(1888PressRelease)
December 09, 2008 - Under the proposed Equality Bill, designed to bring together nine major laws and over 100 regulations, companies will be free to discriminate in favour or women, however Dynamic Transitions MD Judith Germain believes that this in fact will do more harm than good when it comes to supporting career progression for women.
“The proposed changes allowing positive discrimination of women and the right to request flexible working for parents of children under the age of 16 will in fact make it harder not easier for women to climb the career ladder. This will be especially true for those in management positions or who work in smaller businesses”, says Germain.
Germain believes that the bill is likely to cause resentment from other employees as it gives entitlement to some people and not others. Non-parents for example might like flexible working and may believe that they will have to pick up the slack from parents who are working more favourable hours.
Germain also believes that managers may perceive that they are being forced to pamper to the whims of parents, a sentiment mirrored by Sir Alan Sugar earlier this year when he warned that current equality laws were ‘counter productive to women’ and would make it harder for women to get jobs.
“Whilst the new bill is designed to boost the proportion of female staff into senior positions, this doesn’t then remove the barriers once they are there. There may be a potential backlash from other employees who feel that women in senior positions don’t deserve to be in the position they are in and are only there because of their gender. As a result, they will receive little respect from the employees they should be managing, something which will be extremely detrimental to their success in the organisation and could put their future career at risk”, explains Germain.
Dynamic Transitions is a leadership company specialising in managing Troublesome Talent®. For further information or to find out more about Dynamic Transitions visit www.developing-leadership.com or telephone +44 (0) 208 288 0512.
For press enquiries please contact Rebecca King at Rebecca ( @ ) mediajems dot co.uk or on 01603 283506
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