CSR management, Employees

Statistically, the pay gap means women are either paid less for doing the same work as men or generally do less highly valued jobs in the economy. In fact, of course, both are true. Leaving the Equal Opportunities Commission to address the former, Opportunity Now concentrates on the second half of the equation, offering advice and highlighting best practice - work-life balance, flexible hours, training, etc. And it can report good progress among its adherents, as reported above: women comprise 45% of private sector junior management positions, up 5% on last year; among middle managers, the proportion has risen from 27% to 33%.

One problem highlighted by the benchmark study is the small number of companies recording data on female managers from minority ethnic communities. This reflects widespread failure of UK companies to do the numbers on ethnic composition. In the US, Coca-Cola's failure is costing mega-bucks to put right. Interestingly, most of these resources are being spent outside the company, to change the whole environment of economic opportunity. Recruitment, training and promotion can have only limited impact in an era of lean, down-sized and outsourced corporations.

On this thirtieth anniversary, the lesson for supporters of Opportunity Now and the other diversity campaigns is to extend the focus to the wider economy. Look at your supply and distribution chains, check your bought-in services, review your wider support for enterprise initiatives. Then there is some hope that the next thirty years will show an accelerating pace of change.