Measures against sex discrimination have been painfully slow, says West Norfolk Councillor Jo Rust
In our weekly Friday Politics column, Jo Rust discusses progress made over the last 50 years since the Sex Discrimination Act…
On Saturday I attended an event in Wisbech to talk about the 50 years since the Sex Discrimination Act was passed. This act, and the Equal Pay Act, were headlined as “new laws to end the battle of the sexes”. The act was designed to protect women and men from direct and indirect discrimination on the grounds of sex or marital status.
So, how have things improved for women in the last 50 years? Back in 1980, a women went to an employment tribunal claiming that she had been sacked from her job because she was pregnant. But her case was dismissed despite the act. Well surely that situation has improved for women you might ask. Well, no, actually not.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission found, in 2016, that some 54,000 per annum were sacked illegally from their jobs because they were pregnant. And that number hasn’t changed a lot today and in fact, it’s likely that the number is far higher, just hidden. After all, no employer actually tells a woman that they’re being sacked because they’re pregnant and trade union membership, which can be used to challenge employers in instances where this does happen, isn’t high enough.
What is really scary is the fact that the number of women who choose to terminate a pregnancy and who then face a prosecution or even imprisonment, has seen an unprecedented rise in the ten years to April 2022. When it comes to equal pay, at the current rate of progress a woman entering the workforce at the age of 21, would have to wait for 45 years before she actually experienced parity of pay, because even though the gender pay gap has narrowed, it remains on average at 7% for full-time work.
If we look at those working part-time, which is mainly women, then it stands at 13%. But this is just an average. In some industries like the financial sector, it ranges from 17% to an astronomical 32%. If we look at pensions, the figures are shocking too. Women’s pension pots will be nearly £90,000 less than that of a man. That’s a colossal 46% gender pension gap, which has actually widened since 2016, when it was a mere 25% less.
So, when we’re at work, we’re getting paid less, with fewer opportunities and with a lower pension pot to follow. And then there’s the risk of workplace sexual harassment. And it doesn’t matter what sector you work in; a woman faces this. Look at the Monaghan Report into the GMB Trade Union and the sexual harassment there. A workplace that you’d expect better of.
Then there’s the rise in toxic masculinity with influencers like Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan. A YouGov article found that one in six boys aged between six and 15 have a positive view of Andrew Tate. It’s no wonder female teachers are facing challenges with abuse in schools. Murderer Kyle Clifford had viewed Andrew Tate’s material the day before he brutally raped and then murdered Louise Hunt and murdered her sister and mother too.
Many of us enjoyed the 2023 Barbie film. And many of us were blown away by the feeling and accuracy of the speech given by America Ferrera’s character Gloria. Women are expected to be thin, but not want to be thin, stay pretty for men but not too pretty. Have money but not ask for money and so on. If you’re not familiar with it, I’d suggest you read it. I’m not saying that there haven’t been any improvements since the Sex Discrimination Act or the Equal Pay Act, that would plainly be wrong, but I would suggest that improvements have been painfully slow and sadly, too limited. I’m disappointed that the likelihood is, things won’t be much better for either my two daughters, and worryingly, my granddaughter too.
