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A 1984 survey revealed that 60 per cent of organisations in the UK operate equal opportunities policies. What is the significance of this in practice? Statistics continue to show inequalities between various categories of workers – men and women, black and white, able‐bodied and disabled. The article looks at some broader questions about overall policy approach, and includes an investigation into unequal opportunities and the solutions offered, in relation to the Equal Opportunities Code.

While there is a general awareness that the proportion of women in the workforce is gradually rising, some of the features of this increase in female employment are less well understood. For example, between 1951 and 1971 the proportion of women workers in the labour force rose from 34.7 to 43.0 per cent. However, this increase masks an important change in the composition of the female workforce. In the same period the percentage of married women in the female workforce rose from 38.2 to 63.1 per cent. This growth of married women within the workforce has been paralleled by a growth in part‐time work. In fact, since the early 1960s most of the increase in the number of women entering employment has been due to a growth in part‐time rather than full‐time employees.

Should managing diversity be seen as an attack on, or a contribution to, attempts to achieve greater workplace equality? Reviews US practitioner literature and US and UK research on the operation of equal opportunities policies. Suggests that there are two distinct strands to managing diversity approaches: one focusing on individual differences, the other on social group characteristics. Assesses the consequences both of a policy focus on differences and an individual versus a group approach to identifying these. Argues that both managing diversity and equal opportunity approaches could provide useful lessons.

The rise of large out‐of‐town stores has received attention in terms of concern about the viability of town centres and local businesses and the environmental consequences of the increased car journeys generated by this change in shopping practices. This article explores whether the competitive pressures which small retailers are under have affected their employee relations. It is based on interviews with owner managers of butchers, greengrocers and newsagent shops in one location. Owner managers had different assessments of the nature of the competition they were facing and how they might continue to have a viable business. However, approaches to recruitment and selection and staff allocation seemed to have more to do with the limited labour market and the personal nature of the employment relationship than the approach taken to competition. Low wages, long hours and limited training remained the dominant features of both successful and unsuccessful businesses.

Examines the attitudes of senior, predominantly male staff to women managers in a specific industrial setting ‐ namely the West Midlands region of the UK ‐ using data derived from the Price Waterhouse West Midlands Business Survey. The survey is unique in that it is focused on eliciting the opinions of the senior management level in companies. Finds women to be significantly under‐represented at the senior management level in West Midlands businesses. In a region which is characterized by heavy manufacturing industry, identifies differences in attitudes to women managers by the respondent’s industrial sector, size of company and by individual managers’ educational background. Concludes with a discussion of some of the policy implications of the findings.

This editorial aims to explore some of the reasons why women and men do not experience the revolutionary forces of new technologies in the same way.

The paper reviews a series of research and conceptual papers which were first presented at a seminar at the University of Cambridge organised by the Economic and Social Research Council's Gender Equality Network

Taken together, the papers show the dynamic interdependence of work undertaken in both the public and private spheres and the role of different forms of new technologies in influencing inequalities in the division of labour

The collection of papers is probably unique in that its focus is not just on paid work but also on the implications of technological change for gender equality in domestic labour.

Work, gender and the future Volume 10 Number 2 of the Journal of Ørganizational Change Management includes an article with this title, by 0ystein Gullväg Holter. It contrasts the ideology of “productionism” with the rising importance of people‐oriented work (“reproduction”) and the struggle for equal gender status. Examines economic factors that discriminate against reproduction and women's activities, and explores ways to overcome these barriers to equality.