Women can be impossible. For years they fought for the right to have their home-made cupcakes with the children and go out to work. They not only wanted to be treated in the same way as their male colleagues in the office, they wanted to have more time to bond with their babies at home.
Finally the government complied. While in America mothers still only get three months unpaid maternity leave, British mothers will soon receive a year’s paid leave. What a coup. Not only that, mothers can ask for flexible hours until their children are 16 so that they can be back in time to burn the fishfingers and still expect the same promotion as their male counterparts.
So why are women complaining? According to Nicola Brewer, chief executive of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, these new maternity benefits have actually been a disaster. Companies are never going to employ a plump 30-year-old woman wearing a baggy jumper just in case she might be about to announce the happy news of her impending twins.
Sir Alan Sugar was blunt about it in an interview he gave to Rachel Sylvester and me this year. ?If someone comes to an interview and you think to yourself that there is a possibility that she might have a child and therefore take time off, it is a psychological negative thought,? he told us.
