The SDLP has complained that all 12 speakers on a Northern Ireland Office induction seminar for Assembly members on equality issues were men. The SDLP Assembly woman, Mrs Brid Rodgers, expressed amazement that no women were invited to address the event.
"What would Mo Mowlam make of that?" she asked. The seminar took place yesterday in Belfast. It included academics and speakers from the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights, the Community Relations Council, the Department of Economic Development, and the Department of Health and Social Services.
Mrs Rodgers said: "Women make up over 50 per cent of our population but 0 per cent of the speakers at this `equality' seminar. It's deeply insulting to women to exclude them from debates on such a major issue."
