Post-war decades
Part-time work for mothers (generally of older children) became increasingly common, especially in factories, hospitals and local authorities. Women have always worked outside the home, especially working class women. …
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1962
Steve (Dame Stephanie) Shirley designed her software company Freelance Programmers (later, the FI Group) to offer meaningful home based jobs to skilled women with children. Dame Stephanie’s own website…
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1967
The first example of flexible working hours, designed to reduce absenteeism and lateness at Munich-based aerospace company Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB). Traffic congestion was creating problems for MBB. Management consultant Christel…
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1970
Equal Pay Act, implemented December 1975
The Equal Pay Act prohibited any less favourable treatment between men and women in terms of pay and conditions of employment. A five year phase-in was agreed to give…
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1972
In the US, New Ways to Work was founded in California by three mothers, who invented jobsharing and promoted other types of flexible working. NWW was set up in…
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1973
Last formal marriage bar lifted by the Foreign Office. But women were still routinely sacked for being pregnant, well into the 1970s. Most marriage bars had been lifted…
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1975
The Employment Protection Act introduced a limited right to maternity leave and pay; and a right to return to work after having a baby. Eligible women were entitled to…
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1975
Indirect sex discrimination
The Sex Discrimination Act protected workers on grounds of sex or marital status. The SDA identified two types of discrimination – direct and indirect. “In relation to the workplace…
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1975
Equal Opportunities Commission was set up with statutory powers to tackle sex discrimination. Its remit was to help enforce the Sex Discrimination Act, the Equal Pay Act and other…
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1976
Established the principle of equal treatment for men and women in access to jobs, training and working conditions.
1977–1979
An informal network of women in Sheffield met regularly from 1977 as the Jobshare Group. The first paid worker of the Jobshare Project was appointed in 1979. The women…
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1980
A group of working mothers in Clapham, south London, began to meet, share ideas and offer advice to others. “It started with a kernel of about four people. The…
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1982
A guide to finding childcare and requesting part-time or flexible hours, written and published by the Clapham Working Mothers Group. Produced and sent out by the volunteer members of…
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1982
The Job Share Project in Sheffield, and Hackney Job-share, became New Ways to Work to research and promote flexible working for all. New Ways to Work merged with Parents…
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1983
Short-lived scheme, introduced by the Conservative government, to incentivise employers to create more jobs, and reduce the numbers claiming unemployment benefit, by splitting existing roles. This government initiative caused…
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1985
Many working mothers groups had been set up across the UK by now. The Clapham Working Mothers group formalised as a national charity, the Working Mothers Association. Lucy Daniels…
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1988
Employer milestone
The first jobsharing agency, and the first corporate guides to jobsharing for employees. The CBI warned of an aging workforce and a smaller pool of new employees – attracting…
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1989
Published by the Working Mothers Association, covering the business case (“Employers and childcare – what’s the connection?”), maternity leave, flexible working, childcare options, and European comparisons. The guide was…
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1990
Returning to work for married women became financially much more worthwhile. The introduction of independent taxation reversed a principle that had underpinned the tax system for almost two hundred…
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1990
The Department of Employment and BBC radio Woman’s Hour teamed up on a high-profile campaign to encourage women with family commitments back into paid work. I’d love to hear…
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1990
Employer milestone
Oxfordshire County Council won Employer of the Year title in the first best practice awards, organised by the Working Mothers Association. Founder Director Lucy Daniels remembers, “Everybody loves an award…
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1991
Employer campaign for gender equality, set up by Business in the Community and supported by Prime Minister John Major. Chaired by Elspeth Howe, the campaign’s aim was to remove,…
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1993
Maximum 48-hour working week. Gave employees the right to rest periods and a minimum amount of paid holiday
1995
The Committee called for the Employment Department to encourage employers to offer more flexible working, as a normal part of the terms they offer to staff. The committee took…
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1996
Parents At Work campaign, challenging long working hours. At the time, UK workers worked the longest hours in Europe. Go Home On Time Day was an early attempt to…
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1998
Launched by the New Labour government, sustained investment in childcare infrastructure led to a rapid expansion of childcare places. An additional £470 million was committed to expand and improve…
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1998
Founded by the writer Shirley Conran, to improve working conditions for professional women and to advocate for flexible work. Mothers in Management evolved into an annual conference (first held…
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1999
The 1997 EU Part-time Workers Directive had set out that part time employees cannot be treated less favourably than full time employees. The Employment Relations Act 1999 provided equal…
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1999
Employer milestone
The first employer to introduce a formal flexible working policy. All employees had the right to apply for flexible working; crucially, with no need to show a business benefit.…
