Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Why is Harriet Harman not bemoaning Ben Bradshaw?

Over the weekend, some of you may have heard Harriet Harman doing her usual best for the sisterhood by bemoaning the terrible pay gap after a report she commissioned found bonuses int eh city for women were lower than men. Putting aside the dodgy data, Harriet said,
"Despite many actions taken by the government since 1997, inequality and discrimination still exist, which is why we are introducing tough new measures in our Equality Bill including gender pay reporting and proposals to ban secrecy clauses which are particularly prevalent in financial services."
Now the reason I mention this is because there is quite a famous saying, it goes like this. People in glass houses shouldn't thrown stones.

Whilst Harriet Harman runs around burning her proverbial bra screaming about equality, perhaps, just maybe, she should have a word with some of her Government colleagues about getting their houses in order before they judge others?

Just for example, take the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Woman are in the majority over men by 53% to 47% at Deputy Director level. Yet men are paid, on average, £151.60 per week more than woman. That's £7276.80 a year more for those with biological dangling appendages between their legs (source).

It's all well and good for Harriet to say something must be done about discrimination in the workplace, but why is you never hear her mention the Government itself failing to meet its own alleged standards?

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