Gender Inequality in The United Kingdom

This report discusses the nature and extent of gender inequality in the United Kingdom, including factors that cause inequality and its political and economic consequences. It also explores policies to reduce gender inequality.

The Political Economy of Inequality

Executive Summary
Inequality has emerged to be one of the core challenge which is faced by emerging
economies. Inequalities are generally referred to the differences faced by people due to their
distinct biological characteristics. The various types of discriminations are differentiated on the
basis of nationality, race, colour, religion and more, gender inequality is considered as the most
occurrence one. Women due to persistence of male patriarchy, women face number of problems
and barriers for improvement and enhancement of quality of their life. They get less opportunity
to work outside their homes as well as when they apply for same job profile, then companies
would like to prefer to hire male labours. In this regard, it demotivates women and makes their
situation vulnerable in respective society, working hour of females as compared to male is also
much high, because as per traditional and old thinking, women are always given responsibility to
do household work first. If they work outside the home such as in shops, stores, multinational or
local companies, still they have to perform entire domestic work also. This would raise working
hours for them and arise critical situations also to manage work, home and well-being of home.
In present study, a case analysis is done on The United Kingdom with an intention to
explore how much this nation is efficient in promoting and maintaining gender equalities within
its territorial boundaries. For this purpose, a number of factors have been evaluated like
ineffective distribution of human rights, labour rights, household works and male dominant
societies etc. which highly affect condition of women. For this purpose, government of
respective nation however, have taken many steps, but still they fail to maintain and give equal
rights to women to get equal opportunity to live like men. In this regard, within present study,
effectiveness of policy taken by British Government to overcome from barrier of economic
development are evaluated.

Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
Title: Gender Inequality in The United Kingdom............................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................1
Nature and extent of inequality including factors which cause gender inequality......................1
Structure of Policy Analysis........................................................................................................6
Political and Economic Consequences of gender inequality.......................................................8
Policies to reduce gender inequality............................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

Title: Gender Inequality in The United Kingdom
Introduction
One of the major issue which has been faced by people in the contemporary environment in
inequality which can be caused due to differences amongst population on grounds psychological,
physical, cultural and biological characteristics. This discrimination would highly affect living
experiences of individuals, especially women within organisations, society and even in their
families (Knoop, 2020). In context with UK, this nation has been ranked seventeen position in
gender gap index, at global level. However, many steps in terms of interventions has been taken
by government to reduce inequalities among population, by giving equal rights to both men and
women. This report is prepared to demonstrate the nature and extent of inequality, including
structure of policy analysis in UK, with an intention to reduce the same. A discussion is also
made on factors which cause inequality along with determination of consequences in terms of
politic and economic analysis. Furthermore, recommendations that helps in minimising the
gender inequality from society and workplace are given.
Main Body
Nature and extent of inequality including factors which cause gender inequality
Inequality referred to biasness carried out among people on the basis of different biological
characteristics, highly affect living standard of people (Hoskins, Janmaat, Han and Muijs, 2016).
It is considered as one of the main issue, which arise barriers for economic and societal
development in a nation. Therefore, to capture the complexity of inequality especially on the
basis of gender, in different contexts, it is essential to measure its extent and nature. In general, it
can be analysed in occurrence of gender difference in various manner –
Female works longer than male: it is a normal belief that women are responsible for
household management whereas Men are bread earners for the family. Due to this belief there
are far less opportunities for women than men in the business environment. However, women
carry freedom to do job in any field, but considering this belief, they have to balance both work-
life and domestic work. In such condition, they work for longer hours as compared to men
(Kenschaft, Clark and Ciambrone, 2015). It also shows that domestic works are asymmetrical
distributed among people, due to gender stereotypes where men enjoy all viz. power, status and
freedom. Using functional theory, it has been evaluated that low status and less power as well as
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sex-based division of work, results in vulnerable condition of women in society (7 Forms of
Gender Inequality – Discussed! 2019). In context with The United Kingdom, extent of gender
inequality as per unemployment ratio can be evaluated in following way –
Figure 1: Unemployment figures in the UK from 2000 to 2019, by gender. 2020.
Through statistical survey and Government census report, it has been evaluated that the
United Kingdom has been ranked on fifteenth position in the global gender pay index. It has
been placed just behind the other countries of Europe like France and Germany, however, it was
still considered as one of the leading country in providing gender equality (Gender inequality in
the United Kingdom – Statistics and Facts. 2019). As per record of 2019, this nation is one of the
minority of states for place females on leadership position in the Prime Minister like Theresa
May. Along with this, equality can be also measured in other political parties like House of
Commons, where near about 208 females were elected in 2017 as member of parliament, among
whom 119 belongs to the Labour Party. Moreover, the proportion of female members as MPs in
has been increasing continuously increasing in UK from 1979. So, it shows development of
female position and giving them equality.
