Who needs a misogynist like Alan Sugar when we have a women's champion like Nicola Brewer, chief executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission? She has just alerted mothers to the undeniable truth that they have become "the parent who pays the career 'penalty' for having a child" and to the rather more deniable claim that this is an own goal, born of unrealistic expectations and made worse by a possible extension to the current 39 weeks' maternity leave.
Women must stop making demands that frighten the bosses, she says, citing Sugar. The reality-show host has said many employers bin the CVs of women of childbearing age (surely against the law, Sir Alan). To even things up, suggests Brewer, fathers should get paternity leave of 12 weeks, "paid at 90 per cent of their salary".
Great stuff! What next? The EHRC chairman, Trevor Phillips, telling black people to curb their enthusiasm for jobs, decent pay and political representation because it irks the BNP?
Meanwhile, here are the facts. Women, Nicola, do not get a year's or even 39 weeks' maternity leave at 90 per cent of their salary. They get six weeks. Thereafter they get a maximum £117.18 for 33 weeks. Thereafter, nothing. And in case anyone still fears that it costs too much to employ mothers, here's comfort. Look around your workplace. Female employees? They are the ones earning 17 per cent less than the chaps or, if part-time, 36 per cent less per hour.
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