In a speech made in the House of Lords, Lord Alan Sugar expressed his opinion that employment regulations, which mean that an interviewer is not able to ask a female applicant about children, childcare or an intention to become a parent, are counterproductive.
Lord Sugar made the comments during a House of Lords debate ahead of International Women’s Day. He said: “I believe that employment regulations for women, whereby the prospective employer is not able to inquire about the interviewee’s status regarding children, childcare, or indeed their intention of becoming a parent are counterproductive. And I think that some women may agree with me on this. As things stand, regardless of the current laws and regulations, interviewers are forced to play out some kind of psychological charade. They know their obligations under the law, but effectively in some cases they make up their mind in advance about the prospect of employing the person sitting in front of them.”
“I say that, when being interviewed, women should be forthcoming by declaring their status regarding children and childcare so as to pre-empt any ‘unaskable’ questions in the mind of the interviewer, and then to focus on the most important thing: explaining what skills they can bring to the company and why they should be employed. I have had the good fortune to employ a number of women in senior executive positions, and I have to say that I have found women in business to be very focused, determined and ambitious. Indeed, in top management positions, they seem to place little importance on building ego and simply get on with the job in hand in a very efficient manner.”
He concluded by saying: “Let me leave noble Lords with this final thought: while I have been talking and referring to the “interviewer”, the person most probably imprinted in noble Lords’ minds is a man. This should not be assumed. I have to say that the scepticism – the charade that I spoke of earlier – is played out equally by both genders.”
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