At the end of last year, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission declared they would investigate the City because of the wide gender pay gap and harassment. The site covered the issue here.
Last week, Deputy Prime Minster and Minister for Women, Ms Harriet Harman, the UK's leading anti-male campaigner, wrote to the Commission asking them to investigate these issues especially as the gender pay gap in financial services is 40% (link, link).
In the UK, one of the founding tenets of the legal system used to be that you were innocent before being proven guilty. In the War Against Men, no such distinction counts in the Orwellian world that Harman and others live in. She has already declared that men in financial services are guilty.
She says "There is something rotten in the remuneration system of the banks and finance companies. Men paying themselves millions of pounds of bonuses each - and then saying that they didn't know what was going on." She denounced what she called an "old-boys' network" paying itself millions amid financial turmoil.
As covered here before, the gender pay gap is mainly down to lifestyle choices not discrimination. That many women choose not to work at the high-end of the financial services system because of the long-hours, time spent away from family and often the pure pressure. Many women, certainly not all, prefer not to have to deal with it and leave it tho their husbands whilst they look after their children. Also many women choose to work at bank counters etc because a lot of this work can be part-time and fits into their lifestyle.
To say it is down to discirmination (as if no woman got a big City bonus), it one of those classic Politically Correct lies that if you say it enough, people will believe it.
The City and the financial services industry have already been found guilty by Harman et al and now we have to put up with the unedifying witch unt and show trial.
What is a shame is that no-one in the City has the balls to challenge her.
Good article, ROM editor, but one small error: H.H. is Deputy Leader of the party but NOT Deputy PM.
Best Regards - keep it up!
Posted by: Sim S | Monday, 16 February 2009 at 12:47
There may well be city traders paying themselves far too much but this has nothing to do with Gender as there are female traders too. With equally inflated salaries.
http://www.management-issues.com/2008/10/21/research/gender-pay-gap-nothing-to-do-with-discrimination.asp
Posted by: Nigel | Tuesday, 17 February 2009 at 15:27
This has a rather neat graph showing the effect of leaving the employment market or p/t work.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1145973/How-paid-men-Stay-single.html#comments
Posted by: Nigel | Tuesday, 17 February 2009 at 16:24
Good old HH. At it again. Noting the small "gender pay gap" in Italy. In Italy there is very little part time work and few maternity benefits. So women have to work full time or not at all. The result small pay gap for those working. I doubt if HH wants to import that approach!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/4933503/Harriet-Harman-Women-more-worried-about-economy-than-men.html
Posted by: Nigel | Wednesday, 04 March 2009 at 22:46
Mor lunacy from "Hatty"
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23658894-details/Men+more+at+risk+of+losing+jobs+than+women+in+crunch/article.do
Posted by: Nigel | Friday, 06 March 2009 at 22:31