L18:Should Women Be Treated the Same as Men?

For Women, There Is a Long Way to Go

One-third of the people at work in Britain are women. By 1975 they will, by law, be on a footing of equal pay with men. Their prospects of reaching the top, however, are still far from equal.
A recently-published study called Women in Top Jobs examines why this should be so. For the purposes of this study four researchers, two men and two women, chose women in top management in two business organizations and women in senior jobs in the BBC and the Civil Service. In their findings they found that although there are conventional and entrenched attitudes on both sides, there is a widespread awareness that no society can afford not to utilise ability.

The studies confirm that there is no basic difference be tween the standards and quality of work performance of women who have reached top jobs and those of men in similar positions. Nevertheless, there emerged some distinctive factors in the performance of women in top jobs. Women were less interested in empire-building, in office politics, in status symbols. They are likely to be less forceful and competitive than men.

In the past, women tended to assume they would be overtaken y men in the race to the top. However, today's young women are far less philosophical about their status and are more aggressive in their resentment at being treated as in some way inferior to men. On the other hand, since lack of drive is one of the criticisms levelled against women, perhaps this aggression is a positive advantage. Some young women, though, find it very difficult to come to terms with the feeling hat characteristics of authority which are acceptable in men are often not acceptable in women.

A reason often advanced for women failing to reach the top is their desire for balance between work and a life outside work. Employers know this and tend, when a woman with young children applies for promotion, to treat the fact that she has young children as an important factor and, given the choice, are more likely to give promotion to a man than to her.
What about women whose children are almost grown up? Well, the writers of the study recommend a much more positive approach by employers to women who want to return to their careers after their children are off their hands.

II.Read
Read t6e following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.

1. What Women's Lib Is about

Women's Lib is short for the Women's Liberation Movement which got its name in America some years ago. Its supporters demand their freedom and equality with men.
In this dialogue Sheila believes in Women's Lib while Harry has his doubts.

Harry:   I've never understood what this Women's Lib business is all about.I can
understand women in some countries struggling for their rights. But it
strikes me that here in Britain women havc already?got as much freedom
as they could possibly want. They've got the vote, they can go to
university, they can compete with men in the professions on equal
terms...
Sheila:   Rubbishl You're fooling yourself. How many women members of Parliament
are there? About 30 out of 635. How many women company directors? How
many trade union leaders? How many judges?

Harry:   Not many, I agree. But why is that? Maybe their talents don't lie in
those directions. Perhaps they prefer to be housewives.
Sheila:   Prefer to be housewives? You can't have any idea what it's like,
when you've been married fifteen years and you've cleaned a house every
day; then your husband and kids come along and mess it all up again.
Can you imagine the monotony, the boredom, the frustration?
Harry:   Oh yes, I can imagine it easily enough. But don't forget that a lot of  ,
men have equally bor