Inequality in job profile and earning: Female in a society also face discrimination in
terms of employment, due to this factor there is a higher participation of male in the work done
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outside homes. Inequality in sharing household work, provides less opportunity to females to get
employment outside their home (Nightingale, 2020). Along with this, bias in division of labour,
where companies give priority to provide job to males, also show discrimination for females (de
Looze and et. al., 2019). They get employment mostly in small-scale organisations, like textile,
cottage and more. But as compared to male, they get less payment on same job profile, which has
created again discrimination with them. The justification for the same is that men believed to be
capable of doing better physical work then women. Therefore, in The United Kingdom, it has
slowed the employment growth in organised sector, just because presence of barriers for female
employment (Chang, Yip and Chen, 2019). Through above mentioned figure, it has also
evaluated that women in both developed and under-developing countries are under-represented
in earning equal salaries, where percentage of males and females in organisational sectors as per
age group in UK are seen as –
Table: % of Males and Females Participation in organisational sector as per age
Age
group
18 to 21
years
22 to 29
years
30 to 39
years
40 to 49
years
50 to 59
years 60 and over
1997 6.0 5.8 11.0 24.0 21.6 14.7
1998 6.7 5.6 10.6 24.8 21.6 17.3
1999 7.5 5.8 9.9 23.5 21.7 14.5
2000 5.7 5.2 10.2 22.9 21.0 13.2
2001 4.7 4.9 9.4 23.3 21.0 12.8
2002 5.3 3.2 8.8 22.3 21.9 14.0
2003 3.4 1.7 9.5 21.8 20.2 10.6
2004 3.5 0.5 8.9 20.9 19.8 7.3
2005 2.2 -0.5 8.3 19.9 16.6 7.5
2006 2.1 0.3 7.1 18.7 16.6 7.9
2007 1.5 0.2 6.3 19.1 17.6 8.0
2008 3.0 0.0 6.7 19.5 17.9 9.9
2009 2.1 0.5 6.1 18.3 17.2 9.0
2010 2.1 -1.8 2.7 16.1 16.8 9.1
2011 4.3 -2.4 2.5 16.9 17.4 11.1
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2012 5.7 -3.0 0.7 15.4 18.3 9.5
2013 1.7 -0.7 1.0 15.7 17.4 12.0
2014 4.9 -0.8 -0.2 13.7 18.0 14.0
2015 4.0 -0.8 0.6 12.4 17.4 13.3
2016 3.3 0.8 1.6 13.4 16.5 13.8
2017 2.9 2.2 2.1 13.7 16.2 12.9
2018 1.8 1.1 0.9 12.8 15.6 15.6
2019 0.9 2.1 1.9 11.4 16.3 15.4
Figure 2: Gender pay gap in UK, 2019.
Through this above statistical information, it has been analysed that for age of group 40
years, gender pay gap especially for full time workers, has almost reduced to zero. While for age
above 60 years, it is 15.4% in 2019 (Samuel and Ellicott, 2020). So, it has been analysed that
Women more likely on lower-paying gap, at higher state of pension age are expected to be
discriminated due to working patterns, which depicts the vulnerable situation for women in
employment sector (Global Gender Gap in the UK, 2019).
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Inequality on the basis of ownership: In case of social inequality, ownership of
property or law of inheritance is usually provided to male child, which shows discrimination
against women. This kind of social inequality is also known as social deprivation, which
prevents women to get equal rights in society. In The United Kingdom, due to inheritance of
ownership to male only, this country is on 101 position in the world gender gap list, where it is
emerged as most progressive nation by scoring of 0.78 (Atkinson, Casarico and Voitchovsky,
2018). While UK rank on 17th and US is on 28th as per World Forum (No country in the world
meets the mark on gender equality, but these are the best performers, 2019).
Survival inequality: It is another form of gender disparity, where mortality rates of
females as compared to males are high. Therefore, high gap between males and female born
ratio, lead to deficit of women with a surplus of men. In Europe, UK, Denmark and more, there
is a high gap between boys and girl’s ratio.
Gender Biasness in distribution of health & education: As education and good health
are two major human capital forms, such factors play a vital role in progression of national
economy. The gap between education and health, gives rise to social disparities among
population. Gender based inequalities in health and education in world is determined through
geographical isolation, disability, poverty, pregnancy and the gender based violence. In United
Kingdom, gender bias in health has implications in treatment of both female and male patients
and also this is necessary to take this into considerations in many medical areas (Samuel and
Ellicott, 2020). It is a fact that two third of the illiterate people in the developing nations are the
female. In context to this, main focus of Plan International UK is on supporting the females and
their communities to stop gender inequalities in health and education.
