WINE, asparagus tips sandwiches, and the luxurious surroundings of the Penta Hotel in London was the massive increase in women's unemployment.
It may have been fitting for Baroness Liberal spokeswoman on unemployment, the New York business-woman of the year, and the personnel manager of Ford, who were among those attending the National Council for Civil Liberties' conference on positive action earlier this month.
Women in Britain are concentrated me lowesl paid and least skilled jobs more unall anywhere else West Europe. Unemployment for women has increased by 207 percent since 1975.
In 1911 the number of women in clerical work was equal to that of men Sixty years later women occupied two-thirds these jobs. In 1911 women nau in skilled and semi-skilled jobs, but by 1971 we were concentrated sentlskilled work.
And it is women's jobs that are going to the wall first Thatcher's onslaught. So discussion on positive action is important to women workers, though it hardly seems relevant to the likes of Baroness Sear.
Speakers the united States did give some interesting examples of how the affirmative action programmes there have operated. an on group me US Women Employed which campaigns to into dominated jobs.
Blunt, a founder member group, descrocu their efforts to get the HarTIs bank, tracted to the government, of affirmative action.
women Employed produced its own proSocialist Challenge 23 April 1981• Page 12 bizarre setting for a discussion on the Sear, A WOMAN'S RIGHT TO WORK:
POSITIVE ACTION gramme and the bank spent $im in legal costs resisting proposals.
The bank lost the case and was rorcea lo pay $12m in back wages to compensate for past discrimination against the This 'American way' implies fighting for quotas of women to go into certain jobs and grades. Both employers and trade unionists at the conference were sceptical about this approach.
The personne manager of Ford said that hi company had tried to encourage women and blacks into skilled jobs, and he blamed them for apparent lack of interest.
The reason wily they are reluctant themselves forward for such jobs is because of the discrimination past women and black people