Gender Diversity News Bulletin

Week ending 14th February 2010

Welcome to the weekly gender diversity news round up from Opportunity Now . Sent to you each week as a benefit of your membership to Opportunity Now, this bulletin keeps you right up to date with media coverage of gender equality and diversity related issues, both UK based and global.

The pressure of motherhood is the reason that 20 per cent of all female departees decide to leave some of the UK’s top 50 firms.

The government's equalities watchdog, set up to promote human rights and tackle discrimination, has been the ­subject of 15 employment tribunals in which it has been accused of ­sexism, racism and ­discriminating against pregnant women, according to the latest figures

Work-life balance is making the move from mummy track to mainstream

Flexible working has become syno-nymous with women lawyers trying to juggle career and children, but it is slowly becoming more than that.

Harriet Harman and the Spanish Equalities Minister Bibiana Aido Almagro co-hosted the 2nd Women in Power Summit in Cadiz on earlier in February. This event brought together an unprecedented number of EU women ministers, spanning a wide range of portfolios, and from 17 member states to champion gender equality, and to call for a more balanced representation in public life.

A ‘normal’ working week of 21 hours could help to address a range of urgent, interlinked problems: overwork, unemployment, over-consumption, high carbon emissions, low well-being, entrenched inequalities, and the lack of time to live sustainably, to care for each other, and simply to enjoy life.

Last week  the Government published 'Working Towards Equality: a Framework for Action’, which demonstrates how it will work to tackle the gender pay gap, and ensure our labour market is one: