Highlights from last week’s equality and diversity news – EHRC launches review into pregnancy and maternity discrimination, employers form committee to target depression in the workplace, Germany becomes first European country to provide third option for sex on birth certificates and research shows ‘posh’ surnames are still overrepresented at Oxbridge.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has launched a review into pregnancy and maternity discrimination in the workplace. Experts will investigate employers’ practices towards workers who are pregnant or on maternity leave and these employees’ experiences. Mark Hammond, head of EHRC, said, “It is very concerning that in 2013 a number of women are still being disadvantaged in the workplace just because they are pregnant.” The review follows findings by the law firm Slater & Gordon that more than a quarter of mothers feel discriminated against at the workplace.

An employers’ committee ‘Target Depression in the Workplace’ has been formed with representatives from employers such as BT, Royal Mail, Barclays as well as organisations such as Federation of European Employers and the International Labour Organisation. The formation of the group has come as research by the LSE suggested that one European employee in 10 has taken time off work because of depression, equating to more than 34 million people and loss of around one billion working days.

Germany has become the first country in Europe to provide the third option of ‘indeterminate’ to indicate sex of newborns on birth certificates. This provides children born with characteristics of both sexes to decide whether they want to be considered male or female in later life. But the new law also stipulates that individuals can opt to remain ‘indeterminate’ for the whole of their lives and stay outside the gender binary.

Research at LSE has indicated that despite significant political, industrial, social and economic changes over the past eight centuries, social mobility in England has been much slower. Dr. Neil Cummins said, “Surnames such as Baskerville, Darcy, Mandeville and Montgomery are still over-represented at Oxbridge and also among elite occupations such as medicine, law and politics.” Study of the genealogical history of English families with rare surnames showed that wealth, education and occupational status was highly heritable.

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