The traditional "glass ceiling" constraining women's progress in the workplace has been replaced by one made of "reinforced concrete", according to new research (PDF format, 2.6MB) (external website) from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
The fifth annual EHRC report, which tracks the numbers of women in positions of power and influence across the UK economy, suggests that progress has stalled or even gone into reverse in many cases.
For example, the proportion of women:
• in the Cabinet has fallen by 8.7 percentage points over the past year, from 34.8% in 2006 to 26.1% in 2007/08;
• heads of professional bodies has fallen by 8.3 percentage points (from 33.3% to 25%); and
• editors of national newspapers has fallen by 3.8 percentage points (from 17.4% to 13.6%).
However, the survey does find some instances of real (if slow) progress. The proportion of female directors in FTSE 100 companies rose from 10.4% in 2006 to 11% in 2007/08. And the proportion of female chief executives of national sports bodies almost doubled, rising from 6.7% to 13.3%.
As ever, XpertHR offers a wealth of practical resources and legal guidance to help employers deal with gender equality and equal pay issues. These include (subscription required to access each):
• How to comply with the law on sex discrimination;
• How to ensure that employees receive equal pay;
• Equal pay FAQs;
• Equal pay policy and equal pay questionnaire; and
• Equal pay: the legal basics.
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