Equality for women in the business world is still ‘generations away’, according to a report by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC).
While male and female roles within society have changed drastically within the past 50 years, workplaces have largely failed to accommodate this shift.
Instead, businesses continue to cater for the nuclear family structure, presenting a barrier to women’s equality – explained by the report as the ‘consequences of an unfinished social revolution’.
Entitled ‘Completing the Revolution’, the report looked at 22 indicators of sex equality across five categories, including income and family. It calls for implementation of a ‘gender agenda’ campaign that would aim to, among other targets, make men and women equal within the workplace.
Harriet Harman, minister for women, backed the findings when she said: “Women’s lives have transformed dramatically, but there is still inequality between men and women in our economy and society that needs to be tackled.”
Women working within small businesses are especially affected by their desire to work flexibly, claimed the report. Men are 63% less likely to ask to work outside the tradition 9-to-5 than women, despite admitting they’d like to, making them more appealing to employers with limited resources.
The EOC called for the government to offer tax incentives in order to encourage small businesses to embrace new ways of working and urged for a tight timeframe for attaining equality to be imposed.
Jenny Watson, chair of the EOC, said: “Otherwise at the current pace of change, it will take generations for the unfinished revolution to be completed.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2007