Gender inequality in terms of victimisation: Gender disparities within development
would be captured via GDI (Gender-related development index) as well as GEM (Gender
Empowerment Measure). Both of these measures are used to rank the countries as per their
achievements in terms of reducing gender equality, instead of human development (Berkers,
Schaap, 2018). Women are less likely to violent crime offender and victims. In United Kingdom,
difference among women and men offending rate is high and the difference among women and
the women victimization rate is less. On the basis of Office of National Statistics (ONS) that
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4.2% of men and 7.9% of women are mainly suffered from the domestic abuse in Wales and
England. It equates to around 685000 make victims and the 130000 women. In United Kingdom,
Female were four times likely as men to have the experienced the sexual assault through partner.
UK is committed to range of the International obligations on the violence as well as justice
against the women.
Structure of Policy Analysis
It is very crucial for government to emphasize on human development while formulating
policies as it will directly or indirectly influence the outcomes faced on the grounds of
inequalities. It is essential to make sure that both men and women are provided with equal
opportunities so that it does not impact negatively on social cohesion. Therefore, for whole
development of society, it is essential for government to develop effective policies. Government
of United Kingdom implemented the Equality Act 2010. According to this Act, sex is one of
protected characterises in Act and there are the particular provisions that prohibiting the sexual
harassment at workplace consisting pay (Nightingale, 2020). On the other hand, this act gives
legal framework in order to protect rights of the people as well as advanced opportunity equality
for all. This gives Britain with discrimination related legislations that protect the people from the
unfair treatment and also promote them fairly and equally. Other than this, Government of UK
has executed different legislations mainly related to the fender discrimination at workplace. The
sex discrimination act 1975 developed that protect the people from being discriminated against
the education, employment, vocational training etc, because of their gender. The Equality and
Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is a non-governmental statutory body with responsibility
for promotion and enforcement in the UK, Scottish and Wales of fair and non-discriminatory
legislation. The GEO is the Executive Ministry of the British Government in the United
Kingdom on Discrimination. The Gender and Empowerment Unit was formerly known as the
GEO. These policies have developed the positive impact on the gender equality in the decision
making. With the help of implementing the gender equality policies developed through
government, there will be equality developed and women are treated equally as men.
Other than this, there are some other legislation developed through United Kingdom
government regarding the gender equality such as Pension Act (1995), The Maternity and
Parental Leave etc. Regulations (1999), The Maternity and Parental Leave (Amendment)
Regulations (2002), The Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination) Regulations (2005) and The
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Maternity and Parental Leave etc. and the Paternity and Adoption Leave (Amendment)
Regulations (2006). Pension Act 1995 is piece of United Kingdom in order to make
improvement in running the pension schemes. This policy is helpful in protection for the existing
pension schemes that provides the benefit so that they cannot minimise in future without corset
of member. On the other hand, Employment Equality law of United Kingdom is an internal part
of labour law of UK. On the basis of this legislation, it is unlawful to discriminate against an
individual because they have the protected characteristics such as age, gender, race, sexual
orientation and others.
Structure of policies –
Government responsibilities: The government has established Equality Act in 2010 to
reduce inequality and gender pay gap as well as other factors that create discrimination among
members. This law also helps in promoting equality among all people regardless of their age,
gender and other discriminations (Chang, Yip and Chen, 2019). Along with this, it also
responsible to develop coordination among other ministers for supporting as per Law on Gender
Equality. In addition to this, all the concerned members are emphasizing on such equality, by
focusing on reducing discrimination within ethnic minorities in UK.
Independent gender inequality bodies: The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) in
2011, has replaced and appointed as national equal treatment body and allocated with the main
responsibility for promoting, evaluating, monitoring and supporting the equal treatment of men
and women, without considering any discrimination. This PSED also focuses on eliminating
discrimination among people other than gender, that are based on national and ethnic origin,
disability, age, sexual orientation and more.
Parliamentary body: The legal basis for representative elected bodies are mostly regulated as
per British Government, by dividing parliament into several committees, whose areas of
responsibility except some cases, are not regulated by Constitution. However, the existence of
parliamentary committee based on gender equality is also not regulated within British
Government, but their main purpose is to ensure that cross-cutting as well as overarching
perspective of parliament must be on gender equality (Knoop, 2020). Other main responsibilities
of such special committee are to treat and examine the legislative proposals, which may
influence gender equality. They also focus on ascertaining that government of UK must respect
the laws which regulate gender equality.
