Tagged news

Compass and the Fawcett Society were delighted that over 200 people turned out to attend last night's event "Women in the the Recession: Gender equality and the economic crisis" which was covered in today's Daily Mail and on the BBC, and would like to thank all those who attended and contributed to what was an interesting and stimulating discussion.

Yesterday Harriet Harman published the long awaited Equalities Bill. The two headline policies of the bill were first, a duty on public authorities, including ministers, to reduce class inequality; the so called "socialism in one clause". Second, that all companies with more than 250 employees publish the average pay of male and female staff by 2013.

We are pleased that the Times has today published our letter on the Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson's, ill thought plans to axe new equality laws. Greater equality is never handed out, it is always fought for. The government pays lip service to a commitment to equality, but if legislation which ensures greater equality in the work place is the first thing to go in a downturn what does this say about our government's promises?

Sweden is regularly held up as the model of best practice for gender equality in Europe. In reality, the rhetoric far outstrips the achievements of Swedish social engineering.

Imagine if, overnight, men found themselves being paid nearly 20% less than women, occupying only one in five seats in the House of Commons, and holding just a third of senior managerial roles. There would be uproar. Yet the reverse is the daily reality for British women and, as a report released this week shows, gender inequality has increased in the UK for the third year running.

At party political conferences this year the most sought-after freebie in the exhibitor's hall was the Top Trumps card deck produced by Sky News. It consisted of thirty cards with the picture, statistics and short description of a notable politician on each one, in the style of the classic playground game.