Opportunity 2000 in the National Health Service: a missed opportunity for women

The NHS in 1991 launched an equality programme for women, setting eight goals to be achieved by 1994. Shows that at least some of the goals are not being met and suggests reasons falling into four categories. First is the NHS context, including trusts’ autonomy which is incompatible with a national equality plan. Second, there is a failure of implementation, Third, the programme is inherently flawed: its business rationale is less than convincing to many health professionals who attach a high value to ethics, Fourth, the reasons for failure relate to all equality programmes for women, including a value system which sees the male career pattern as the norm. Concludes that movement towards equality for women in the NHS is only likely to be made if a different approach to goal setting is adopted.