Economic case for women's health support takes centre stage in open letter to UK government

In an open letter to UK employment minister Alison McGovern, 28 organisations including the CIPD and the Society of Occupational Medicine have pressed for more government action to help employers invest in supportive policies for women’s health and reproductive challenges. 

The letter says that better workplace support will not only benefit employees’ personal wellbeing, but also help deliver benefits for the UK economy and businesses – by keeping more people in productive work and contributing to positive business outcomes. 

It notes that many women drop out of the workforce or are held back from developing in their careers because they are managing health or reproductive issues such as menopause symptoms, fertility challenges and pregnancy or baby loss. 

There are still some gaps in the support organisations offer for these concerns. For example, according to the CIPD’s Health and wellbeing report 2023, only 37% of employers offer provision for pregnancy loss, 26% offer support for fertility issues and 18% support menstrual health challenges. 

Recommendations for UK Government action on women’s health support 

The letter makes three recommendations for the UK Government to act on: 

• Launching a review of women’s and reproductive health support in the workplace, to identify the economic opportunities for strengthening support, guidance and enforcement of current regulations. This should be followed by an action plan. 
• Launching a high-profile campaign to motivate and give confidence to employers to develop working environments that offer flexibility and occupational health support for women’s health issues across their working lives. 
• Widening access to occupational health services and other health provision for those in and out of work. It says this will support people to remain in, or return to, appropriate work in which they can manage their health.  

Helping to increase economic participation 

Tackling economic inactivity is a key government priority, and the letter adds that these actions would help increase the economic participation of women and progress towards reaching the UK Government’s 80% employment target.  

Encouraging and supporting employers to offer more workplace support for women’s health would also help reduce gender inequality. 

The open letter has been sent to the employment minister following an event the CIPD and Society of Occupational Medicine held in Parliament in March, which focused on how employers and the government can help women thrive at work.