At the conference on Wednesday, Hewitt outlined new work/life balance rights coming into effect in April. "From April 2003, parents with children under six or disabled children under 18 will have the right to ask their employer to consider seriously their requests to work flexibly," she said. Also from April, the standard rate of maternity pay will increase to £100 a week and paternity pay will be introduced. Paid maternity leave will go up from 18 to 26 weeks, with a further six months of unpaid leave also available. Industry initiatives
The problem of why women are not reaching the top jobs in IT is not something that can be fixed by legislation alone. Hewitt referred to examples of where companies are making an effort to address the issue of attracting girls into the industry. Computer Clubs for Girls has support from Dell and the South East England Development Agency. The Department for Education and Skills is now investigating a national rollout of the clubs. The Science and Engineering Ambassadors actively encourage women to act as role models for others to follow their lead. Volunteers from many scientific communities have signed up, with a large proportion of women from IT among them. In 2001 about 32,000 boys passed an IT GCSE compared to 24,000 girls although girls scored a marginally higher success rate than boys. The importance of attracting women to IT when they are at school was emphasised by Hewitt, who referred to the ITbeat competition launched in November. Sue Opley of the British Computer Society, who has attended various Women in IT conferences for the past 12 years, made the forceful point to the secretary of state that nothing has really changed. Hewitt parried by saying it was not for the government to tell industry how to improve its behaviour. According to Opley, the IT industry needs to review its embedded ageism and address reskilling throughout the workforce.
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