Equal treatment at work
Equal pay and pensions
Protection from violence
Representation in councils and parliaments
Men's issues
Equal treatment at work
It has been unlawful to discriminate against women at work, in education, trading or services, since the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975.
But some women still experience discrimination. Every year about a thousand women in the UK take legal action claiming they were sacked because they became pregnant. And research by the Work Foundation says 54% of women have been sexually harassed at work, compared with 9% of men.
Your rights
The Equal Opportunities Commission has practical advice on men and women'srights at work and information on the law on sex discrimination and equal pay. It has case studies, statistics and step-by-step guides for people who feel they’re being discriminated against.
The government's Women and Equality Unit has a overview of sex discrimination law in the UK. iCan's Sex discrimination page has information and links, and there's a BBC guide on Sex discrimination.
Interested organisations
Opportunity Now, Working families and the Women Returners' Network, are all organisations working to ensure women and men's equal treatment at work. The Full Time Mothers campaign works for changes in taxes, benefits and employment policies so women can afford to not work while they have young children.
Find out more
The recent government Report into Women’s Employment and Pay has suggested new ways to improve the situation and make the most of women's skills and experience.
Equal pay and pensions
Since the Equal Pay Act in 1970 it has been unlawful to discriminate between men and women in terms of pay and contracts.
But women are paid less than men for equivalent work, earning on average 82% of men's hourly earnings. And research has shown that far more women than men live in poverty - 25% of all women live below the breadline, according to the Fawcett Society.
Your rights
Equal pay: the Equal Opportunities Commission has a guide to your rights to equal pay and advice on how to take action if you think you're not getting equal pay.
Equal pensions: the Equal Opportunities Commission is campaigning for better pensions for women and provides advice on how you can take action.
Interested organisations
The Women's Budget Group and the Engender Scottish Women’s Budget Group campaign for the government to recognise the different impact of the budget on women and men.
Find out more
The Fawcett Society has a women and pensions briefing and the Women and Equality Unit has a factsheet, ‘What is the Pay Gap and why does it exist?’.
Protection from violence
Up to one in ten women experience domestic violence each year, and one in four will experience it at some point in their lifetime. An incident of domestic violence takes place in the UK every six to 20 seconds, and every week two women are killed in domestic violence situations.
Domestic violence is a crime and so victims, witnesses and their families are entitled to various forms of protection. Liberty has information on your right to be protected from domestic violence. The BBC the Women's Aid Federation of England and Scottish Women's Aid have practical help and advice for anyone affected by domestic violence.
The Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Bill is currently working its way through parliament. You can get influence the new bill with the help of the iCan guide, How you can influence new UK laws. The Women and Equality Unit has information on this bill and other government policies to tackle domestic violence.
The Domestic Violence Data Source has well-referenced statistics on domestic violence.
Representation in councils and parliaments
Women make up 40% of MSPs, 50% of Assembly Members in Wales but only 18% of MPs in Westminster. Less than a quarter of elected councillors across the whole of the UK are women.
The 300 Group, Fawcett Society and the Women's National Commission all campaign to improve this. The Women and Equality Unit has a practical guide, to help more women into public office, and the Local Government Association has a leaflet on attracting women into local politics.
Many political parties have women’s groups to help get more women selected as candidates for the local council, parliament or assembly. These include Conservative Women, Women Liberal Democrats, Labour Party Women’s Forums and the SDLP Women’s Group.The Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002 allows political parties to use positive measures to reduce inequality in the numbers of men and women elected.
Men’s issues
Discussions around gender equality have also begun to touch on men’s rights particularly in relation to family law and parental rights. Groups addressing these issues include: UK Men’s Movement, ManKind and the International Men's Network.
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Most recent comments:
Caroline Wood's posting neatly summarises why single-issue politics (e.g. feminism) will never deliver genuine human progress. Women nowadays have just as many 'rights' as men to be ruthlessly exploited, so why get so uptight about the BBC posting a couple of mens-rights links at the very BOTTOM of a highly pro-female article? That she's clearly a bit mean-spirited would be to put it mildly.
And if she feels unable to deal in anything other than her single-issue myopia, then she should at least get to the nub - we should in fact globally legislate against the evident discrimination that exists should you happen to suffer the grave misfortune of being born in Palestine for example. But does she devote her energies in this direction? Doubtful - she's too busy spouting bog-standard feminazi victim theatre instead...
Perhaps Ms Woods would just prefer a world of rich, self-obsessed ladeez. Yup, I don't even want to think about who'd be treated like dirt in HER dream senario.
What a chauvinist she turned-out to be!
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Comment contributed by: Paul Scott,
on 08 March 2004
at 19:58
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I think its very sad that an article about international women's day feels it has to add the disclaimer that men's issues are important too. Do we feel the need to add this disclaimer to an article about anti-racism or minority rights? How ridiculous would it sound to state that we care about the issues of whites in such a piece? Add to this the fact that the top two links to articles on the page are focused on anti- male discrimination. In a world where you rightly report that women have so far to go to achieve equality - is the subtext that 'men can be discriminated against too' really necessary? Or does it not simply serve to shift our focus, creating the impression that both men and women have equal experiences of discrimination?
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