Yvette Cooper pushes for boardroom quotas to up number of women at the table
Labour leadership hopeful Yvette Cooper has called on the government to consider introducing quotas for the number of women on corporate boards.
Cooper said last night that if she were Labour leader, she would introduce a new Equalities Act to “look at positive discrimination in areas such as the judiciary or executive boards where there are still too few women”.
Cooper was speaking at an event to launch her so-called “women’s equality plan”. She also promised to push for free universal childcare for two, three and four-year-olds, and campaign for a “proper” living wage to benefit social carers.
More controversially, Cooper proposed introducing sex education in schools for children as young as seven. The current age for compulsory sex education is 11.
A spokesperson for the Cooper campaign told City A.M. that the proposed curriculum would focus on “respecting other people” with younger students, while teens would be taught about such issues as the dangers of sending illicit text messages.