International Women's Day

Lord Sugar Excerpts

Thursday 3rd March 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sugar]

My Lords, I am grateful to have the opportunity to join the debate, and my reasoning will possibly become evident later. Over the past 40 years, I have had the good fortune to employ a number of women in senior executive positions, and I have to say that I have found women in business to be very focused, determined and ambitious. Indeed, in top management positions, they seem to place little importance on building ego and simply get on with the job in hand in a very efficient manner.

About two years ago, I was asked to give an interview to two lady journalists from the Daily Telegraph. The interview was supposed to be about entrepreneurs, enterprise, young people and all that stuff, but it came to an abrupt halt when they brought up the subject of women in work, pregnancy and childcare regulations. I have found that a bit of sensitivity arises when someone like me speaks out on these matters. It tends to spark off in some people a kind of knee-jerk reaction and they do not seem to hear or want to hear what I am saying. Regrettably, what was reported in that newspaper did not reflect my sentiments, so I am grateful to my noble friend Lady Gould for tabling this debate as I will be able to air the point I wish to make—and this time I have Hansard to fall back on for the record.

My point, very simply, is that I believe that employment regulations for women, whereby the prospective employer is not able to inquire about the interviewee’s status regarding children, childcare, or indeed their intention of becoming a parent are counterproductive. And I think that some women may agree with me on this. As things stand, regardless of the current laws and regulations, interviewers are forced to play out some kind of psychological charade. They know their obligations under the law, but effectively in some cases they make up their mind in advance about the prospect of employing the person sitting in front of them.

I say that, when being interviewed, women should be forthcoming by declaring their status regarding children and childcare so as to pre-empt any “unaskable” questions in the mind of the interviewer, and then to focus on the most important thing: explaining what skills they can bring to the company and why they should be employed. I, for one, would be very impressed with a person who settled the matter at the outset, telling me how they are going to organise their life in order to do their job, but more importantly, how they are going to get on with the job in hand and what they are going to bring to the party. Such people would jump up in my estimation.

As I have already said, I have had the pleasure of employing many women in executive positions over the years. The managing director of my French operation had three children—in fact, she had one of her children while she was employed by me. She controlled that market much better than I could ever have done. The same could be said for the lady who ran my Hong Kong branch, a job she did so well that I seconded her to the UK to head up my manufacturing operations worldwide. Additionally, those noble Lords who are familiar with the television programme with which I am associated will know that for the last two years running, a woman has won, one of whom is now on maternity leave. She has done a very good job and, of course, the position is open for her when she returns. Perhaps I may also add that my assistant on the programme, Karren Brady—the noble Baroness, Lady Heyhoe-Flint, will appreciate this—has spent the whole of her working life in football at the highest level. She was the youngest ever woman to be a public company director and has openly managed her life around her children without ever feeling the need to keep it a secret. I could not finish without mentioning Margaret Mountford, of course—my noble friend Lady Scotland will appreciate this—who, trust me, is a person.

Sometimes the law can be foolish and counterproductive. I urge women going after jobs to be bold and upfront during the interview process. Let me leave noble Lords with this final thought: while I have been talking and referring to the “interviewer”, the person most probably imprinted in noble Lords’ minds is a man. This should not be assumed. I have to say that the scepticism—the charade that I spoke of earlier—is played out equally by both genders.