Six thousand women are missing from top jobs

The stereotypes still prevent 6,000 women from occupying certain positions in the top 33,000 jobs in
the UK, reveals a study done by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC). Even if thirty years have passed
since the introduction of Gender-Based Non-Discrimination Policy, women are "terribly misrepresented" in top
managerial positions, in politics, and in the courts. The study suggests the fact that even if they hired
babysitters, the successful women are not allowed to continue their careers after giving birth to their babies. The
Commission blames the male-dominating culture on professions, accusing it to be opposed to flexible working
hours.
According to the report, the growing tendency of the proportion of women in top jobs is "painfully
slow", and there is even a decline in some fields. The proportion of women in parliament has declined over the
past 12 months since the last survey of EOC related to gender-to-power ratio, and is currently 19.5% - lower
than in Iraq, Afghanistan and Rwanda. Although there is a female executive director of the London Stock
Exchange and four senior judges are also women, the proportion of female executives in the top 100 companies'
list according to the Financial Times has fallen to 10.4 % and the proportion of female judges has dropped to
9.8%.
Jenny Watson, president of the EOC, said: "Today's turbulent ascertainments show how slow the pace
of change is in the strong British institutions. They suggest that it’s time not only the recruiting staff to be sent
to find some of these "missing women", but also to take an attitude towards the impediments they deal with.
Thirty years after the vote of the Gender-Based Non-Discrimination Policy, women are rightly expecting to
share the power. But as our study reveals, the reality is totally different."
"We all pay the same price when the governing councils and houses of UK deputies are
unrepresentative. Both our democracy and local communities will be stronger if women from different
backgrounds will have the opportunity to enjoy equal chances of expression. In the business sphere, no one can
afford to recruit half of all talented people in the today world, which is a very competitive one."
The Commission has identified the 33,000 most influential jobs in the private, political, judiciary and
public fields of the UK. The study has found that in order to reach a representative rate, women should
replenish another 6,000 of them.
Following the current improvement rate, it would take 20 years to reach the equality in the public
services sector, 40 years in the judiciary, and 60 years among the 100 most successful companies according to
the Financial Times. But it could take 200 years - at least 40 more elections - to get an equal number of deputies
in parliament. For comparison, in the Scottish Legislature, almost 40% of the deputies are women, and in Wales
the ratio is 51.7%. The EOC said that this also has been the argument why the parties should include all the
female candidates from the lists of potential candidates, as it is done in Wales.
But regarding to women from ethnic minorities, their situation is even worse. According to the
Financial Times, there are only two afro-american parliamentarians who are women, four afro-american people
who serve as directors of 4 out of 100 most successful companies, and nine civil servants from ethnic
minorities. "If we want to see how our communities flourish, the current state of affairs must be changed,"
concludes the report. It suggests that more and more successful women face, in their desire to get the desired
jobs, the same barriers as the women who have lower paid jobs. In terms of age, the gender pay gap at the age
of 20 and older is 3.7%, increasing to 10.7% for those over 30 years - due to the impact that the children births
have on the women's income. This fact does not apply to men who become fathers.
Last year the Commission that is monitoring women's work concluded that female workers from the
UK suffer from one of Europe's largest pay gap – 17% for full-time and 38% for part-time workers – because
they are more likely to be employed to poorly paid jobs, where they will still be downgraded on the career
ladder after they have a baby.
"Trying to require a flexible working schedule is unfortunate for the career of many women who are
employed," Mrs. Watson said." As a consequence, women who besides work have to take care of children, they
frequently have to give something up to their disadvantage "so that they can continue to work. Extending to
everyone the right to require from job flexible hours, will change this trend and it will allow more women to get
top jobs."
This is the latest EOC annual report. Next year, the EOC is to be merged with the Race Equality
Commission and the Commission on the Rights of Disabled People, thus forming a new body called the
Commission for Equality and Human Rights. This institution will be headed by the current president of REC,
and some people are afraid that women's rights may be marginalized within this new organization.
Katherine Rake, another militant for equal rights, commented: "This research proves beyond any doubt
that the upper echelons of jobs are occupied by white and male people." At the end Mrs. Watson summarized
the situation as follows: "We have not solved the problem of gender discrimination yet. We still have a lot to
do."