Equality Generations Away
WAHT would Emmeline Pankhurst be thinking if she were alive today?
She might be wondering how Charley was still in the Big Brother house or whether there was anywhere to buy fashionable clothes for the modern 149-year-old woman.
Yet a new study from the Equal Opportunities Commission would irk her.
The study from the EOC claims that gender equality is still generations away, with the current “full-time pay gap” between the sexes still 20 years away from being completely closed. Indeed, women are still paid 17 per cent less than their male counterparts for full-time work; for part-time employment the difference is a staggering 38 per cent.
In terms of pensions, retired women currently finish their working life with 40 per cent less income than their male contemporaries, a gap which, according to the EOC, could take 45 years to close.
Forty-five per cent of pregnant woman are also reported to experience “tangible discrimination” while women now spend an average of 180 minutes a day on housework compared to 101 minutes for men.
Maybe the UK media needs to spend less time hand-wringing over hijabs and burkahs and start focusing on our own very-Western gender inequalities.
Posted: 25th, July 2007 | In: Money Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
