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Sex and Power

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For a while there in the 1980s, us women really thought we could have it all. Wearing our big-shouldered power suits, we strode back to work three minutes after giving birth, re-took our seats in our huge leather office chairs and carried on with our lives. But is that really what was happening? Are women actually enjoying sexual equality? Claire Bates reports.

inspiration: survey from the equality and human rights commission.

Here’s a sobering thought: It would take a snail only slightly longer to crawl the length of the Great Wall Of China than it would for there to be equal representation of women to men in Parliament.
And just for the record – how long do you think that would be? Ten years? Fifty years? One hundred?
Actually, it would take the snail 212 years and sexual equilibrium in the House 200. Not so much sobering, as astounding.

I was a child of the seventies and thought my mother had seen to all that in the Swinging Sixties. In my naivety, I believed my largely positive experiences as a woman in the workplace were normal.
But a new survey from the Equality and Human Rights Commission shows that the glass ceiling for women is well, more of a concrete one.
We hold just 11 per cent of the FTSE 100 directorships and only 19.3 per cent of the positions in Parliament. And what is even more interesting is the Commission’s latest report shows it will take 15 years longer for women to achieve equal status at senior levels in the workplace than it did at the time of its last survey – just a year ago. The finding is the biggest reversal in the march towards gender equality in the five years since it started compiling reports. So, things seem to be getting worse. But why?

Nicola Brewer the Commission’s chief executive told us that she believed there were still many “old-fashioned ways of working”. She explained: “Workplaces, forged in an era of ‘stay at home mums’ and ‘breadwinner dads,’ are putting too many barriers in the way – resulting in an avoidable loss of talent at the top."
We always speak of a glass ceiling – these figures reveal that in some cases it appears to be made of reinforced concrete.

“We need radical change to support those who are doing great work and help those who want to work better and release talent.”

And she warned that young women’s aspirations were in danger of being replaced by frustrations.

“Many of them are now excelling at school and are achieving great things in higher education. But they are keen to balance a family with a rewarding career.”

In order to redress the imbalance, the Commission has set up a new project called Working Better which aims to bring together various ideas about how work could be organised, people employed and business structured for Britain to meet the challenges of the 21st century – and at the same time improve equality and human rights. It includes finding and promoting innovative new ways of working, particularly more flexible hours. For carers, parents who want to work, disabled people who want meaningful careers, and older worker who wants to stay in the labour market for longer – this is a big issue of our time.

Working Better runs in partnership with Mumsnet and Dad Info – two of the biggest websites that promote parent power and has had a good response.
Earlier this year Sir Alan Sugar, entrepreneur and star of TV show The Apprentice, told the Daily Telegraph that he thought maternity leave was too generous and that employers now believe it is “risky” to give important jobs to women because they are barred from asking them if they plan to have children. And a spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses said that “career breaks” were “frowned upon in CVs”. But woman make up almost half of Britain’s workforce (there are 14.3 million working females, and 16.9 million men) and despite attempts by the government to make it easier for woman to return to their jobs the Commission says discrimination and stereotypes still exist in the workplace. And all this against a background where girls continually outperform boys at both school and university.
So it seems then, that snails are still winning the race girls!

The Commission
has likened women’s progress to a snail’s pace!:
9times a snail could crawl round the M25 in the 55 years it will take women to achieve equality in the senior judiciary.
73 years for equal numbers of women to become directors of FTSE 100 companies. In which time a snail could crawl from Land’s End to John O’Groats and halfway back again !
200 years it will take for women to be equally represented in parliament, and it would only take a snail slightly longer at 212 years to crawl the entire length of the Great Wall of China!

Resources
THE COMMISSION
For further information visit
www.equalityhumanrights.com

Mumsnet
For further information visit
www.mumsnet.com

Dad Info
For further information take a look at the website
www.dad.info

The post Sex and Power appeared first on Baby Hampshire.


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