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Issue Description
In countries around the world, women and girls face poverty, violence, educational inequality and poor healthcare as a result of their sex. Here in the UK, gender equality has made massive strides in the past few decades, but inequalities remain: the full-time pay gap between male and female employees currently stands at 15.5%, and only 12.5% of FTSE 100 board members are women. This books looks at the issues surrounding gender equality, including an examination of the debates about single-sex education, women’s representation in business and politics, and equal pay.
The information comes from a wide range of sources and includes government reports and statistics, newspaper articles, features, magazine articles and surveys, literature from lobby groups and charitable organisations.
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Key Facts
- Fewer girls than boys enrol in or complete primary or secondary schooling, even though research shows investing in girls’ education significantly improves a country’s economic outlook. (page 1)
- Labour laws and regulations in several developing countries actively discourage women from working. When they get a job, women can expect to earn up to 27% less than men for the same job – regardless of experience and education. (page 2)
- A survey identified 60% of fathers now taking, or having taken, paternity leave – with another 23% planning to take it in the future. (page 4)
- An Oxford University study says if current trends continue, women will probably have to wait until 2050 before men are doing an equal share of the household chores and childcare. (page 6)
- Women’s average pay is 21% less than men’s. (page 11)
- 51 per cent of the UK’s population are women. 22.2 per cent of Members of Parliament are women. (page 13)
- Despite 40 years of equal pay legislation, Britain has one of the largest gender pay gaps in Europe. (page 27)
- 75 million children, of whom 41 million are girls, do not go to primary school, and of the world’s 796 million illiterate adults, two-thirds are women. (page 33)
- Women perform 66% of the world’s work and produce 50% of the food but earn only 10% of the income and own just 1% of the property. (page 37)
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Gender in the UK
Gender, Questions about the Equality Act 2010, ‘Family man’, Why women are still left doing most of the housework, Are pink toys turning girls into passive princesses?, Girls don’t want to be princesses. They want to be hot, Stop sexual bullying, ‘SlutWalks’ spark debate.
Chapter 2 Employment and Education
Women’s representation, Sex and power: 5,400 women missing from top jobs, Gender quotas in Britain, Women on boards, Who is affected by gender discrimination?, Women and decision-making, Glass ceiling ‘still a barrier to top jobs’, Two-thirds of people unhappy with pay gap in their workplace, Equal pay – the facts, We can’t afford this obsession with the ‘gender pay gap’, Working mothers and the effects on children, Car mechanic or cleaner?, All-boys schools are not the answer, Single-sex schools breed high hopes.
Chapter 3 The International Situation
Women and equality, Ten reasons why it’s hard to be a woman, Why aren’t girls in schools?.
