"Women to get priority over men in job market under new guidelines"

Just interested to see what anyone thought of this:

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/849250-women-to-get-priority-over-men-in-job-market-under-new-guidelines

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1335054/Employers-given-right-hire-women-men-positive-discrimination-laws.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8177872/Britain-embraces-positive-action-to-abolish-workplace-discrimination.html

Basically, women and ethnic minorities are now able to be hired over equally qualified white male candidates, purely to boost the diversity of the company.

Your thoughts? Particularly interested to hear from feminists on this one - they always say that they only want equality, so it'd be interesting to see if they support this discriminating policy.

Fully disagree.

Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong. On just so many many levels.

Reply 3

edd360

15

What a load of *******s. How on earth can they not see the irony of this?

Reply 4

lovely_me

18

Another policy with the stench of the EU about it. :rolleyes:

As a feminist, I disagree with that policy. The best qualified ought to have the job, and legislation should ensure that. Not legislation to choose one group over another.

How can discrimination to stop discrimination be allowed?

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 5

katyness

16

With so many things to worry about, this is what they come up with?

Reply 6

mel0n

17

One should not get priority over the other. They should both be treated equally. The fact that women will now get priority suggests that men were getting it before. Either way there is a level of discrimination and this clearly isn't the way to eradicate it. The person who is best suited to the job, regardless of their gender, should be given the job.

However, the article, at least the Metro one that I clicked, does state that the employer will choose the female where they are both of equal merit therefore if a woman is genuinely better than the man in the first place then she'll get the job, and if a man is actually better than the woman then he will get the job. It seems that this 'scheme' will only apply where there is no other criteria by which to choose one or the other as they are both as good as each other. Although I do still agree that gender probably isn't the best criteria on which to decide this.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 7

The Cornerstone

16

When will the day come where we are judged in our individual merits? This is just as wrong as the discrimination ethnic minorities received before.

Reply 8

Fat-Love

15

I was about to call this a pile of **** but as I read the first article to my knowledge they can only choose the woman over the man if she has at least the same ability as the man. So there's nothing super wrong in that the woman could at least do everything the man could. Though I'd still be inclined to hire the man because there's not a high chance he's suddenly gonna take a 'gap yah' while he has kids and takes maternity leave.

Good and Bad.

Jeez, these muppets in government seem to be on a mission to make sure each policy is more ridiculous than the last. General strike soon anyone? Don't know about you, but I'm pretty fed up with these lot after seven months, and don't fancy waiting much longer to let them know their policies aren't welcome this century.

Reply 11

mel0n

17

Original post by Fat-Love

I was about to call this a pile of **** but as I read the first article to my knowledge they can only choose the woman over the man if she has at least the same ability as the man. So there's nothing super wrong in that the woman could at least do everything the man could. Though I'd still be inclined to hire the man because there's not a high chance he's suddenly gonna take a 'gap yah' while he has kids and takes maternity leave.

Yeah this is quite true. I also think it would be slightly unfair to the man to know that he could have got the job if only he wasn't up against a woman - though I suppose the same could be said vice versa at the moment, women might think 'I might have got that job if I wasn't up against a man'. It's a bit of a pointless piece of legislation imo :colondollar:

Reply 12

BorisMalden

OP

10

Original post by TobeTheHero

Good and Bad.

In what way good?

Reply 13

Digit_Five

7

Seems slightly unfair that I have to be twice as good as someone else to get the same job just because I was born a white man.

Reply 14

SmartFool

I don't see how this is unfair, they need to do something to stop the severe lack of women and ethnic minorities in the workplace, so why not this? If not this then what do people suggest to make sure the underdogs are not discriminated against?

Reply 15

BorisMalden

OP

10

Original post by SmartFool

I don't see how this is unfair, they need to do something to stop the severe lack of women and ethnic minorities in the workplace, so why not this? If not this then what do people suggest to make sure the underdogs are not discriminated against?

If there is a severe lack of women/ethnic minorities in the workplace (which I don't think is the case), and they've been given the same educational opportunities, surely it just means that they're not as well suited for the jobs? It's only in the interest of the employer to hire the best candidate, they wouldn't just be hiring white men to discriminate against others.

Reply 16

SmartFool

Original post by midpikyrozziy

If there is a severe lack of women/ethnic minorities in the workplace (which I don't think is the case), and they've been given the same educational opportunities, surely it just means that they're not as well suited for the jobs? It's only in the interest of the employer to hire the best candidate, they wouldn't just be hiring white men to discriminate against others.

Not suited for the jobs how? Employers have discriminated against women (especially in their 20s) because of their likely "maternity leave" they could be just as good if not better than the man yet because of this don't get the job, not really fair is it? Yeah your probably right they won't be hiring White men just to discriminate, but perceived/general stereotypes of a group of ethnic minorities are especially low, as humans we all judge others initially on appearance, if your perceived notions of a group of ethnics are low, it's going to take a lot for the candidate of ethnic origin to prove he is equal/better than the other who there was no preconceived notions about. Just a thought.