Quality | 2009.11.08
Women are their own worst enemies, says Lord Sugar
Lord Sugar, the government\'s enterprise "champion", was criticised by the TUC today after saying women were more likely than men to discriminate against female employees.
The businessman and star of TV\'s The Apprentice also hinted he would be reluctant to give a full-time job to a pregnant woman, and suggested that he may resign as an unpaid government adviser because he is attracting too many negative headlines.
When Gordon Brown took the surprise decision to give Sugar a peerage and appoint him as an enterprise tsar, some Labour figures complained because of the way Sugar has treated female contestants on The Apprentice.
In an interview at the weekend, Sugar said the suggestion he did not employ women was "outrageous". He said women were more likely than men to discriminate against a female employee on the grounds of gender. "Women are the biggest offenders. Women know about women," he said. "They think to themselves, she\'s young, she\'s attractive, she\'s going to get a boyfriend, what\'s going to happen. Women think about it more than men, in my opinion."
When asked if he would give a job to a woman who was pregnant, he initially told the interviewer: "Why would anyone give anybody a job knowing ... unless it was a temporary job." But subsequently he said he could imagine why he might want to give a full-time job to a woman expecting a baby.
Sarah Veale, the TUC\'s head of equality and employment rights, said: "It\'s this kind of dated attitude that makes working life a real struggle for many women. Fortunately, most businesses value men and women on equal terms and recognise the enormous value women bring to the workplace."
Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat equality spokeswoman, said: "It\'s really unfortunate that someone who has been brought in to play a role for government should be speaking about women in such pejorative terms. He appears to be saying \'this is the way of the world\' when he should be trying to tackle these problems."
Sugar, who was criticised last week for saying that some small businesses did not deserve to receive bank loans, also said he has having second thoughts about accepting the post, which he descibed as enterprise "champion" not enterprise tsar.
"Too much negative stuff is really unhelpful. I may decide that this is simply not worth it, when you are giving your time free of charge for no agenda," he said.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/nov/08/lord-alan-sugar-women-work
