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Jobs for the Girls: Two Years On

The Business and Enterprise Committee and its predecessor in this area, the Trade and Industry Committee, had an economic remit, so they were considering the issue not just as a question of fairness. When I said that we should examine such issues, I presented my argument in a way that focused on the economy. The Committees' concern was the health of the economy, as well as fairness and proper behaviour. Occupational segregation limits the pool of recruits available to employers at a time when harnessing and extending the skills of all is increasingly vital for the economy. In our report, we were not seeking to reinvent the wheel. As I said, there have been many reports. We wanted to consider what action had been taken and proposed. There were 40 recommendations about tackling job segregation, the gender pay gap and related issues. Many of those had been made in our predecessor's report, so we were not trying to amass a new lot of evidence, although we did take evidence from various bodies. We started with Baroness Prosser, who chaired the women and work commission. She gave us an extremely useful estimate of where she thought implementation had got to and what she regarded as the key proposals. It is important to keep returning to these issues, and we will do so again and again, because we will not eliminate this problem overnight. There will be more reports to come, and it is very important that we keep producing reports. Our report focused on the issues under three main headings: education and training; the workplace, including the type of work available, the role of management and unions and the legislative framework; and Government as an exemplar, including in public procurement. That issue was of interest to us in this inquiry and has been of continuing interest to the Business and Enterprise Committee and its predecessor. We have raised the question of being able to use social objectives in public procurement on a wider basis than just in relation to equalities—in relation, for example, to safety and other areas. That issue has been the subject of separate reports by the Committee. It tied in very clearly with this report, again showing the links between equality and economic issues. I will go on to highlight some of the recommendations, but first I want to say that a very determined effort will be required on all fronts if we are to tackle the stubborn pay gap and inequality in employment. That requires a culture change among employers and unions and in educational institutions and the whole of society, including families. As we all know, that will not be easy to achieve; none of us would dream of pretending that it was. It is also important to acknowledge, as the Chairman of the Committee has, that we drew up the report in different circumstances from those that pertain now. I can hear now the voices that will tell us that the actions proposed and those that the Government and others are taking are a luxury in this difficult period and that therefore we should put them on the back-burner. That is similar to what we were told earlier about the danger of climate change. It would be a mistake, because if we do not tackle the skills and education gap now, we will find that we are still under-skilled and still wasting the talents of a huge proportion of the population when we come out of any downturn. In straight economic terms, we need to be doing this work now. Issues relating to the changing nature of the work force, family relationships and so on do not just disappear in hard times; if anything, they become even more difficult and even more important for us to address.