I recently commented (5th Jan 07) on the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) Who Runs Britain Report which stated that a glass ceiling and sexual discrimination still existed in British public life because 33,000 women were ‘allegedly’ missing from top jobs in business, politics and the judiciary.
The evidence produced would have shamed a GSCE statistics student because the EOC do not prove any connection between these ‘missing women’ and any form of sexual discrimination.
Fortunately, at least of Britain’s last freedoms remain outside of the PC thought police – the free press.
Rachel Johnson in an excellent article called ‘You Keep The Top Jobs, Guys’ for the Sunday Times (Link) on 7th January 2007 said that despite these facts and other issues such as smaller pensions and missing promotions ‘sucked’, it was ‘depressingly retro’ that the EOC report ignored the fact that some of this was down to women themselves.
She said “the whole report and the reaction to it, bizarrely depicted the workplace as a sort of hostile environment where all women were rammed against the glass ceiling….” She went on to state that if women want to be on top, they would be and described successful women who had made it such as Angela Merkel and Hilary Clinton.
The point she eloquently made that if women did not want to be top dog at work and at home, then it is more likely because they don’t want to be.
Rod Liddle in the same edition (Link) made a similar point with clarion cry “Watch out Ladies – the EOC is after you” describing the report as fatuous and of course, paid for by the British taxpayer.
Whilst Rod’s article was as spot on as Rachel’s, it is the latter that has more significance because it was written by a woman.
If only more women would come out against the EOC’s biased and unproven reports then maybe they would tone down their rhetoric.
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