Tag Archives: gender equality

Opinion: What are we going to do about male underperformance?

By Kiron Reid | Tue 11th February 2014 - 12:09 pm

What is our society going to do about underachievement by males? It is well documented at school level that girls overall significantly outperform boys. This is now repeated at University level. In non-science subjects admissions are large majority female. In nearly all subject areas females outperform males on average by up to 10% (more exaggerated in arts and social sciences). There is the same pattern in graduate jobs. If you look at the professions: medicine, dentistry, vets, law, the new intake is heavily female dominated. New members of barristers’ chambers, solicitors’ firms and accountancy practices are usually overwhelmingly female.

Look at …

Posted in News | 27 Comments

Opinion: Gender blindness or… why we don’t want token women

By Jade Holden and Ewan Hoyle and Eilidh Dickson | Fri 15th March 2013 - 1:21 pm

To the delight of many party members, Mark Pack recently announced his decision to decline invitations to sit on all-male panels at Liberal Democrat fringes, urging other men to take the same course of action. A few of us, however, feel uncomfortable with the suggestion that women should be invited to speak for their contribution to the diversity of the panel, rather than for what they can bring to the debate.

Currently, anybody who is invited to speak at a fringe can be confident that they have been asked – obvious choice or not – because somebody thought they had something …