Critically assess how effective employment law is as a means of altering social attitudes.
LABOUR LAW COURSEWORK BY ADRIAN SHUM. TITLE: Critically assess how effective employment law is as a means of altering social attitudes. To assess how effective employment law is a means of altering social attitudes I aim to thoroughly examine whether respective legislation has sufficiently enabled women to enter and progress in professional employment on an equal footing with men. Hence, has there been a lifting of the so called 'glass ceiling', which Browne defines as, "An invisible barrier of discrimination which makes it difficult for women to reach the same top level in their chosen careers as men."1 Alternatively, I aim to evaluate, does the mere avoidance of discrimination carry with it little prospect of significant overall improvement in the socio-economic position of women. Thus, is there a need in the UK for more proactive measures such as legislation permitting or even obliging positive discrimination and compulsory affirmative/positive action, to remove the inequalities that remain. Before doing as such I feel it is imperative to differentiate between and explain what positive discrimination and affirmative/positive action are. Positive discrimination is where for example an employer restricts applicants for a particular job to women or automatically appoints a woman, and the only reason for such is that women may be underrepresented in the position in