In an interview with The Times to mark the 30th anniversary today of the Sex Discrimination Act, Jenny Watson, chairman of the Equal Opportunities Commission, said that it was not fair that while working mothers could use flexible working arrangements to attend their child’s sports day or school play, there was considerable resistance among employers to grant men the same degree of flexibility.

As a result, she said, there was a danger that the tide of sexual discrimination could turn against men.

“Giving men flexible working would be the single most useful thing in enabling men to say ‘I’m going home on sports day because it is important that I do so’,” Ms Watson said.

“It’s time for fathers to ‘come out’. We know that dads want to spend more time with their children. We need to hold up a mirror to society and show men that they are not the only ones in this situation. There are thousands of others like them, a whole generation of men, all wanting the same thing.”

It was ironic, she added, that women should have won the ability to live and work more like men at precisely the time that men were saying, “I don’t want to live like this any more”.

“Women’s lives have changed and . . . women are more active in the workplace and in public life. But men’s lives have changed too. New fathers are spending two hours a day on child-related activities compared with just 15 minutes 30 years ago,” she said.

Women working part-time earn nearly 40 per cent less pro rata than men working full-time, a pay penalty that has barely changed in the past 30 years. Some 30,000 pregnant women suffer illegal sex discrimination every year, with many forced out of their jobs or denied time off to attend antenatal appointments.

Ms Watson said it was a deep injustice that women who had taken time out of the workplace to bring up children lost pension rights as a result and suffered poverty in old age.

These inequalities persisted because legislation to date had put the responsibility for change on the shoulders of individuals, by relying on them to bring cases against employers where there was wrongdoing. Although the Equality Bill would change the balance by requiring employers actively to promote gender equality, it applied only to the public sector.

Legislation was needed to impose a statutory duty on private sector employers to carry out regular equality checks to ensure that they were not discriminating against any employees. This should include a “protected period” in which employers could put right any breaches of equality law without fear of prosecution, Ms Watson said.

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, said yesterday that the inequality of pay between men and women wasa “scandal” and called for a public debate.

He said that the pay gap made child poverty worse, prevented women reaching their full potential and contributed to poverty in old age for many women who had worked hard all their lives.

Mr Cameron said that the key was to persuade firms to be more open about what staff were paid.

1970s AND NOW

Then less than 15 minutes a day

Now two hours a day

Then 33 per cent

Now 57 per cent

Then 25 per cent

Now 52 per cent

Then FT 29 per cent; PT 42 per cent

Now FT 17 per cent; PT 38 per cent

Then 1.8 per cent and 0.6 per cent

Now 33 per cent and 14 per cent

Then 7 per cent

Now 41 per cent

Then 4

Now 108

Source: Equal Opportunities Commission

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