Karren Brady, football executive and the Government’s new small business adviser, yesterday said childcare is the “biggest barrier” to getting more women in the workplace and urged schools to extend opening hours to reduce the burden on working parents
Karren Brady, the Government's new
small business tsar, has highlighted childcare as a major barrier for
women getting back into work.
The West Ham vice-chairman also warned that 50/50 equality between men and
women in business will never happen in her lifetime, as she addressed a Women
in the Workplace summit at Downing Street.
“Childcare is the biggest barrier for women in the workplace because if you
don’t have high quality affordable childcare, you are not going to leave
your children to go to work.
“Most of us won’t leave our children unless we go into a job that respects us,
pays us well and give us the opportunity that we want, and if you put a
barrier of quality childcare into that, it becomes even more difficult,” she
said.
The Apprentice star told the summit, hosted by chancellor George Osborne, that
“more needs to be done, particularly for people who run small businesses,”
to encourage more women into work and help them advance into senior
management roles.
“Getting schools to open early, so they can drop their children off, getting
them to stay a bit later so they can pick them up,” are crucial steps, she
said.
