WE Europe 2015: The Pros and Cons of Positive Action

wes.org.uk
Inspiring Technical Women Since 1919
The Pros and Cons of
Positive Action
Dr Carol Marsh
Immediate Past President of the
Women’s Engineering Society

wes.org.uk
 Questions
 Positive Discrimination v Positive Action
 Establishing the need for Female Engineers
 Pros and Cons of Positive Action
 Summary
Agenda

wes.org.uk
Presentation covers:
What companies can and cannot do in relation to:
■ Recruitment
■ Promotion
■ Personal Development
■ Training
Gender issues for women in engineering
Mainly UK based (some European / US info)
Setting the Scene

wes.org.uk
Questions

wes.org.uk
Advertise a position for an engineer
 Receive 10 CVs
9 from men, 1 from a woman
 Don’t review CVs
Just offer the job to the woman
Is this
A) Legal
B) Illegal
Question 1

wes.org.uk
Hold an open day for women only
Encourage women to apply for an engineering position
 Receive 10 CVs
This time 7 from men, 3 from women
 Review CVs – select best 4 candidates
 Interview 4 candidates – select best candidate for
the position – a man
Is this
A) Legal
B) Illegal
Question 2

wes.org.uk
What if the best candidate was a women?
If you voted “Legal” to Question 2 would you now
change your mind?
Question 3

wes.org.uk
 Question 1 – Receive 10 CVs, 1 from woman no
selection process, hire woman
Illegal
 Question 2 – Hold open day, 10 CVs, 3 from
women, fair selection process, man hired
Legal
 Question 3 – Hold open day, 10 CVs, 3 from
women, fair selection process, woman hired
Legal, but perceived to be illegal
Answer to Questions

wes.org.uk
Positive Discrimination v
Positive Action

wes.org.uk
“Choosing someone solely on the grounds of their
protected characteristic and not on their abilities”
“Treating one person more favourably than another on the
ground of that person’s disadvantage”
“Policy of providing special opportunities for and favouring
members of a disadvantage group who suffer from
discrimination”
Positive Discrimination Definition

wes.org.uk
“Intended to promote the opportunities of a defined
minority group within a society to give them equal
access to that of the privilege majority population.”
“Serves to balance or negate a disadvantage but is itself
unjust because its discriminating”
Positive discrimination is illegal under the UK
and European anti-discrimination laws
Positive Discrimination Definition

wes.org.uk
“The United States Constitution prohibits discrimination by federal
and state governments against their public employees.
Discrimination in the private sector is not directly constrained by the
Constitution, but has become subject to a growing body of federal
and state law.
Federal law prohibits discrimination in a number of areas, including
recruiting, hiring, job evaluations, promotion policies, training,
compensation and disciplinary action (Ref 6)
Discrimination is the main source of inequality
in the US labour market
Protected Characteristics

wes.org.uk
Positive discrimination is not to be confused with positive action
Positive action
Is voluntary and describes measures targeted at people with
protected characteristics to readdress past discriminations or to
offset disadvantages arising from existing attitudes, behaviours
and structures.
Positive action during recruitment became lawful
in the UK in April 2011
Positive Action Definition

wes.org.uk
Christopher McCrudden (ref 7) has identified 5 categories of
positive action:
1) Eradicating Prohibited Discrimination
Organizations taking positive steps to identify and update
policies which cause discrimination (i.e. how organizations
selects employees, conduct promotion and does business)
2) Purposefully Inclusive Polices
Use policies which don’t give preferential treatment to
disadvantage groups but uses general criteria as a basis
for giving special help (i.e. help to schools in poor areas)

wes.org.uk
3) Outreach
Run events in schools, targeting advertising, reserves spaces
for women during recruitment stages. This encourages
participation of disadvantage groups but doesn’t guarantee
definite results
4) Preferences
Give preferential treatment to members of a disadvantage group
5) Redefining Merit
Examine and redefine criteria that employers use for filling posts

