JENNY WATSON, CHAIR, EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES COMMISSION  26/03/07

Introduction
Thank you for inviting me to talk to you about the EOC¹s work and our hopes for its future in the new CEHR.

As we¹re in our final year, it feels right to take stock of what we¹ve achieved and what more remains to be done.

We¹ve made great strides in gender equality over the last 30 years ­ but we haven¹t done it alone, done it through working in partnership with organisations like Fawcett. And of course Fawcett itself as an organisation walks in the footprints of some remarkable women, none more so than Millicent Garret Fawcett who's name is commemorated in this hall. I hope that she would be impressed by how far we have come ­ but I fear that she would recognise some of the challenges that still remain for us! And I know she would still see the need for local activity, such as the many campaigns that the South London Fawcett Group has led ­ making sex equality relevant for people in their own local communities is a vital part of the jigsaw.

[Jane Grant]

Would like to start by reflecting on the impact our work has had on women¹s daily lives ­ which for me is the real test of our achievements.
So let¹s start by having looking at a day in the life of 1970s woman.

1970s woman
She would start her day by listening to male presenters on the radio ­ women don¹t host news programmes in 1970.  Then she¹ll be forced to dress in her skirt and tights even though she¹d be much more comfortable in her flared trousers - because her office has an entirely legal "no trousers for women" dress code.

On her way to work  - she might be thinking about how she can get the cash together to buy the latest mini cooper ­ because of course she can only get a loan if she has a male guarantor. And she can forget about getting a mortgage if she hasn¹t a man by her side ­ in fact even if she's married and goes to apply for the loan herself, she'll have to take the papers back home for her husband to sign.

1970s woman would most likely be working in a typing pool or as a shop assistant, because her careers teacher would have advised her that ³girls don¹t go to university².

The company she works for will not have any female board members; it might have one female manager.

And she can expect to earn less than her male colleagues for doing exactly the same work ­ in fact she'll see her job advertised with a "men's rate" and a "women's rate". That's before we've even begun to think about work of equal value. So it's not surprising the full time pay gap is a whopping 29%.

If she¹s a mother she¹s more likely not be in work as she will most probably have been sacked when she announced she was pregnant and anyway who would care for her children if she went out to work ­ nannies and nurseries were few and far between and weren¹t for ordinary working people. If she does want to go back to work, she'll have to do so straight away because of course she has no right to maternity leaveŠ..

If 1970s woman is looking for a new job  - she can expect be asked about her marital status, or intentions to marry and have children.

I think you¹ll agree we¹ve come a long way since then. Some of you will have been watching Life on mars, the BBC drama series. I was really interested to see that one of the writers said they realised while writing it how very different it was to have been a woman in the 1970s to nowŠ..and not in a good way!

Women now make up nearly half the workforce and many (but not all) now have access to the childcare they need to enable them to have a rewarding life as a mother as well as a fulfilling career.

We¹ve seen changes in the law to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of sex and over the last 10 years a raft of measures on maternity leave, paternity leave and flexible working that help parents balance work and family responsibilities.  But lets face it we still haven¹t completely cracked some of the challenges that faced 1970s woman.

The old challenges
Women are still not reaching the top of their professions in significant numbers.  

Women represent only 10% of directors at FTSE100 companies and barely 20% of MPs. We rank 59th in the world for women's share of representation in the Westminster parliament ­ behind Iraq, Rwanda and Afghanistan. And still only 2 black women MPs

1/3 of managers are women, but only 14% of directors are women. So some improvement since 1970, but not representative given that women make up almost half our workforce.

We still have 17% full-time gender pay gap and 38% for part-time workers ­ and that latter has barely shifted in 40 years.

Women still clustered predominantly in 5 occupational groups ­ 75% of women work in cashiering, clerical, caring, cleaning, and catering.

So the glass ceiling still hasn¹t really cracked.

Still a dearth of part-time jobs at senior levels ­ which means that women and indeed men who want to work part-time to balance work and family life are forced to trade down and end up working in jobs beneath their skill level. 4 out of 5 part-timers, the vast majority of whom are women, are working in jobs beneath their potential.

