The beady eyes of the media have started to look into what is happening at the UK's Equalities and Human Rights Commission (link) which was established in October 2007 as the Equal Opportunities Commission, Race Commission and Disabilities Commission merged.
The Commission is pivotal (link) not in dealing with discrimination cases but also, just like the Equal Opportunities Commission, in pushing a pro-female agenda which often is discriminatory against men or just ignores the needs of men altogether. Hardly any pronouncements or studies are produced into looking health or domestic violence issues, though from time to time it has made pronouncements about boys education and fathers rights, it never really follows these up in the same way it does for women (see yesterday's report).
It is therefore vital for all those wanting equality for men to monitor what it does and says especially as to whether it truly believes in equality and will actively enforce the Gender Equality Duty in helping men obtain the public services they are entitled to.
The media's digging has revealed that:-
Huge turmoil in the way that it is runs including high profile resignations such as the Chief Executive Nicola Brewer and bitter infighting. All revealed in gory detail in The Independent. Other coverage can be found here (Guardian, The Times, Guardian2, Daily Mail).
Salaries soar by 25% in two years with the Conservatives accusing the Commission of "abusing taxpayers" (The Sun). The Sun also revealed it costs £22.7 million more than the previous three bodies (now £70 million). It employs 514 people.
A Freedom of Information request (link) by a SJS Jackson shows that two in every three employees are female (66% women - 34% men). Under the old Equal Opportunities Commission the figures were 85% women and 15% men and it is likely that the proportions working on gender issues are the same.
What these stories show is that an internecine turf war is going on within the Commission, which is not uncommon considering three distinct bodies merged together.
Whatever happens, pressure needs to be maintained to make sure they remember that equality also means equality for men. The fear is that if the ultra PC brigade win, there will be even less attention on men and more calls for more bias against them. The report on the City's Gender Pay Gap is one such example of this happening.
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