wes.org.uk
Under the UK Equality Act 2010 there are 9 “protected characteristics” :
1) Age
2) Disability
3) Sex (man or woman)
4) Pregnancy and Maternity
5) Religion and Belief
6) Race
7) Marriage and civil partnerships
8) Sexual Orientation
9) Gender Reassignment (transitioning from one gender to another)
Protected Characteristics UK

wes.org.uk
For Europe the Treaty of Amsterdam came into effect in 1999 and
there are 6 “protected characteristics”: (European Court of Justice)
Article 141(4) makes express provision for the use of positive action.
1) Age
2) Disability
4) Religion and Belief
5) Racial or ethnic origin
6) Sexual Orientation

wes.org.uk
Under several USA state and federal laws there are 11 “protected
characteristics”:
1) Age (for workers over 40)
2) Disability
4) Pregnancy
5) Religion
6) Race
7) National Origin
8) Citizenship status (for citizens, permanent residents, refugees,
temporary residents and asylees)
9) Genetic Information (DNA results)
10) Bankruptcy or bad debts
11) Military service or affiliations
Most states also included Sexual Orientation
Some states included Gender reassignment and marriage

wes.org.uk
A company can take action if they think people who share a
protected characteristic:
■ Experience a disadvantage connected to that characteristic
■ Have needs that are different to a person who does not have
that characteristic
■ Have disproportionate low participation in an activity
A company may take actions to:
■ Minimise the disadvantage
■ Meet those needs
■ Encourage participation
Positive Action

wes.org.uk
Specifically engineering companies can1:
 Target training at women who are under-represented in
certain occupations or grades
 Provide training and special encouragement for returners to
the labour market
 Encourage women to apply for positions
 Choose to hire a women over a men, provided they are both
equally qualified for the position
 Place adverts and recruitment literature where women will
see them (i.e. WES Journal)
(1 http://www.diversitytoolkit.org.uk/glossary/_P/)
Positive Action

wes.org.uk
Specifically engineering companies can:
 Hold women only events
 Provide school placements / work experience for females
 Run internal forums
 Provide mentoring
 Provide funding for events which promote women in
engineering
A company cannot give a woman a job just
because she is a woman
Positive Action

wes.org.uk
Establishing the need for
Female Engineers

wes.org.uk
In the UK there is currently a shortage of engineers
 The Perkins report states we need 830k engineers by 2020
 Engineering UK states there will be 1.86 million engineering
jobs between now and 2020
 The UK currently produces 46k engineering graduates a
year. This needs to almost double to 87k a year
 Only 54% of those studying engineering actually go into
engineering, this needs to increase
 The UK currently produces 27k engineering apprenticeship
each year. This needs to almost treble to 69k a year
Engineering Shortage

wes.org.uk
 16% of the UK engineering graduates are women
 Only 27% of females studying engineering become engineers
 In Scotland its only 21%
 8.7% of engineers are female
 This reduces to 7% in Electronics
 4% of engineering apprentices are female
 1% in construction, planning and environment are female
But 51% of the UK population is female
Female Engineering Statistics

wes.org.uk
The UK has the worst percentage of females engineers in the world
But even the best (Latvia) has only 30%

wes.org.uk
An additional problem in the UK is that the title of
Engineer is not protected and very few people outside of
engineering knows what an engineer does
What do you think the following engineers do?
UK Engineering Status
 Motor Engineering
o Person in a garage who services / fixes your car
 Gas Engineer
o House wife
o Person who comes to your house to service / fix your gas central heating
 Domestic Engineer

wes.org.uk
The UK industry needs to do something different and
urgently if it wants to continue to compete worldwide in
engineering
More boys and girls need to enter engineering but the skills
gap can only be filled by encouraging girls to enter
engineering at the same rate as boys

wes.org.uk
Girls out perform boys at maths and science when they
are young, so they are capable of becoming engineers
but they either choose not to pursue these subjects or
are actively discouraged from studying them.