And pregnancy discrimination still costs 30,000 women their jobs each year.  Unless current situation changes one million pregnant women are likely to experience some form of discrimination because of their pregnancy over the next 5 years.
The new challenges
As we continue to grapple with these old challenges, new challenges are appearing on the horizon caused partly by the fact that we're living through a social revolution ­ a really profound change in society, in our expectations and our family life. There are more women at work, more dads wanting to be at home. Children move away from their parents ­ often living at the other end of the country. Commuting distances increase yearly. And globalisation, though it brings many opportunities, can also create a relentless pressure for long hours, without the technology to support different ways of working.

This is a scale of change similar to that which Britain experienced during the industrial revolution.  Industrialisation changed almost everything about Britain.  It separated work from home life, something that had a profound impact on women's lives. Working time came to be organised more rigidly.  It brought mobility and the growth of urban centres ­ and tremendous scientific advances ­ and created enormous wealth for a few and  also terrible misery ­ in workhouses and the creation of a new poor as well as for those ripped from their families and treated inhumanely through slavery  for the sake of profit.  

Of course the change we are living through today is different in nature ­ but just as profound. And it has its own profound social consequences: for our familes and for our communities:  the weakening of social links and concerns about community cohesion, increasing anti-social behaviour,  rising levels of mental ill health amongst children and adolescents, and greater stress for adults, caused in part by long hours and work intensification and pressure are just a few of the things on offer.

Where is this change felt? In the workplace for example. The working population looks different particularly for women. Far more of us with dependent children are in the workforce now  including half of mothers with children under five.  Two fifths of professional jobs are held by women  compared to 1 in 10 thirty years ago.  There are more women going into higher education than ever before and they expect to be able to use their skills.

Technological changes play their part:  we now compete with, are employed by, or depend upon for our own company's sales and survival, companies on the other side of the world.  The organisation of work, however, preserved as a fixed working day since the industrial revolution remains far too long.  As competition gets fiercer and the pace of change gets faster  work becomes more intense and  many of us are left struggling to cope.  And that is particularly felt by those whose jobs are most at risk from this change.  

For many of us  technology and globalisation doesn¹t bring the benefits that it could: it brings increased pressure.  We don¹t have the time to create new bonds in our changed communities where we may no longer know our neighbours, where people come and go faster than they used to.  We suffer from an inability to deliver our caring responsibilities.  We struggle to serve both our employers and our families.  People in this situation have no means of keeping all the balls in the air.  They can¹t see where their place is any longer and for them, life can feel as if it is out of control. All of this creates unsustainable pressure.  

There is change in family life too and here the pressure is increasingly for men.
Increasing numbers of men want to play a more active role in bringing up their kids. Dads no longer want to play the role of distant breadwinner ­ 6 in 10 people in our polling said this was a thing of the past. They want to take a more active part in their children¹s upbringing with 7 out of 10 fathers with young babies (under 15 months)  saying that they would like to play a greater role in caring for their children.

Research that we published earlier this month from the Millenium Cohort Survey, a study of 30,000 families, shows that a father¹s involvement with his children has a positive effect on their well-being and their development. Taking time off when the baby¹s born, and working more flexibly to be around while the child is young ­ are both important factors in a child development. But getting access to flexible working for men can be tough. It sets you on the "mummy track" and says you're not serious about your career ­ still.

Our ageing population presents profound challenges. We are all living longer ­ which is great. But we will ­ many of us ­ need more help and support as we do age.  Just think about carers for a moment. By 2010 we will need 10 million carers ­ that's about 3.5 million people taking on caring roles between now and then ­ with no time to prepare. When mum breaks her hip or dad has a stroke, we want to be there to
help them right from the start.  The good news is that from next week you will have the right to request flexible working as a carerŠŠ. And it is badly needed.

Demographic change means that many women will face the challenge of looking after young children at a time when their own parents need more help and support.
Recent polling that we commissioned showed that that eight out of ten people believe that it is difficult for parents to balance work and family life and a shocking 96% of people believe that it is hard for carers to do the same.  