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2000
This ambitious government campaign targeted employers to promote the benefits of flexible working for all employees. The campaign was not specifically aimed at parents or carers, although current and…
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2000
Worklife Balance Campaign
Business alliance of 22 companies to promote flexible working practices, established at the request of the Prime Minister Tony Blair and chaired by Peter Ellwood of Lloyds TSB. The…
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2000
Worklife Balance Campaign
Set up to advise what should be done to promote awareness and take-up of “sensible” practices that help employees to balance their work and the rest of their lives.…
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2000
Worklife Balance Campaign
Established by the Department of Trade and Industry (Dti). £1.5m across two years, to provide support and consultancy to employers. Funding was also provided for a new accreditation, to…
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2000
Worklife Balance Campaign
This first, baseline, survey established employer and employee attitudes and experience. Further surveys followed until the final employer survey in 2013. “The then Department for Education and Employment (later…
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2001
Appointed by Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt MP, the Taskforce’s proposals became the basis of the Right to Request Flexible Working. Flexible working had been the single biggest…
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2002
Employer milestone
BP created an internal website that included a personal work designer tool. Citigroup introduced manager guidance, no longer requiring the employee to provide a reason for wishing to work…
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2003
The Employment Act 2002 introduced the right to request flexible working for parents of children under 6 and disabled children under 18. It also introduced two weeks paid paternity…
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2006
After much work led by Carers UK, the Work and Families Act 2006 and Flexible Working (Eligibility, Complaints and Remedies) (Amendment) Regulations 2006 extended the Right to Request flexible…
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2009
Parents of children under the age of 17 gained the right to request, as promised by the government in 2007 and recommended by the Walsh Review in 2008. On…
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2009
“Working Better” report called for the right to request flexible working for all employees; a formal right to request a return to full time work; and to remove the…
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2010
The Equality Act 2010 consolidated and strengthened equality legislation. Its provisions were implemented at various points over the following years. In 2017, what was then world-leading legislation required organisations…
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2010
Repealed before coming into force
The Coalition Government intended to extend the Right to Request to parents of children under the age of 18; and committed to its future extension to all employees. Flexible…
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2011
Government consulted on its intention to extend the Right to Request to all employees, and to replace statutory process with a requirement that employers give “reasonable” consideration to requests.…
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2011
Limited rights for new fathers
Additional Paternity Leave provided very limited additional rights to a very few new fathers. Additional Paternity Leave Regulations 2010, implemented by the Gordon Brown government in April 2010 remained…
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2014
Children and Families Act 2014
The Right to Request flexible working was extended to all employees with 26 weeks continuous service at the time of the request. The extension was delivered by the Coalition…
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2015
More flexible rights for new fathers
SPL – Shared Parental Leave – (introduced in the Children and Families Act 2014) aimed to increase the numbers of fathers able to take leave after childbirth. Less complex…
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2016
The Women and Equalities Committee recommended that all jobs should be available to work flexibly unless the employer can demonstrate why not; and that the government should encourage flexibility…
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2017
Taylor Review encourages employers to think earlier in the recruitment process about flexible working. Good Work, the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices, was led by Matthew Taylor, at…
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2017
Theresa May as PM challenges businesses to improve workplace equality by advertising all jobs as flexible from day one. Her speech on 28 October 2017 about closing the gender…
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2018
In response to the Taylor report and the PM’s challenge to business, the government’s Good Work Plan included a new Flexible Working Taskforce, jointly led by the Business Department…
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2019
Bill not introduced during the Parliament
The Boris Johnson government proposed an Employment Bill to include a commitment to make flexible working the default, subject to consultation, unless there were good business reasons preventing it. …
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2020-2021
Lockdowns necessitate widespread adoption of working from home.
2021
The Boris Johnson government consulted on making the right to request flexible working a day one right. The response to the consultation also included the intention to introduce a…
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2024
Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023
Backbench Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi used her success in the Private Members’ Bill ballot to propose changes to the law, via the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill 2022. With…
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2025
In a change introduced by the Keir Starmer government, employment tribunals will be able to consider whether it was reasonable for an employer to decide to reject a request.…
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2025
In response to the rapid growth in remote and hybrid working, The Select Committee on Home-Based Working in the UK was appointed by the House of Lords “to consider…
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