wes.org.uk
Pros and Cons of Positive Action

wes.org.uk
 Companies recognizes there is a problem and
want to change the gender balance
 Results in more women being hired which will
help fill the skills shortage gap
 Results in more women getting promotions
 Improves the social mix in the office
Positive Action Pros

wes.org.uk
 Could encourage women to enter engineering
as more chance of them climbing ladder quicker
 Could encourage women to stay in engineering
as company becomes more family friendly
 Leads to a more diverse company which
improves their business1 and will ensure that the
UK remains at the cutting edge of invention
1 The Bottom Line: Corporate Performance and Women’s Representation on Boards,
Catalyst Inc, October 2007 http://www.catalyst.org/file/139/bottom%20line%202.pdf
Positive Action Pros

wes.org.uk
 Devalues the accomplishment of people who are
chosen based on their gender
 If a woman gets the job did she get it through merit or
because she was a woman?
 Often results in the “token” women being appointed
 If senior women appointed onto a board there is often an
adverse reaction and an increase in anti-female sentiment.
 Replaces an old wrong with a new wrong
 Average white male now feels discriminated against
Positive Action Cons

wes.org.uk
 Could discourage women from entering engineering
 If positive action plan in place then there are perceived
problems
 Could discourage women from staying in engineering
 Due to hostile atmosphere in the work place
 At extreme can cause both genders not to work at
their best
 Males – what’s the point won’t get promotion
 Females – get selected anyway so don’t need to work hard
Positive Action Cons

wes.org.uk
Companies need to establish a baseline:
 Number of people in each protected category in
their company
 Pay structure of each group within their company
 Now mandatory in the UK
 What problem they are trying to solve
 Shortage of engineers
Company Actions

wes.org.uk
Companies need to:
 Set targets and timescales
 Identify how they plan to achieve these targets
 Measure rate of progress towards the targets
 Review and update targets
 Review job adverts and criteria to ensure they do
not exclude women
 Review working policies
 Ensure benefits given to women are also rolled out
across all the company
Company Actions

wes.org.uk
 For jobs and promotions there needs to be a fair,
open, unbiased, selection process at all levels
 This also means promotion through “the old boys club”
must stop
 The core problem of getting girls interested in
engineering needs to be solved
 Reward schools that get more girls to study physics
 Extend teacher training bounties to persuade more
women to teach maths, physics and design technology
 Encourage more female role models
Solutions

wes.org.uk
 Need to improve the image of engineering
 Emphasize the creative side of engineering
 De-emphasize the repairing machines image
 Need to promote engineering as a future career for
both girls and boys
 Need to set up programs to retain women
Within a generation we could make a step change
in the number of women entering engineering and
thus negate the need for positive action
Solution

wes.org.uk
1) UK - Employment Statutory Code of Practice
2) UK - Creating a fairer and more equal society
3) UK - A Step by Step Practical Guide to Using
Positive Action When Making Appointments
4) Europe - Amsterdam Treaty
5) Europe – Positive Action Measures to Ensure Full
Equality in Practice between Men and Women
including on Company Boards
6) USA – Employment Discrimination Law
Further information

wes.org.uk
“The UK Government support and protect the rights
of women by helping women to reach their full
potential in the workplace and by helping businesses
get the full economic benefit of women’s skills”
Further information
7) Positive Action Paper by Colm O’Cinneide UCL
8) C. MCCRUDDEN, ‘Rethinking Positive Action’
(1986) 15 Industrial Law Journal 219-243
9) Professor Sandra Fredman
10) Worldwide - Affirmative Action

wes.org.uk
Our Corporate Members

wes.org.uk
Our Event Partners

WE Europe 2015: The Pros and Cons of Positive Action

Recomendados

Recomendados

Mais conteúdo relacionado

Destaque

Destaque (12)

Semelhante a WE Europe 2015: The Pros and Cons of Positive Action

Semelhante a WE Europe 2015: The Pros and Cons of Positive Action (20)

Mais de Society of Women Engineers

Mais de Society of Women Engineers (20)

Último

Último (20)

WE Europe 2015: The Pros and Cons of Positive Action