When the Equal Pay Act in Britain came into force in 1975, the pay gap between men and women was 30%. Today is it 18% (says the Equal Opportunities Commission). These statistics may help you to understand the significance of the animal at the beginning of this post (continuing my wildlife theme). Thankfully, the Labour government is doing something right, in introducing the gender equality duty for public bodies as of April, whereby public bodies are obliged to demonstrate that they are promoting equality for men and women. Anyone who disputes that this is necessary need only contemplate the 37 years it has taken to reduce the gap by just over a third.

I was inspired to write on this topic by the Guardian’s reporting that America’s (Equal Pay Act 1963) largest ever class action is about to go ahead against Wal-Mart (who own Asda), whereby up to 2 million women employees since 1998 may win lost pay and damages. Even though I’m horrified that change has taken this long to come about, it’s exciting that it might finally be happening. While two thirds of Wal-Mart’s employees are women, only one third of their managers are. Wal-Mart argue that women don’t want managerial positions. Well, if they’re being taken to court over it, then maybe they misjudged that one.

Filed under: gender, labour, ukpolitics on February 10th, 2007