Women key to end crisis, says Cherie

Published on Saturday 28 February 2009 18:47

WOMEN should use the "opportunity" of the recession to prove their worth in the workplace, Cherie Blair has claimed.

The human rights lawyer and wife of former prime minister Tony Blair, said crisis-hit businesses were more likely to "take a chance" on recruiting a female worker.

"This is an opportunity for women to show how much they can contribute and be part of the solution and not the problem," she said in an interview for BBC1's Politics Show, due to be screened today.

"You often find in times when things are going bad, that people are more prepared to take a chance and give a woman a chance.

"It's often when business is in a crisis and it's trying to recruit somebody new and then men maybe think: 'Well, I don't know whether I want to touch that', and this can often be an opportunity for a woman to come in and make a difference."

Firms that did put women in key positions tended to do better, she said.

"Research tends to show, if you look, diverse people on the boards tend to do better in return and the money that's invested in them, than boards that are all full of, dare I say it, white males in suits."

She conceded that she had failed to help the cause of women's rights by taking a minimal amount of maternity leave when she had her own children, and said properly resourced childcare was needed.

"I was so determined to prove that I could be a barrister and have my children. But, you know, I took hardly any maternity leave at all.

"At the time, I thought: 'I'm really striking a blow here for women's equality.' Looking back, I think actually all I was doing was reinforcing the system," she said. "The key to this, I'm convinced, is absolutely well-funded, well-resourced childcare."

The mother-of-four recently issued some advice to US First Lady Michelle Obama, warning she will not be equal to her husband and her views will be silenced.

Blair recently told the US magazine More she believes President Barack Obama's wife cannot be seen to "have power". She added: "It's almost like you cannot afford to express any separate views. Whatever it is you're doing as First Lady it's not being equal."