The fight for real equality

Two weeks ago, I spoke about a young black woman who had to put a more white-sounding name on her CV before she started getting called for interviews. Such racism in 21st century Britain, I said, was a disgrace.

Because of our belief in equality of opportunity, as opposed to equality of outcome, for too long we have thought the only barrier to success was a lack of a decent education. Of course, that’s the most important thing – and it’s why school reform has been at the heart of our plan in government. But we need to sweep away the other things holding people back, not least discrimination. Put another way, you can give someone all the opportunities in the world – a brilliant school, first-class training, decent jobs – but it’s no good if they’re prevented from getting on because of their gender, race, religion, sexuality or disability. Getting this right is a natural, and logical, next step. Of course, laws are important, like ours on disability discrimination and equal marriage. And we should recognise that the Race Relations Acts of 1965 and 76, or the Equal Pay Act from 1970 didn’t just outlaw discrimination, they helped change attitudes and shift public opinion.

But for all the legislation we have passed, discrimination still persists. It’s no longer signs on doors that say “No Blacks Allowed”; it’s quieter and more subtle discrimination. It’s the disappointment of not getting your first choice of university place; it’s being passed over for promotion again and not knowing why; it’s organisations who recruit in their own image – who aren’t confident enough to do something different, like employing a disabled person or a young black man or woman. In my opinion, you won’t change these attitudes simply through more laws, but in smarter, more innovative, ways.

We have managed to get some of the biggest graduate employers to pledge to anonymise their job applications – in other words, make them name-blind. That means those assessing applications will not be able to see the person’s name, so the ethnic or religious background it might imply cannot influence their prospects.

The Civil Service, BBC, NHS, local government, HSBC, Deloitte, KPMG, Virgin Money, learndirect – all these and more will now recruit people solely on the basis of merit. Taken together, these organisations employ 1.8 million people.

And we’ll go further. For example, some research has shown that top universities make offers to 55 % of white applicants, but only to 23 % of black ones. The reasons are complex, but unconscious bias is clearly a risk here. So we have agreed with UCAS that they will make their applications name-blind, too, from 2017.

Britain has come so far, but the long march to an equal society isn’t over. Today’s announcement is a milestone. It’s not the only thing we can do, but it’s a big thing. And it means that a young black woman knows she’ll get a fair shot when she applies for the job of her dreams.

This is a shortened version of an article by the Prime Minister, first published in the Guardian newspaper on Monday 26 October 2015.