National Inclusion Week 2025: Now is the Time
Founded in 2013 by Inclusive Employers, National Inclusion Week (NIW) takes place every September to celebrate inclusion and promote the building of inclusive workplaces. This year’s theme, ‘Now is the Time’, points to the importance of striving for inclusion for all marginalised communities in the workplace, and the urgency and need to push forward in the context of the recent backlash against DEI.
We at LGBT Great see NIW as an opportunity for our global community to come together to reflect on the challenges and barriers to inclusion LGBTQ+ people face at work, and the opportunities and changes organisations can embrace to promote feelings of belonging and inclusivity for all throughout their workplaces. In the hostile climate we find ourselves in, we at LGBT Great are here to support you in navigating the DEI backlash, helping you to continue to embrace inclusion in your organisations. For practical, high-level advice on remaining resilient and inclusive in the face of political and societal headwinds, click here.
LGBTQ+ women in the workplace
This year, as the UK was awarded its lowest ranking for workplace gender equality in a decade, we turn the spotlight onto LGBTQ+ women and their experiences at work.
LGBTQ+ women encounter distinct challenges and barriers to inclusion at work, impacted by their positionality as both women and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Professor of business Julie Gedro has referred to the specific challenges that LGBTQ+ women face as the ‘double bind’, underscoring how the dual identity of being LGBTQ+ and being a woman can lead to increased experiences of discrimination. This is exacerbated for those LGBTQ+ women who occupy further marginalised identities, as race, class, age and disability present further potential for prejudice and discrimination.
The unique challenges that LGBTQ+ women face in the workplace contributes to their increased invisibility at all organisational levels, highlighting the importance of promoting inclusive practices which remove such barriers.
A peak into the past
The 1970s are often viewed as a watershed moment in queer history. With the advent of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) in Britain in 1970, the decade has typically been associated with the political galvanising of the LGBTQ+ community, where a new emphasis was placed on being visible and ‘out and proud’. As lesbians and gay men began to come out and declare their sexual identities publicly, the GLF has since been credited with dragging ‘homosexuality out of the closet, onto the street.
Whilst individuals may have embraced visibility in political and social realms, the workplace remained an arena in which many continued to keep their sexual identities under wraps. With no workplace protections for LGBTQ+ people, being out at work posed very real risks of discrimination, harassment, and in some instances, unfair dismissal. Consequently, many LGBTQ+ people continued to conceal their identities in work settings, whilst being openly queer in others.
This continued throughout the last decades of the twentieth century, where a sustained absence of legal protections saw little improvement in LGBTQ+ rights in the workplace. Over a decade after the inception of the GLF, The Lesbian Employment Rights Group found that 151 out of 171 women they questioned in London, had experienced some form of anti-lesbianism at work. In the early 1990s, scholar Gill Valentine found that as a result of witnessing or experiencing homophobia at work, many women chose to mask their lesbian identities in the workplace. She argued that whilst this maintained a neutral front, allowing women to avoid homophobic incidences, it also led to feelings of isolation, invisibility and an inability to form authentic friendships with workmates.
Following various legal proceedings, and the campaigning efforts of LGBTQ+ individuals and organisations, workplace protections for LGBTQ+ people were introduced in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999, and the Employment Equality (Sexual orientation) Regulations 2003, saw harassment and discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation prohibited under law.
Where we are today
In spite of the workplace protections implemented over two decades ago, heteronormativity persists, and LGBTQ+ women continue to face barriers to inclusion at work. As our workplaces are a reflection of societal norms, they consequently reproduce the inequalities that exist in the wider world; legislation alone, after all, cannot eradicate the homophobia and misogyny that exist at large.
Despite the advancement of DEI in recent years, and the consequent fostering of inclusive workplaces where many individuals feel able to bring their whole selves to work, the lacking visibility and representation of LGBTQ+ women in many workplaces underscores that there is still work to be done.
‘If I can’t see it, I don’t feel like I can be it’
Last year, we asked the attendees of our ‘Levelling the Field: Empowering LGBTQ+ Women in the Workplace’ event what word best described the current representation of LGBTQ+ women in their workplaces; underrepresented, invisible and hidden emerged as the most commonly cited words. Likewise, 75% of attendees felt that LGBTQ+ women leaders were not very visible or well represented in their organisations. Alongside systemic barriers and social norms, a lack of visible role models and representation of LGBTQ+ women at work were raised as significant obstacles to career progression for LGBTQ+ women.
LGBT Great’s 2023 research report ‘Seeing is Believing’ highlighted the power of LGBTQ+ role models and the significant impact visibility in the workplace has on LGBTQ+ employees. Noting improvement in motivation, confidence, and feelings of affirmation inspired by visible role models, we found that LGBTQ+ talent seek visible role models, recognising the important role they play in fostering inclusion in the workplace. Indeed, 58% of LGBTQ+ women surveyed for this study felt that it is important to have visible role models at senior levels, and 69% felt is important to have visible role models in their peer group. Whilst LGBTQ+ women desire visible role models, it is clear that their representation in the workplace is lacking.
Women of Impact 2025
How do we go about tackling the lack of visibility of LGBTQ+ women in the workplace? We asked the attendees of our Levelling the Field event what powerful actions could empower LGBTQ+ women in the workplace. The responses were loud and clear:
- Celebrate and champion LGBTQ+ women
- Increase the representation of LGBTQ+ women at all organisational levels
- Spotlight trailblazing role models who are cultivating inclusive workplaces
With this in mind, we have launched our Women of Impact 2025 programme to celebrate and spotlight the achievements and stories of LGBTQ+ women in the workplace. This campaign will feature:
- Our Women of Impact list highlighting the LGBTQ+ women who are making meaningful difference in their workplaces
- An editorial series comprising interviews focussing on the personal stories and achievements of leading LGBTQ+ women
- An insights report detailing the challenges LGBTQ+ women face in the workplace and pragmatic measures that can be taken to overcome them
With the Women of Impact initiative, we aim to amplify and recognise the leadership, advocacy, and authenticity of LGBTQ+ women whose contributions have shaped a more inclusive world.
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Beth Charlton (she/her) is a Research Assistant at LGBT Great and a Doctoral Candidate at UCL