1 Contents Acknowledgement .................................................................................................................................. 4 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 5 2. Literature Review ............................................................................................................................ 7 2.1. Diversity within Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups ........................................ 7 2.2. Experiences of BAME women in (self)employment ............................................................. 11 2.2.1. In employment .............................................................................................................. 11 2.2.2. In self-employment ....................................................................................................... 13 2.2.3. Qualifications and promotion opportunities ................................................................ 15 2.3. Barriers to BAME women in employment ............................................................................ 17 2.3.1. Gender and Ethnicity Pay Gap ...................................................................................... 18 2.3.2. Bias, discrimination and racism .................................................................................... 19 2.3.3. Poverty and lack of resources ....................................................................................... 25 2.3.4. Lack of language proficiency and qualifications ........................................................... 27 2.3.5. Confidence, lack of role models .................................................................................... 28 2.4. Recommendations from the literature ................................................................................. 29 2.5. Policy Framework .................................................................................................................. 31 2.6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 32 3. Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 34 4. BAME women’s employment in Wales ......................................................................................... 36 4.1. Population dynamics ............................................................................................................. 36 4.2. Economic activity by ethnicity and gender ........................................................................... 39 4.2.1. Employment rate by ethnicity....................................................................................... 39 4.2.2. Unemployment rate by ethnicity .................................................................................. 40 4.2.3. Economic inactivity rates by ethnicity .......................................................................... 42 4.2.4. Employee jobs and Self-employment by gender and ethnicity .................................... 44 4.3. Economic activity by religion and gender ............................................................................. 46 4.3.1. Employee jobs and Self-employment by gender and religion ...................................... 47 4.4. Industry and Occupation by ethnicity, religion and gender ................................................. 48 4.4.1. Industry by ethnic group and sex .................................................................................. 48 4.4.2. Industry by religion and gender .................................................................................... 49 4.4.3. Occupation by ethnic group by sex by age ................................................................... 51 4.4.4. Occupation by religion by sex by age ............................................................................ 56 1 4.5. Poverty by ethnicity .............................................................................................................. 56 4.6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 58 5. Barriers experienced by BAME Women in the Welsh Economy ................................................... 60 5.1. Factors compounding the barriers to BAME women ........................................................... 61 5.1.1. Ethnicity and religion .................................................................................................... 61 5.1.2. Age ................................................................................................................................ 61 5.1.3. Nationality and immigration status .............................................................................. 62 5.1.4. Geographical differences .............................................................................................. 63 5.1.5. Educational background and social capital ................................................................... 63 5.2. Bias and discrimination ......................................................................................................... 64 5.2.1. Entry to work ................................................................................................................. 67 5.2.2. Retaining work and career progression ........................................................................ 68 5.2.3. Exploitation ................................................................................................................... 69 5.2.4. Strategies to overcome discrimination ......................................................................... 71 5.3. Lack of language proficiency, professional qualification and experience; difficulty in accessing training and under-utilisation of skills in the labour market ............................................ 74 5.3.1. Language proficiency .................................................................................................... 74 5.3.2. Access to training and employment support programmes .......................................... 77 5.3.3. Access to support to self-employment ......................................................................... 78 5.3.4. Underutilisation of skills and difficulty in accessing skill recognition ........................... 80 5.4. Limited recourses and access to social networks ................................................................. 84 5.5. Cultural barriers .................................................................................................................... 87 5.6. Lack of confidence and role models ..................................................................................... 88 5.6.1. Lack of confidence ........................................................................................................ 88 5.6.2. Lack of role models and underrepresentation of BAME women ................................. 89 5.7. Gaps in the policies and their implementation ..................................................................... 91 6. The changes BAME women want to see ....................................................................................... 93 6.1. Tackling bias, discrimination and racism .............................................................................. 93 6.2. Improving access to training and employment support programmes ................................. 97 6.2.1. Improving provision of language courses ..................................................................... 97 6.2.2. Improving access to training ......................................................................................... 99 6.2.3. Skills conversion and recognition ................................................................................ 101 6.2.4. Access to self-employment ......................................................................................... 102 6.3. Supporting BAME women ................................................................................................... 103 2 6.3.1. Networks ..................................................................................................................... 104 6.3.2. Mentoring ................................................................................................................... 109 6.4. Representation of BAME Women and role models ............................................................ 110 6.5. Developing and improving communication ........................................................................ 111 6.6. Promoting diversity and improving policy frameworks ...................................................... 113 7. Conclusion and recommendations ............................................................................................. 116 Recommendations from the research: ....................................................................................... 117 Appendix 1 .......................................................................................................................................... 120 Chapter 2 ......................................................................................................................................... 120 The McGregor-Smith review - Call for action to business