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Political and Economic Consequences of gender inequality
The persistent culture of gender stereotyping or male dominance in both developed and
developing nations, has led to subordination or even exclusion of women on political and
economic grounds. This has effectively side-lined near about half of talent, experience and
knowledge of world, leaving the societies that are operating at under capacity with 50%
(Denmark, Rabinowitz and Sechzer, 2016). Looking at vulnerable condition of women due to
inequality, there is a growing as well as compelling body of evidence that shows that female in
society not only bear poverty but, also faces barrier in improving their living standard. Gender
inequality’s consequences can be measured in terms of huge loss of potential of human, which
highly affect political system of a country, if proper interventions have not been taken. Rigid
norms that are related to gender, status and power differences among people, shows that women
are vulnerable to violence and are less likely to improve life-expectancy due to poor distribution
of health services when needed as compared to men (Berkers, Schaap, 2018). Programme
interventions in The United Kingdom, however, shows the tremendous success in eliminating
gender inequality. But due to male dominant society, violence, injustice and privilege are
continuously faced by women population, because Gender inequality has perpetuated the culture
of violence. Therefore, inequality in gender impact on growth and efficiency of labour market as
well, because gap among male and female workers lead to raise inefficiencies in economy
development. Along with this, due to less participation of female labour, GDP and economic
progression of a nation also gets affected. Therefore, gender inequality impact on quality of
political environment, economic outcomes and performance in negative manner, where if
interventions will not be taken, then it may completely diminish the quality of representatives of
UK and other countries.
Policies to reduce gender inequality
In order to promote gender inequality within societies and at workplace, it is recommended
to the British Government, to adopt certain Code of Conduct and Community Principles. Here,
Code of Conducts refers to a set of rule which outlines ethical responsibilities and social norms,
for providing and maintaining equality among men and women. As per IMCC4, Code of Conduct
to reduce gender inequalities states five rules (Atkinson, Casarico and Voitchovsky, 2018). It
includes treat every person whether male or female with all true respect and consideration;
communicate in open and transparent manner to get views of people regardless of their gender;
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be mindful and respectful in critique of own ideas; and last one is to respect laws and legislations
made for promoting equality. In this regard, it will helpful in setting guidelines for all
unacceptable behaviour that leads to harassment and discrimination with women, with clear
indication about zero-tolerance derogatory.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from this study that one of the biggest issue which every nation is
facing today is gender inequality. Unequal human rights, lack of proper distribution of household
works for male and female, unequal opportunity for women to develop their career and improve
vulnerable condition, has led to create high discrimination with them. This would impact on
growth and development of political and economic situation of a country also. Therefore,
government is required to take immediate actions and implement interventions to promote
gender and other type of equalities.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Atkinson, A. B., Casarico, A., & Voitchovsky, S. (2018). Top incomes and the gender
divide. The Journal of Economic Inequality, 16(2), 225-256.
Berkers, P., & Schaap, J. (2018). Gender inequality in metal music production. Emerald Group
Publishing.
Denmark, F., Rabinowitz, V. C., & Sechzer, J. A. (2016). Engendering psychology: Women and
gender revisited. Psychology Press.
Chang, Q., Yip, P. S., & Chen, Y. Y. (2019). Gender inequality and suicide gender ratios in the
world. Journal of affective disorders, 243, 297-304.
de Looze, M. & et. al. (2019). Gender inequality and sex differences in physical fighting,
physical activity, and injury among adolescents across 36 countries. Journal of
Adolescent Health, 64(5), 657-663.
Ravnborg, H. M. & et. al. (2016). Land governance, gender equality and development: Past
achievements and remaining challenges. Journal of International Development, 28(3),
412-427.
Kenschaft, L., Clark, R., & Ciambrone, D. (2015). Gender inequality in our changing world: A
comparative approach. Routledge.
Hoskins, B., Janmaat, J. G., Han, C., & Muijs, D. (2016). Inequalities in the education system
and the reproduction of socioeconomic disparities in voting in England, Denmark and
Germany: the influence of country context, tracking and self-efficacy on voting
intentions of students age 16–18. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and
International Education, 46(1), 69-92.
Samuel, K. and Ellicott, H., 2020. Gender inequality in research: does UK trainee-led research
herald an equal future?. British Journal of Anaesthesia.
Nightingale, M., 2020. Stepping-Stone or Dead End: To What Extent Does Part-Time
Employment Enable Progression Out of Low Pay for Male and Female Employees in
the UK?. Journal of Social Policy. 49(1). pp.41-59.
Knoop, T. A., 2020. Understanding Economic Inequality: Bigger Pies and Just Deserts. Edward
Elgar Publishing.
Online
7 Forms of Gender Inequality – Discussed!. 2019. [Online] Available Through:
<http://www.economicsdiscussion.net/gender/7-forms-of-gender-inequality-discussed/
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No country in the world meets the mark on gender equality, but these are the best performers.
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equality-index-most-countries-fall-short-on-basic-equality.html>.
Global Gender Gap Index 2020. [Online] Available Through:<
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Gender pay gap in UK. 2019. <
https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworki
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