SEX in the City has dominated the headlines for the past few weeks. First Merrill Lynch and now Capita are in the dock over sex discrimination.
Former director of nursing at Aon Health Services, Sharon Horan, claims she suffered a “culture of sexist behaviour and treatment” that excluded women, reports Personnel Today (Sept 7). Aon has now been taken over by Capita which denies the allegations. The hearing begins on April 11.
The magazine’s sister paper, Equal Opportunities Review (Sept) reports that almost £4.2 million was paid out in compensation for unlawful discrimination at work last year. Of the 367 cases of discrimination, 58 per cent involved sexual discrimination.
A range of reasons for the profusion of sexual discrimination cases in Britain is offered in Business Week (Sept 6): abolition of the cap on awards in discrimination claims (the average award is now more than £5,000); the lack of family-friendly policies; and the pay disparity between the sexes.
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British women working full-time earn an average of 21 per cent less than men compared to an average pay gap of 16 per cent across the European Union. This rises to 43 per cent less among women bankers, insurers, traders and analysts, the paper reports.
Not that pay is a major issue for female executives. A new survey reported in the Financial Times (Sept 13) found their top career aspiration is “to make a difference”. The survey of 300 female executives by the coaching and leadership development company Aspire found money at the bottom of the list of things rated as important in their work and personal lives — perhaps because respondents were all already high earners, the newspaper says. When asked what organisations could do to attract and retain executive women, “flexibility” was the key word. Comments included: “Companies should recognise that we can still do the juicy stuff when we have kids,” and “women, even at the highest level, tend to have priorities at work. Women at this level will deliver, but it may not be by being in work from 8am until 8pm every day”.
Vivienne Cox, vice-president of oil company BP, is a classic example. The 45-year-old mother of two was this week named businesswoman of the year by Harpers and Queen.
www.aspirecompanies.com www.harpersandqueen.co.uk
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