Equality and Human Rights Commission finds advance towards equality is tortuously slow and subject to frequent reverses
More than 5,400 women are missing from Britain's 26,000 most powerful posts, according to a new report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
The Sex & Power 2011 report, published on Wednesday, measures the number of women in positions of power and influence across 27 occupational categories in both the public and private sectors.
It found that advancement towards equality was not just "tortuously slow" but it "regularly stalls or even reverses" in some sectors. "British women are better educated than ever before. They are attending university in ever increasing numbers and achieve better degree results than men. Intelligent, competent women are flooding the junior ranks of law firms, accountancies and medical practices," said Kay Carberry, commissioner at the EHRC.
"These women step on the career ladder and work hard, with a position at the top firmly in sight. In their 20s they level peg with men and we would expect them to enter the management ranks at the same rate as men. However, several years down the track a different picture emerges ? one where many have disappeared from the paid workforce or remain trapped in the 'marzipan layer' below senior management, leaving the higher ranks to be dominated by men."
The report found that there were more women in top posts in 17 of the 27 categories examined compared to 2007-2008, including more members of the senior judiciary, senior police officers, and trade union general secretaries.
The increases, however, were small: for senior ranks of the armed forces, for example, three more women were employed, bringing the percentage of women in top ranks to just 1%. There were, however, significant drops in women's participation in 10 sectors, including members of the cabinet, local authority council leaders, public appointments, editors of national newspapers, chairs of national arts bodies and health service chief executives. In three of these cases, falls have been substantial. The number of female chairs of arts companies had reached four in 2007-2008. This year, that figure has fallen to one ? Zo� van Zwanenberg at the Scottish Ballet.
The report found the proportion of female cabinet ministers was 17.4% ? or four women. The number of female editors of national newspapers has fallen from four to two: Dawn Neesom at the Daily Star and Tina Weaver at the Sunday Mirror. "The results of our survey suggest it will take another 70 years to achieve an equal number of women directors in the FTSE 100 and another 45 years to achieve an equal number of women in the senior judiciary. It will take another 14 general elections ? that is, up to 70 years ? to achieve an equal number of women MPs," said Carberry.
Anna Bird, acting chief executive of the Fawcett Society, said the continued existence of the glass ceiling was attributable to a mixture of direct and indirect discrimination.
"Women are being passed over for the top jobs because they don't match the cultural expectation of what a leader looks like and are not part of the old boys' network," she said. "They also suffer the 'motherhood penalty' because we still expect careers to progress along a linear path."
Bird called the report a "call to arms". "It shows that we can't afford to wait but need to introduce some form of positive action," she said. But Heather McGregor, a leader of the 30% Club, set up last year to lobby for a target of three out of 10 directors on the boards of large British companies being female, said the glass ceiling was a "myth". "Leaving university with a good degree is just the first step; men or women alike need to make sure they invest in their career in a number of ways if they are aiming for the big jobs, and men are better at doing this," she said.
"It's not a glass ceiling stopping women getting to the top but the fact that they are less likely to build networks, focus on their career priorities, and spend a substantial proportion of their time on their own PR. How will you ever be picked for a good job if no one knows about you?"
Lady Goudie, the Labour peer who has written an article for the Parliamentary Gazette on the under-representation of women in politics, said blaming a glass ceiling was a negative and disempowering concept for women considering applying for top jobs.
"The glass ceiling is not the result of sexism on the part of executives, who often want more women on their boards," she added. "It's down to the laziness and complacency of head hunters. The answer is actually quite simple: executives need to be more dynamic in demanding head hunters give them shortlists that are 50% women. There are plenty of highly qualified, capable women out there, it's just bringing them to the attention of those who have the power to employ them."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/aug/17/women-missing-top-posts-britain
United States Alexander McCall Smith Kazakhmys Office for National Statistics Lancashire Internet
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