I’m writing in response to your article ‘Diversity: all talk, no action?’ (Personnel Today, 22 March).
I do not believe that there should be a ‘case’ for increasing the number of women in the workplace without being realistic about what the organisation is actually committing to. Many organisations are true meritocracies, and I don’t think that we can assume, based on statistics, that women are being actively discriminated against at board level.
Many women are progressing in corporate environments, and many businesses recognise the need to nurture their careers. In today’s world, it is not in a corporation’s interests to block the right person for the job because of personal prejudices.
Take IT. It is widely regarded as a female-unfriendly industry, but there are plenty of examples of female IT business leaders. In fact, by its very nature, the industry is innovative enough to accommodate their needs. It can put policies into practice such as flexible working – providing remote access to allow women the option of working from home – which other companies only pay lip service to.
It is policies such as these that will capture the attention of bright young women, rather than diversity quotas and positive discrimination.
Naomi Elliott
Head of operations, customer services mobile engineering, Fujitsu Services
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