professional services) is not sustainable.
We must continue to welcome employers in these sectors of course, and develop the skills and expertise to attract them, but we also need strategies to support our wider foundation economy, the jobs of caring, local production and services for example are not going away. We should embrace these, ensuring they are as high quality and competitive as possible.
#Womenspire17 winner Woman in the Rural Economy will show the challenges for women in rural communities & overcoming https://t.co/uraUeIIEDu pic.twitter.com/XXCsZDxL4T
— Chwarae Teg (@chwaraeteg) April 22, 2017
Coming up for Chwarae Teg leading up to the election and beyond
As a relatively new chief executive, my focus for Chwarae Teg now is to continue to deliver the high-quality services we do for women and employers in Wales, and to do more to demonstrate the impact of this work, communicating examples of what works to enable more women to prosper. We continue to work across the political spectrum to influence decision makers of the importance of enabling and empowering women, and showing them what a positive impact this can have not just on the lives of women, but also on our wider economy and society in Wales.
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