Last Tuesday I went for a job interview at a local snooker club.  I had spoken to the bar manager on the phone the day before and was asked my age (I assumed that this was for legal reasons) and also had to explain that I wouldn’t be able to come in for interview until the following day as I had my children at home.

There had been 3 jobs advertised: an assistant manager post, a bar staff post and a functions coordinator post.  With bar experience, project management and events coordination experience under my belt; I felt that I was qualified to fulfill any of the three roles.

The following day, I went in for the interview expecting to be asked about my previous experience and personal qualities; this did not happen.  When I explained that I was interested in any of the jobs, the manager told me that she was not happy to consider me for the assistant manager role as it would be too much of a commitment for someone with children.  When it came to discussing the bar staff role, instead of being asked about my previous bar work, I was asked what I intended to do with my children whilst I worked.  At this point I had to ask her why she needed to know; she duly explained that in her role as a manager, she had to ensure that her staff were reliable and therefore she would not be happy to take on a young person (in fact she had only agreed to interview me because of my age), or anyone who had to rely on public transport to get to work and her reason for discriminating against mothers came from having had to combine work and parenting herself in the past.

This kind of discrimination is not new; this is why, since the 70’s the Government has been introducing laws to protect people’s rights.  The Equal Pay and Sex Discrimination Acts preclude discrimination in employment matters on the grounds of gender, marital status or family responsibilities and the recent Equalities Act precludes discrimination on the grounds of age.

It is appalling that managers are still flouting these rules for their own convenience, and even more shocking to find that this discrimination is being practiced by a woman who is clearly aware of the barriers that mothers are faced with in employment having been through the system herself.  What makes it worse is that she had the audacity to try and justify her discriminatory recruitment practices as being good business sense.