Gender Inequality – Choice or Sexism?

A few weeks ago the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published their Sex and Power Report 2008 and since then there has been thousands of column inches dedicated to the veracity, efficacy or indeed necessity of such a report and its findings. The report basically states that despite years of so-called progress and legislation, women still don’t have a fair share of power and influence.

If the mostly wealthy, male commentators and Melanie McDonagh are to be believed, this gender inequality is a matter of choice. Women simply do not want power or influence. Or rather, they are unwilling to give up the cushy job that is raising a family for the long hours, fast pace and stress of the corporate boardroom. Hence, it is a maternity gap, not a gender gap that causes any inequality, if it exists. And there may be some merit to this argument. After all, the Office of National Statistics reports that there's very little difference between the pay of young women and young men. Not only that, any pay differential is actually in the women's favour as long as they are single and childless. However, the problem with the maternity gap theory is that it only affects one gender – women.

But let’s get back to the choice thing. Pardon me for stating the obvious, but being born a woman is not a matter of choice, it is biology. But the prejudices faced by women are caused by socialisation. Why shouldn’t women be afforded the opportunity to pursue any combination of careers, child bearing and/or rearing they desire? No-one here is asking for guaranteed equality of outcomes, merely the opportunity to compete on a level playing field, without having to contend with old boys’ networks and misguided stereotypes of the nature of woman.

OK, not every woman wants to be in charge, but there are many women who do and are suitably qualified to do many of the jobs currently occupied by men. Maybe, the EHRC research should measure only those women who want to be in top management or judges or MPS. Would it have made any difference to their findings? I doubt it. For instance, when compared to the rest of the world, the UK is woefully outranked in terms of gender equality in Parliament, coming in 70th out of 155 countries behind Sweden, China, Canada, Rwanda and Argentina. It would be highly remiss of me not to mention that some (not all) of these countries have introduced legislative quotas to redress the gender imbalance.

Let’s not even talk about black women in the UK. They are at an even greater disadvantage – one high court judge and two members of parliament... I wonder if Melanie and her readers will attribute this, yet again to the maternity gap. Hmmmm, I wonder if she has children.