And even more worrying both men and women feel overwhelmingly that things are going to get worse. If we look ahead 10 years, 7 out of 10 of us think it will be harder for parents to find this balance then.

That is because despite us living our lives very differently, things just haven't caught up! Working practices and public services are still largely designed around the family of 30 years ago ­ breadwinner husband and stay at home wife.

New challenges, new tools
To meet some of these challenges we hae a new tool. One of the great challenges ahead is designing models of work and public services that catch up with modern families and modern lifestyles. The Gender Equality Duty ­ the most significant piece of law for sex equality in the last 30 years ­ will help us to do so. Rather than waiting for individual complaints or legal challenges it will place a responsibility on the public sector to actively promote sex equality. It is a big change and in our final six months we will be doing what we can to engage with public service providers to push them to ask ­ when they spend tax payers' money ­ whether they have asked if the service they provide meets the different needs of women and men.

So no longer should we see a state pensions system designed around the working patterns of earlier generations of men - continuous full-time work for 40 years ­ without breaks for children. The state pension has poorly served women, who often to take time out of the workforce to care for children and older relatives, and is becoming increasingly less relevant to men's lives too

The government has put the needs of women at the heart of their pension reform package - by fully recognising the contribution women make outside of the workforce but it needs to ensure that the new Personal Accounts are flexible enough to reflect the reality of women's lives, which may mean that there are times when they cannot save and times when they can invest more. This approach will help to end the historic pensions inequalities faced by women that has caused so many to live in poverty in retirement.

Time for a health service that reflects the fact that men under 45 visit the GP half as much as women ­ meaning that conditions may go undiagnosed, leading to poor health outcomes. Designing services that men feel comfortable accessing ­ basic health checks at football grounds, at barber's shops ­ can make a big difference.
This requires imagination ­ and of course recognition that women's and men's lives are not the same ­ and that services may need to be delivered differently.

The future: two areas of work
Want to talk a little about two investigations that we are currently working on which we think will help us do that.

One investigation is looking at the transformation of work and the other on the pay and progression of ethnic minority women in the labour market.  Both are turning up some surprising results.

Educationally women¹s achievements outshine men¹s at every level from primary school through to higher education.  But both these studies show that women¹s skills are leaking out of the workforce ­ often at the point when they take on caring responsibilities.

ToW GFI
Our aim in the Transformation of work study is not only to shape new ways of working that open up opportunities for women, but also to shape new ways of working that respond to the economic and business imperatives facing government
and employers in the increasingly global workplace.

What we found is that the world of work is still stuck in the past. British men are working amongst the longest hours in Europe. (Male full-timers in the UK work 43.8 hours on average ­ average for EU states is 41.2 hours for male full-timers.)
Far too many workplaces still follow a long hours inflexible model of working.
This has never worked for women and is looking increasingly past its sell by date for men too ­ as more and more men seek greater involvement with their families. One of the more surprising findings is that there is a massive demand for flexible working from both men and women. 52% of men and 48% of women say they want to work flexible hours.

Picture even worse for ethnic minority women ­ young Black Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women are almost 3 times as likely to take a job at a lower level than white women and Pakistani and Bangladeshi graduates are around 5 times more likely to be unemployed than their white counterparts.
Current government policy is focused on increasing the number of skilled people entering the labour market ­ not enough attention is paid to retaining these skills.  
So what are we calling for ­ we want to see a transformation in our workplaces where flexibility becomes the norm rather than the exception ­ something that is open to all women and men to negotiate with their employers, many of whom increasingly recognise the business benefits.

We want employers to talk to their staff about how they would like to work, as well as advertising and promoting their existing flexible work practices.

And we want government to play its part too. The government needs to put in place strategies to ensure that women can continue to use the qualifications and skills they aquire when they leave school, rather than being forced to trade down jobs in order to balance work and caring responsibilities.

In the next stage of this investigation we will be working with the Work Foundation and employers to find ways of redesigning work and introducing innovative working practices. Due to report later this year.

BME GFI
Would like to turn now to our investigation into the pay and progression of ethnic minority women, where we looked specifically at Black Caribbean, Bangladeshi and Pakistani women. We published the final report last week.

