Letter: Women's employment in a changing labour market

Sir: The Income Data Services report published this week highlights trends that the Equal Opportunities Commission has been pointing to for some time about the changing nature of the labour market and the impact on women. While agreeing with many of the points made in your leading article (10 May), we were disappointed by the suggestion in the headline that 'Women are making men redundant'.

The assertion is not substantiated by existing research and research being conducted by the EOC. This shows that the large growth in women's employment over the last 20 years has been achieved through the expansion of particular sectors - such as the service sector - in which most employees are already women, and not by women taking over existing male jobs.

Your implication that in relative terms women are the winners and men the losers in the dramatic shake-out of manufacturing jobs is rather a tenuous one. All the evidence shows that the new jobs being created tend to be low-paid and low-skilled, with few promotion prospects and less access to benefits and pension rights. Far from taking men's jobs, it is much more likely that women are getting the sort of jobs that men are not prepared to take.

The key question for the country now is how to ensure that women and men have a real stake in building a productive society which realises the full potential of everyone in the working population.

Yours sincerely,

VALERIE AMOS

Chief Executive

Equal Opportunities Commission

London, W1

12 May