Glass ceiling still hard to break through

By GUY DRESSER
Updated:

 

CHERIE Booth, the Prime Minister’s wife, and Nicola Horlick, the high-flying City fund manager are frequently held up as examples of women who have got to the top in their chosen professions. But the reality is that they are more likely to be the exceptions rather than the rule as many women face an uphill battle with mainly male bosses.

According to a new report from the Equal Opportunities Commission, around 20% of women face financial loss or even dismissal as a result of a pregnancy. The discrimination means that many women’s career prospects are blighted and it is very hard for any with children to make it to the top. Only a radical overhaul of family-friendly policies will stop sex discrimination in the workplace and end help women get to the top in business, the report says.

Jenny Watson, deputy chairman of the EOC, said that although women now make up over half the workforce, it’s the men at the top who represent a problem: ‘Our decision makers remain overwhelmingly male. We can no longer assume that it’s only a matter of time before more women make it to the top. Without addressing women’s responsibilities at home as well as at work, we’ll continue to lose out on women’s talent – and ignoring the potential contribution that women can make will cost Britain dear in terms of productivity.

The report Sex and power: who runs Britain? 2005, says that a ‘total overhaul’ of family policies is essential if Britain is to stop losing out on women’s talent and the Equal Opportunities Commission says the Government and political parties must develop a national family strategy to replace the current piecemeal approach to childcare and family support.

The picture is changing in some parts of business and industry, Watson added: ‘There are signs that things are changing with more employers recognising the need to provide employment flexibility and judge staff by what they achieve, not on the hours that they work.’

Getting politicians to adopt family-friendly policies may be hard, however, not least because there are still relatively few female Members of Parliament. The UK comes 14th out of the EU member states for female representation in its national parliament. While 45% of Sweden’s parliament is made up of women, in the UK the figure is just 18% - at Cabinet level the problem is just as bad, as 52% of Sweden’s Cabinet members are female but here the figure stands at just 27%.

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