Public Servant Lifestyle

A leading equality agency predicts it will be another two decades before women have a fair share of top management posts in the Civil Service workplace.

Sex and Power: Who Runs Britain? 2007 - the Equal Opportunities Commission's (EOC) annual survey looking at women in senior positions across the public and private sector - asks 'where are the nearly 6,000 women 'missing' from our boardrooms and public life'?

This year's survey shows that women are only 10% of the senior judiciary, 10% of directors at FTSE 100 companies, 12% of senior police officers, 14% of local authority council leaders, 17% of editors of national newspaper, and 20% of MPs (with only two ethnic minority women).

While women are reaching 'critical mass' in some areas, including as heads of professional bodies (33%) and national arts organisations (33%), in most fields, says the EOC, the pace of change remains painfully slow and there has been little change since the EOC first published the survey three years ago.

The EOC has calculated that at the current rate of progress, it will take another 20 years to achieve equality in the Civil Service top management, 40 years to achieve an equal number of senior women in the judiciary, 60 years to achieve an equal number of female directors at FTSE 100 companies (up from last year's projection of 40 years due to this year's decline in female FTSE directors), and up to 200 years - another 40 elections - to achieve an equal number of women in Parliament.

In its final report before the 30-year-old EOC comes to an end in Autumn 2007, the EOC points out that the pace of change at the top in many areas remains painfully slow, and in some cases has even gone into reverse - despite the massive growth of women in work and public life.

At the very top, ethnic minority women are especially under represented, accounting for just 0.4 % of FTSE 100 directors and 0.3 % of Parliamentarians. Ethnic minority women account for 5.2 % of the population and 3.9 % of the labour market and this percentage is growing and increasingly well qualified. Yet, an EOC survey of employers in local labour markets with above average black and Asian populations found that two-thirds of those who employ black or Asian women had none in senior roles.

To highlight the scale of the challenge if we hope to shatter the glass ceiling, the EOC has calculated that nearly 6,000 women are 'missing' from the more than 33,000 top spots across the public and private sector included in the survey.

Among the 'missing' are:

78 from among the 194 senior judges;
101 from among the 269 senior police officers;
162 from among the 449 council leaders in local government;
197 from among the 646 Parliamentarians;
217 from among the 914 Civil Service top managers;
233 from among the 751 members of the House of Lords;
448 from among the 1,130 directorships in FTSE 100 companies;
3,067 from among the 21,103 public appointments.

Jenny Watson, Chair of the EOC, said:"Today's troubling findings show just how slow the pace of change has been in powerful British institutions. They suggest it's time not just to send out the head-hunters to find some of those 'missing women', but to address the barriers that stand in their way. Thirty years on from the Sex Discrimination Act, women rightly expect to share power. But as our survey shows, that's not the reality.

"We all pay the price when Britain's boardrooms and elected chambers are unrepresentative. Our democracy and local communities will be stronger if women from different backgrounds are able to enjoy an equal voice. In business, no one can afford to fish in half the talent pool in today's intensely competitive world.

"As the EOC enters its final year, we are calling for change to make it possible for men and women to share power in the future. Asking for flexible working still spells career death for too many women in today's workplace, and as a consequence women with caring responsibilities all too often have to 'trade down' to keep working.

"Extending the right to ask for flexible working to everyone in the workplace would change that culture and enable more women to reach the top. And political parties need to continue to take full advantage of the laws that allow positive action to enable more women to be selected as candidates at national level to ensure that the progress made here doesn't go into reverse."

This article previously appeared on Working Balance.

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