| Mark Carney has shown he understands the importance of bringing in women and nurturing them in their careers Anomalous. A word meaning not normal. The word Mark Carney, the new Governor of the Bank of England, used to describe the absence of women from the monetary policy committee, the body that the government appoints to call the shots on interest rates. And he didn't merely express his surprise, he went on to show that he actually understands the importance of bringing in women at every level and nurturing them in their careers so that when the big jobs come up, they have the kind of CV the appointments board is looking for. Quite aside from his words on the social purpose of banking, and the new linkage between unemployment and interest rates, this feels like a genuine departure. Not a flash in the pan either, for Mr Carney has already conceded to Caroline Criado-Perez's campaign to get a woman on a banknote, and he has brought in Charlotte Hogg as chief operating officer. On Thursday he pointed out that women in senior jobs are essential, not least in order to achieve a real diversity of views. It almost seemed that he thought it was a little weird to need to talk about it at all. But the good news, as usual, is tempered by the less good. At about the same time that Mr Carney was on the Today programme sounding bewildered at the scarcity of senior women, the law firm Slater and Gordon was publishing new research on the experience of working mothers. Onepoll.com questioned nearly 2,000 women who had gone back to work after having a baby. Half of them reported that they found attitudes changed as soon as they were pregnant. Even more felt their career progression had stalled once they went back to work, even though they felt they were working harder than ever. They found the attitude to flexible working was often unhelpful. This, as many new mothers already know, is what is being increasingly recognised as the baby penalty. Two generations after the rebirth of the women's rights movement and equal pay legislation, progress seems to have stalled. It doesn't need to be like this. In Mark Carney's Canada, four-fifths of women with children under 16 work, they fill nearly 40% of managerial positions, and they were less badly affected by unemployment in Canada's (much shorter) recession than in the UK's. In fact, up until 2007, Britain had been crawling slowly up accountancy firm PcW's women-in-work index. Now it has sunk to a lowly 18th, while Canada is in sixth place. Only the US has fallen further, faster. A big part of the problem is the affordability and availability of childcare. But there is a more complicated story to tell, about the culture of discrimination revealed so outrageously on Twitter, and about girls' expectations and attitudes as well as employers'. We report elsewhere a new baby boom. Attitudes will surely have to change. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  | |||
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