I am the only person amazed by the utterly idiotic vacuities offered by governments as an excuse for not actually doing anything? In an interview this morning on BBC Radio 4, Baroness Williams – Minister for Equality – actually said that the the British government expect that action will be taken on the matter of pay equality following the publishing of the pay inequality reports because of “…wider pressure from society for companies who really stand out as not being gender friendly”. The government itself won’t do anything, it expect the people to react – the government apparently doesn’t “…actually believe in making people do” things, one can only assume that they simply hope people will do things!! The Baroness went on to say that “organisations themselves actually want to do this”.
I personally find it very hard to believe that organisations are keen to address this issue, and that only the lack of government support has been holding them back… I would contend that if companies wanted to address this they already would have – the fact that as of now only 60% of private companies (according to Baroness Williams this morning) have completed the reports expected for midnight tonight is clearly indicative that they do not even monitor the situation.
Nevertheless, I am reassured that the British government does not want to ‘make people do’. Perhaps, in the light of this declarative, we can do away with the government entirely and leave everything to ‘pressure from society’?
Maybe a useful starting point to encourage equality of pay and occupational aspiration would be to rein in the so-called ‘girls’ comics and magazines that routinely promote make-up and clothes as being our primary roles in life?
But you are right, we have a government that doesn’t want to govern, only asks the perpetrators to police themselves.
What you say is correct, although sadly not unique.
Health and Safety (aka, ‘elf,n, safety’) has been entirely voluntary for several years now.
The process is that the HSE declares a policy that they only act upon when an accident occurs that is clearly caused by blatant disregard of their (probably ambiguous) policy. Literally “blood on the streets”, virtually no inspections, no H&S helplines and no advice.
The onus is on the dead and injured to complain, neither can effectively do so.
Read ‘The Descent of Man’ by Grayson Perry, to see why gender inequality still exists despite all the legislation. Tory governments always make pious noises and sit on their hands. Watch that space…you will see nothing happening.