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Wainwright Trust
Evening 2008
The 2008 panel: Heather Wakefield,Tess Gill, Fiona Bartels-Ellis and David Ruebain (Photo: Steve Teague Photography)
The 2008 Wainwright Trust Evening took place on 30 June 2008 at the Royal Society of Medicine, London. The panel was Tess Gill, a leading barrister specialising in discrimination and equal rights; Heather Wakefield, the national secretary for local government for Unison; David Ruebain, legal policy director at the Equality and Human Rights Commission; and Fiona Bartels-Ellis, head of equality and diversity at the British Council. Raj Ray of Lehman Brothers, who was to have been on the panel, had to withdraw because of a family problem and Fiona Bartels-Ellis took his place literally at 15 minutes' notice: she arrived expecting just to be a member of the audience! The panel chair was Ray Lewis, at that time Deputy Mayor of London for Young People.
  
Trustee Fitzroy Andrew, introducing the event, Tess Gill and David Ruebain
(Photos: Steve Teague Photography)
In her introductory remarks, Tess Gill castigated the press coverage of the Equality Bill for misrepresenting the effect of some measures and ignoring others. She was disappointed that the Government was not doing more to promote the benefits of the Bill. David Ruebain took up the same theme, pointing out that the positive discrimination aspects were extremely modest and praising in particular the public sector duty in the Bill. He said that the Equality and Human Rights Commission would be making strong efforts to combat age discrimination, which had hitherto been a relatively neglected area.
  
Fiona Bartels-Ellis, Heather Wakefield and, in the chair, Ray Lewis
(Photos: Steve Teague Photography)
Fiona Bartels-Ellis was especially concerned about the effect of job overload, often resulting from reorganization, and its impact on those with family responsibilities. Heather Wakefield said that her biggest concern was the persisting pay gap between men and women. She attacked the argument that this was largely down to women's occupational choices, saying she did not want women care workers to choose to become gardeners because of pay differentials. Change was difficult partly because 60% of councillors were white males over the age of 60.
Bob Niven, formerly chair of the Disability Rights Commission, makes his point
(Photo: Steve Teague Photography)
Unsurprisingly, much of the subsequent discussion concerned the Equality Bill and David Ruebain found himself fielding many of the questions. Nevertheless, many other issues arose, such as the need to move away from the concept of getting rid of discrimination to the concept of the rights of all workers. The Belgian system of requiring the election of one man and one woman in each constituency was praised as bringing the "parity of power" necessary for gender equality. There was also discussion about the perpetuation of unhelpful attitudes amongst managers through what Fiona Bartels-
Ellis described as cultural cloning.
  
Robin Allen QC asks a question, Denise Milani of the Metropolitan Police defends their record and Sandra Kerr of Race for Opportunity listens to an answer
(Photos: Steve Teague Photography)
The panel session was followed by a buffet supper served in the Atrium of the Royal Society of Medicine, enabling discussion to continue.
Keith Stewart, Debbie Lane (former Breakthrough Winner), David Bell (one of the Trustees) and Anver Jevanjee eat, drink and talk (Photo: Steve Teague Photography)
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