Sticky floor jobs, The Mare

The term ‘sticky floor’ refers to the difficulties women face in progressing to higher-paid and higher-powered job roles whilst balancing the demands of their careers with personal, unpaid responsibilities. They can get stuck at lower-levels leaving the most senior positions to be occupied by, predominantly, men. Nuala McGovern discusses some of the reasons and solutions with Claire Reindorp, CEO of Young Women’s Trust, and former journalist, now economics teacher and co-founder of Now Teach, Lucy Kellaway.Hermine Braunsteiner was the first person to be extradited from the US for Nazi war crimes. She was one of a few thousand women who had worked as a concentration camp guard and was nicknamed ‘the Mare’ by prisoners because of her cruelty; she kicked people to death. In 1964 Hermine’s past was unknown: She was living a quiet existence as an adoring suburban housewife in Queens, New York when she was tracked down by a reporter from The New York Times who exposed her past. Angharad Hampshire, a Research Fellow at York St John University joins Nuala to talk about ‘The Mare,’ her novel based on Hermine’s life.