Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant'
7th December 2012, 09:26
Shocking, but not surprising.
Ethnic minority women face discrimination "at every stage of the recruitment process", a report by MPs says. But what is finding a job like for those affected?
Jorden Berkeley, a black 22-year-old university graduate from London, spent four months applying for jobs but getting no responses from bigger companies, and offers from elsewhere that were limited to unpaid work experience.
Then a careers adviser suggested Miss Berkeley drop her first name and start using her middle name, Elizabeth.
"I did not really understand this seeing as my name isn't stereotypically 'ethnic' or hard to pronounce, but it was worth a try and I changed it anyway," she said. "I have been getting call backs ever since."
She added: "I have many, many friends who were effectively told to 'whiten' their CVs by dropping ethnic names or activities that could be associated with blackness. It was a very sad realisation."
"I had to be not as good as, but better than, others in order to receive the same recognition”
Edwardine Lochhart
Unemployment rates among ethnic minority women have remained consistently higher than for white women since the 1980s, the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) said in its report.
In 2011, the overall unemployment rate for ethnic minority women was 14.3%, compared with 6.8% for white women. Among Pakistani and Bangladeshi women it rose to 20.5%.
'Double jeopardy'
"All unemployment is equally tragic but women from ethnic minority backgrounds face a greater challenge to enter the labour market than most," said APPG chairman David Lammy.
They encounter discrimination from the job application stage onwards, in interviews, at recruitment agencies, and in the workplace itself, the report suggests.
It identified discrimination at job interview stage based on both gender and ethnicity, with black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women all reporting being questioned about their "intentions regarding marriage and children".
"This was often tied to assumptions based on ethnicity - for example it was assumed that Muslim women would want to stop work after having children," the report said.
(Full article at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20608039)
Ethnic minority women face discrimination "at every stage of the recruitment process", a report by MPs says. But what is finding a job like for those affected?
Jorden Berkeley, a black 22-year-old university graduate from London, spent four months applying for jobs but getting no responses from bigger companies, and offers from elsewhere that were limited to unpaid work experience.
Then a careers adviser suggested Miss Berkeley drop her first name and start using her middle name, Elizabeth.
"I did not really understand this seeing as my name isn't stereotypically 'ethnic' or hard to pronounce, but it was worth a try and I changed it anyway," she said. "I have been getting call backs ever since."
She added: "I have many, many friends who were effectively told to 'whiten' their CVs by dropping ethnic names or activities that could be associated with blackness. It was a very sad realisation."
"I had to be not as good as, but better than, others in order to receive the same recognition”
Edwardine Lochhart
Unemployment rates among ethnic minority women have remained consistently higher than for white women since the 1980s, the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) said in its report.
In 2011, the overall unemployment rate for ethnic minority women was 14.3%, compared with 6.8% for white women. Among Pakistani and Bangladeshi women it rose to 20.5%.
'Double jeopardy'
"All unemployment is equally tragic but women from ethnic minority backgrounds face a greater challenge to enter the labour market than most," said APPG chairman David Lammy.
They encounter discrimination from the job application stage onwards, in interviews, at recruitment agencies, and in the workplace itself, the report suggests.
It identified discrimination at job interview stage based on both gender and ethnicity, with black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women all reporting being questioned about their "intentions regarding marriage and children".
"This was often tied to assumptions based on ethnicity - for example it was assumed that Muslim women would want to stop work after having children," the report said.
(Full article at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20608039)