2 a high grade is where the problem begins’

Thus, while work may not be classified as ’women’s grade’ it will remain so and the difficulty of moving out of that grade into another may be even more difficult than at present, unless women are able - and willing - to make use of procedures under any Equal Opportunity legislation.

1 House of Lords I, Edward Bishop Evidence, p. 190, para. 3. House of Commons Select Committee on Expenditure, p. XV.

2 Evidence of National Joint Committee of Working Women’s Organisations to House of Commons Select Committee, p. XV, and p. 82.

Thus, although the intention may be that a common job evaluation should help progress towards regarding jobs, as such, rather than a man's job or a womanfs job, this will obviously take a long time. An

example of the strength of existing attitudes and practices may be 1. ■

found in a recent study at a food manufacturing factory where the men on night shift were paid an additional allowance and had more days off while, in return, most of them performed the tasks that were done by women on the day shift. These men felt that the night allowance was, in part, a payment for performing 1womenfs work1 and they expected their shop stewards to use this as an argument in bargaining despite managementfs counter-claim that they should be paid less as the girls on days performed the same tasks more efficiently.

Hon manual work is somewhat less rigidly segregated but, except in journalism, jobs demanding typing skills are almost always regarded as 1womenfs work1. The Civil Service has probably gone furthest in opening up all non-indust rial grades to men and women equally.

d) Promotion Prospects

It has already been shown that social attitudes and interrupted career patterns make promotion difficult for many women.

Examples of promotion problems are found in all grades of employment and have been abundantly documented in Evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee. The Report picked out some examples of this: in the Civil Service in 1970, only 9% of the top 1administration’ group were female, for instance, although positive attempts are now being made to increase womenfs opportunities and to ensure that ffitness for the job1 is the only criteria for promotion. In the medical field, a very small proportion of hospital consultants are women, bat more recent figures show a slight increase in the numbers of women obtaining registrar posts in

certain categories. Promotion prospects for women may even be deteriorating

in some respects. For example, nursing has traditionally "been a women’s profession (95$), with scope for promotion, but now under hospital reorganisation, men are often appointed as ’Chief Nursing Officers’ and replace traditional ’Matrons’. Other new senior hospital administration posts are more highly paid and usually filled by men.

In teaching, too, where women are in a majority (maintained schools: 42$ men to

58

76

40 :

60

1971

The problems, generally, of obtaining promotion in other pro­ fessional posts can be gauged from the small numbers of women in the professions. In public life, too, women play a very small role - very few are elected as Members of Parliament, or as repre­ sentatives on important public boards.

Nationalised industries, so far, have differed very little

from private industry in the small number of women in top management, although British Steel is now adopting a positive policy aimed at identifying and promoting female talent. Seear, Robert and Brock writing in

1964

- 90 -

they are often treated less responsibly than male supervisors and it is rare for promotion to go further; it is even rarer for these positions to be a step on the ladder up line management as they still are for some men1. In banking and insurance, where there are large numbers of women, few rise to management posts.

The Institute of Personnel Management has shown concern over this and advises its members to give particular attention to the career development of women personnel officers with scope to reach the important posts in Industrial Relations and Management Develop­ ment and not be confined to recruitment, training or records. It also suggests ways in which female talent should be identified and promoted throughout the company.

Journalism is another area where many women are employed, but on newspapers very few gain senior editorial posts and, in broad­ casting, whether appearing in public or working on the administrative side, few reach senior positions .

(7) Facilities for Working Mothers

Increased participation of married women in the economic life of the nation has not, unfortunately, been accompanied by a proportional increase in adequate child care facilities. The present provisions for day nurseries, nursery schools and other social amenities are far from being adequate. Yet, there*is an enormous demand, both actual and potential, the major part of which is left unattended. The Yudkin

2

Report , for instance, estimates that approximately 750*000 children are in need of child care and nursery facilities.

1 See Evidence of Women in Media, MJJ, and Also Women in the BBC in Women in Top Jobs, Part III.

2 An enquiry carried out by a working party, chairman, Dr. J* Yudkin, for the National Society of Children’s Nurseries.

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a) Facilities Available for Under Five Year Olds

There is no coherent and unified system of facilities for under five year olds available in Britain. Existing provisions consist mainly of:

- Nursery schools, nursery classes - and day care facilities.

Because of differences in official data presentation, comparisons between the various parts of the United Kingdom are difficult to make. For this reason, and in the interest of brevity, tables included all refer to England or England and Wales. Nonetheless, the situation shown is considered to be reasonably representative of the other parts.

i) Nursery Schools and Classes

Nursery schools, where the concentration is on care and education, are either maintained (i.e. state-run or grant-aided) or independent. An official tag of recognition can be attached to those independent schools which are accepted by the authorities as ’efficient'. Both types of institutions fall under the aegis of the Department of Education and Science. The number of pupils which attened nursery schools in England in 1971 and 1972 is shown in Table 40.

TABLE 40