HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MONTH
The month of March is International Women’s Month, which is a very important month to KIT — not only are we celebrating our birthday but we are celebrating a community of powerhouse women within KIT and worldwide.
We believe it is so important to celebrate this month as well as educate and advocate for gender equality. The fight towards gender equality and closing the pay gap is all of our responsibility as a society to advocate for and assist in. Let’s take a look at the statistics:
- In 2022, women earned 17% less than men on average.
- In 2019 women held only 28% of managerial positions globally – almost the same proportion as in 1995
So where does that leave the women in the hair industry? 83% of people working in hairdressing and barbering and 94% of people working in beauty are female.
2020 research done by Phorest Salon Software revealed that although 45% of women in the UK salon industry are university educated only 52% of women in our industry earn over £25K in comparison to 90% of men in the industry earning over that amount. Absurd right?
On top of being underpaid, like many women in other industries women in the salon industry are not supported enough and fall victim to impostors syndrome and lack of confidence. Phorest Salon Software’s research unveiled that women rated their confidence as a business person on average as 5 out of 10 — compared to men who averaged 8.2 out of 10.
Statistically, Women in all industries are unfortunately less likely to have access to social protection, this includes in workplace insurance such as pensions, unemployment benefits, or maternity protection.
How have things improved?
Women are empowering themselves through entrepreneurship, in 2021 women started 39.9% of businesses, and the percentage of women-owned startups has been growing and relatively consistent. Additionally, of the 56% of women who own an independent business, 33% started it from scratch. Talk about some self-made entrepreneurs!
Here are some badass women that are helping to improve the beauty industry for women and deserve a massive shout:
Maddi Cook — The pricing queen herself, Maddi is a hair and beauty business coach who uses her platform to share financial advice to business owners within our industry which has contributed £30M+ more profit for the hair + beauty industry.
Sharmadean Reid — Founder of The Stack World a global community of thousands of mission-driven women. With a drive for gender equity, she utilises community building to achieve that and The Stack World is just that by sharing the tools and building a peer circle.
The British Beauty Council — The British Beauty Council are on the movement of closing the gender gap in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) jobs by creating The Future Talent Programme supported by the Department for Education, The Careers & Enterprise Company and STEM Learning, to develop the first dedicated beauty-related resource for secondary schools, showcasing and demonstrating the enriching careers across the beauty and STEM sector.
March 2023
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MONTH
The month of March is International Women’s Month, which is a very important month to KIT — not only are we celebrating our birthday but we are celebrating a community of powerhouse women within KIT and worldwide.
We believe it is so important to celebrate this month as well as educate and advocate for gender equality. The fight towards gender equality and closing the pay gap is all of our responsibility as a society to advocate for and assist in. Let’s take a look at the statistics:
- In 2022, women earned 17% less than men on average.
- In 2019 women held only 28% of managerial positions globally – almost the same proportion as in 1995
So where does that leave the women in the hair industry? 83% of people working in hairdressing and barbering and 94% of people working in beauty are female.
2020 research done by Phorest Salon Software revealed that although 45% of women in the UK salon industry are university educated only 52% of women in our industry earn over £25K in comparison to 90% of men in the industry earning over that amount. Absurd right?
On top of being underpaid, like many women in other industries women in the salon industry are not supported enough and fall victim to impostors syndrome and lack of confidence. Phorest Salon Software’s research unveiled that women rated their confidence as a business person on average as 5 out of 10 — compared to men who averaged 8.2 out of 10.
Statistically, Women in all industries are unfortunately less likely to have access to social protection, this includes in workplace insurance such as pensions, unemployment benefits, or maternity protection.
How have things improved?
Women are empowering themselves through entrepreneurship, in 2021 women started 39.9% of businesses, and the percentage of women-owned startups has been growing and relatively consistent. Additionally, of the 56% of women who own an independent business, 33% started it from scratch. Talk about some self-made entrepreneurs!
Here are some badass women that are helping to improve the beauty industry for women and deserve a massive shout:
Maddi Cook — The pricing queen herself, Maddi is a hair and beauty business coach who uses her platform to share financial advice to business owners within our industry which has contributed £30M+ more profit for the hair + beauty industry.
Sharmadean Reid — Founder of The Stack World a global community of thousands of mission-driven women. With a drive for gender equity, she utilises community building to achieve that and The Stack World is just that by sharing the tools and building a peer circle.
The British Beauty Council — The British Beauty Council are on the movement of closing the gender gap in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) jobs by creating The Future Talent Programme supported by the Department for Education, The Careers & Enterprise Company and STEM Learning, to develop the first dedicated beauty-related resource for secondary schools, showcasing and demonstrating the enriching careers across the beauty and STEM sector.