Feminist myths and magic medicine: the flawed thinking behind calls for further equality legislation

Abstract

In this report, Dr Hakim shows that: equal opportunity policies, in regards to women’s access to the labour market in the UK, have been successful; calls for further equality inititiatives (as in the recent Coalition document, The Equalities Strategy), are based on the outdated and wrong assumption that equality of outcomes is either desirable or feasible; the latest acdemic research proves that many men and women have different career aspirations, priorities and life goals. Policy makers should therefore not expect the same job outcomes; calls for further employment legislation targetted at women (eg for quotas on boards of FTSE-100 comanies) should be resisted