Gorst called on to act on Jersey’s “Glass Ceiling”

Tuesday 01 December 2015

A report that found women hold just a fraction of the top jobs in the finance sector and States boards has called for more action to break the glass ceiling.

The Jersey Community Relations Trust has called on the States to achieve a balance of the sexes in top jobs within the civil service and on States-owned companies and boards.

And they say that the Chief Minister should not just set a 50% target – he should report each year on progress towards it, and take steps to improve childcare provision to stop women having to choose between having children, or having a family.

Chief Minister Ian Gorst faces questions in the States on the subject this morning, with Deputy Louise Doublet quizzing him on whether he accepts the recommendations of the “Jersey Women in Business” report, and what he intends to do about it.

The report found:

- Just 12 out of 19 position on States-appointed boards are held by women, which works out at 15%.

- Of  law firms with ten or more partners, just 21% of partner roles are held by women.

- Of the CEO positions at the top five banks in Jersey, none are held by women.

The report said that women in Jersey were effectively forced to choose between family and career.

It said: “Almost without exception women with children felt that having children could be a barrier to success or certainly child care responsibilities made it more difficult to succeed.

“It was certainly perceived by some women that having children had set their career back by a number of years and that those years were the years when men had forged ahead in terms of promotion and pay.

“Women also often thought that they were not paid at the same level as men for performing similar jobs and this was a result of institutional mind sets in that men were paid based on potential and that men were more ambitious than women.”