UFO Info Week-End

And it is women who tend to make the sacrifice because they value power and status less than

And it is women who tend to make the sacrifice because they value power and status less than men.Julie Mellor, chairwoman of the Equal Opportunities Commission, points out that care has been effectively privatised over the past few decades. So instead of care being seen as a collective responsibility, looking after children or elderly parents is seen a problem for the individual to tackle alone. Inflexible working hours make it practically impossible to pursue a career and devote time to a family. Thus does Britain’s long-hours culture and inflexible working practices make it impossible to combine a high-flying career and family.In the past three decades society has changed, with more women working than ever before – 45 per cent of the work-force are women, two thirds of whom have children – and fathers are spending more time with their children But employers have yet to catch up. It says women are still disadvantaged by the “old boys’ network” where senior positions are not widely advertised but filled informally.But the real blame, says the report, lies with old-fashioned employers, and women’s partners, rather than a male chauvinist culture. The authors say that the failure of women to reach the highest jobs in politics, business and the law is not because of sexism, but because they are left with the responsibilities of rearing children or caring for elderly relatives. Women make up nearly half the work-force of Britain but only 9 per cent of top company directors; they comprise 70 per cent of local authority employees, but only 13 per cent of council chief executives; and in the police just 7 per cent of senior officers are women.The same depressing picture emerges from virtually every sector.

Just 9 per cent of editors are women; only 18 per cent of MPs are women; 12 per cent of elected council leaders are women; 6 per cent of High Court judges are women; and 29 per cent of heads in secondary schools The only areas of life in which women have achieved parity at the top seem to be running charities and in the Welsh Assembly, where 50 per cent of the representatives are female.Not surprisingly, the report calls for more transparent recruitment procedures. He said the allegations were being made by a disgruntled former POW person.A Charity Commission spokesman told The Sunday Telegraph that an initial complaint about the POW was received in 2002 and an inquiry begun. More than 25 years after the Sex Discrimination Act became law, the first national audit of gender and power has revealed that women have failed to break men’s stranglehold on control in business, politics, public authorities and industry.
The report, Sex and Power, Who Runs Britain?, to be published tomorrow by the Equal Opportunities Commission, uncovers some sobering statistics. “We will publish a public report when the investigation is complete Meanwhile the POW Trust is aware of the inquiry,” he said. Mr Sainsbury said he had not been informed of any Charity Commission investigation.Mr Sainsbury has had a much-publicised falling out recently with Mr Martin over Mr Martin’s refusal to give some of the media and fund-raising money he has received to the POW Trust..

He was banned from operating as a director for 10 years but was released two years into the sentence and immediately set up the POW Trust. Last night, he said he had never been a director of the organisation. Mr Sainsbury also said he was convicted of currency offences in Lebanon but the sentence was later quashed.Mr Sainsbury denied allegations in The Sunday Telegraph that the POW Trust had received a donation in North Korean currency The newspaper reported it was up to £5m in value “Total garbage Wons are totally valueless Who is going to buy North Korean wons?” he said. The POW Trust found Mr Martin a new solicitor before he had his murder conviction reduced to manslaughter on appeal and was released on parole in July.The fraud for which Mr Sainsbury was jailed involved investors paying for industrial generators. People sympathetic to Mr Martin sent donations to the trust to help fund a legal battle for his freedom.