Here again we have a tale of wasted talent and opportunity as bright, young ethnic minority women are being held back by outdated stereotypical perceptions suggesting they lack ambition, don¹t want promotion and are more concerned about getting married and raising a family than going out to work.

Our findings show that nothing could be further from the truth for increasing numbers of young ethnic minority women, especially for those of second and third generations.

Ethnic minority women are investing heavily in their education. They have high aspirations of combining work and family life. They have similar expectations to white women and are doing well at school. This year, more Bangladeshi girls achieved 5 A-c passes at GCSE, including maths and English, than white boys, which is a remarkable achievement given the social and economic disadvantage they face.
Black Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women in employment are more likely to be graduates than white women. Young under 35 Black Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women are more likely to aspire to senior positions when they have dependent children than white women.

Yet they face a higher risk of unemployment and fewer prospects of promotion.  Bangladeshi and Pakistani women face a much bigger gender pay gap than other women.
We think it's time for  government and employers to revaluate the way they interact with ethnic minority women.

Current government policy is focused on making these women ³more employable² ­ ie the problem for their lack of progression rests with them (lack of skills) .
Our evidence shows that this far from the whole picture. Many ethnic minority women are highly educated and ambitious. Just to give you one example, a woman with a Masters degree, desperate to get any kind of job, has not even been called to interview to work in a supermarket. Could this be something to do with the fact she obtained her degree at Islamabad University?  At the launch of our report a few days ago we were joined by some ambitious and talented young Muslim women. One of them works at Airbus. She is a structural engineer who tests aircraft wings, the only woman in her 40 strong workplace. She said that people see she's only 5'4", and that she wears hijab, and expect her to be quiet ­ they get quite a shock I should think! She spoke of the conversations she's had with her colleagues ­ about all kinds of things from the conflict in Palestine to why women would want to wear the niqabŠ. She is living proof of the fact that  at work we  all ­ whoever we are ­ meet people who may not be like us, and in doing so we share with each other thoughts and ideas, views and experiences, that help us to build stronger communities.

Some employers are already getting it right with workforces that are representative and some even have comparable numbers of ethnic minority women in their senior ranks.

These employers are what are known in HR terms as  ³culturally intelligent² Culturally intelligent workplaces have systems and people who have the awareness, the understanding and the confidence to communicate and relate positively to people from different cultural backgrounds. It is a concept that many multinational companies recognise in order to help them win contracts and compete in different
cultural contexts but it needs to be more broadly promoted and adopted.

Moving on to the CEHR
Know that some of you are concerned that our work won¹t have quite as strong a focus in the CEHR and that gender will in some way lose out to other equality strands.

As you know we have always supported the creation of the CEHR and I personally believe the creation of the CEHR is a fantastic opportunity to deal with inequality as people experience it ­ can¹t deal with inequalities in separate silos, as much of our current work shows ­ our work on the pay and progression of ethnic minority women demonstrates the interplay between race and gender.

Our Transformation of Work GFI has implications for disabled and older people who would benefit from greater flexibility in the workplace and of course our work on caring and pensions also links to age and disability.

But ­ we don't want sex equality to be lost. So we are pursuing work on our gender agenda, which will set out 10-year goals on gender issues, underpinned by shorter term priorities for achieving them.

The Gender Agenda will cover the following themes ­ income, family, services, justice and safety and society.  We also aim to develop a gender equality index ­ a tool against which progress can be measured ­ what can we measure to tell us whether the equality gap is widening or narrowing? The pay gap will be one indicator of course; the level of rape convictions might be another. We will be working on this over the next few months.
We intend to hand this document to the chair of the CEHR, but we are also working behind the scenes to influence the CEHR¹s first strategic plan.

A key part of ensuring the gender legacy will be encouraging others to promote our Gender Agenda  ­ so we will continue to make links between gender issues and other equality strands.  And we will build alliances with others to persuade them to keep pushing on our issues.

And we will of course continue to work with those like the Fawcett Society, with whom we have enjoyed a long and fruitful partnership to ensure that gender issues will be taken forward into the CEHR.