HR jobs

The latest personnel jobs - including all HR vacancies from PM magazine.
Search HR jobs

CIPD membership

Become a member of the CIPD and receive People Management Magazine FREE.
See CIPD member benefits

Football lessons in leadership

Football's a funny old game - but Steve Crabb still believes that excellent examples of leadership skills can be found on the pitch

Site map

Search and Subject Links

All subjects:

Search People Management

This site is the online magazine for the CIPD Opens in a new window

Home > All site sections > Blogs > Editors' blog

Resigned to inequalities?

Comment

Comment on the blogs

Become a member

Lucy Phillips

24 Sep 2008 | 15:55

Forward to a colleague

Colleague’s email address

Your name

Your email address

Personal message
(Maximum of 120 characters)

Articles more than one month old can be viewed only by CIPD members or PM Subscribers.

I was disappointed by today’s announcement that Ruth Kelly is to leave the Cabinet. Not because I think she’s a fantastic minister (there are very few of those about at the moment), but I was sad to hear her reasons behind the decision. Stepping back to spend more time with her family sends out a message that it is not possible to combine motherhood with a senior government position. While I applaud her for lasting this long (combining taking care of four children under the age of 11 and such a high-profile position is no mean feat), her resignation says much about female career progression and the gender pay gap associated with it. If the government can’t put its own house in order and allow women the flexibility required to combine a top job and a family, what hope do other employers have? Undoubtedly, business needs more female role models and, unfortunately, women MPs have just lost a major one. For this reason, I can only hope that her family was the real reason behind her exit, and not any rift with the leadership or policy direction as some commentators have indicated. It would be a cruel blow to women’s rights otherwise.