Equality Act 2010: Reducing Gender Discrimination in UK Retail

This report investigates the role of the Equality Act 2010 in reducing gender discrimination within the UK retail industry. It examines the conceptual framework of the Act and gender discrimination, explores the negative implications faced by the UK retail sector due to gender inequality, and analyzes how the Act minimizes discrimination. The research employs a qualitative approach, utilizing secondary data from legal and socio-legal studies. Key issues such as unequal pay, sexual harassment, and unequal promotion opportunities are discussed. The report also addresses ethical considerations in research and the importance of proper data handling and referencing. Desklib offers additional resources and solved assignments for students.

Unit 06 Legal Research and
Research Methods

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1: DEVELOPING THE CRITERIA AND APPROACHES TO CONDUCT A LEGAL
RESEARCH.....................................................................................................................................3
Identify the criteria to conduct a legal research......................................................................3
Outline key issues in the proposed research...........................................................................3
Recognise the implications of the tension between different research methodologies..........4
Assess the diversity of research methods used in socio-legal studies....................................4
Critically identify ethical dimensions, strengths and criticisms of socio-legal approaches...4
Critically assess features of the black-letter approaches to doctrinal legal research..............5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
Literature review....................................................................................................................6
Suitable research technique....................................................................................................9
Research tools.......................................................................................................................10
Conclusion............................................................................................................................11
Task 3: Analysing the quality issues associated with data handling.............................................11
Assess the legal and ethical consideration of data management, copy right, reciprocity and
trust and conflict of interest while conducting research.......................................................11
Analyse the use of bibliography and referencing systems to assure quality of data handling12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
The research depicts about the role of equality act 2010 in reducing the gender
discrimination within UK retail industry. Equality act 2010 is created for protecting people from
harassment, discrimination and victimisation. In this act people of Britain are protected against
discrimination. The few characteristics related to this act are age, gender reassignment, race,
religion, disability, sex and religion. There are three main purpose of Equality Act 2010 such as
fostering good relations, eliminating discrimination and offering equal opportunity. This act
replaces the anti-discrimination laws. Equality Act 2010 helps in removing inconsistencies and
also make easier for the people to learn the act. It is important for the companies and other
professional bodies to implement Equality Act 2010 in order to protect people from
discrimination. When this act is implemented within workplace it helps in creating positive
working relationship and also increases the performance of employees. The act increases the
productivity within team as they get equal opportunity to share their perspective and opinion. By
offering equal opportunities to employees, organisation can attract and retain the highly skilled
employees due to which the profitability and productivity of business increases. Equality act
2010 helps in making employees happier and motivated. It also better serve a diverse range of
customers and prevent legal issues arises.
Gender discrimination is another term which defines the unequal behaviour of individuals
based on gender. There are various issues of gender discrimination such as unequal pay, sexual
harassment, women are promoted less and fear of asking to be paid according to their worth. In
an organistaion, gender discrimination influences the business operation and performance which
leads to loss. It is of different types such as direct discrimination, indirect discrimination,
harassment and victimisation. The UK retail industry faces various challenges due to gender
discrimination which creates an impact on the performance of organisation. The different
negative impacts of workplace discrimination over retail industry are effect on organisational
performance, high employee turnover, disputes and communication gap. The existence of gender
discrimination creates a negative impact on the performance of company due to which it
becomes difficult for employees to give their productive outcomes in achieving the goals and
objective of business. Thus, if there is gender discrimination, it can affect the activities of
business and also employees will not contribute in achieving the business objectives. The
presence of gender discrimination leads to high turnover. In retail industry, employees are treated
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as an asset. If company faces high turnover it can influence the profitability and productivity of
business. It becomes challenging for the organistaion to attain competitive advantage in market
when there is high employee turnover. Equality Act 2010 plays an important role in minimising
the gender discrimination within workplace. By implementing this act, company can protect the
unfair treatment of employees on the basis of age, disability, gender and religion. Thus, this
research provides a detailed information related to Gender discrimination and Equality Act 2010.
2

TASK 1: DEVELOPING THE CRITERIA AND APPROACHES TO
CONDUCT A LEGAL RESEARCH
Identify the criteria to conduct a legal research
Legal research is defined as the process of identifying and extracting the information
which are essential to assist in the decision making in legal terms. There are several criteria and
approaches to conduct the legal research such as primary research is conducted and investigation
is done from the sources of given jurisdiction and primary authority or law. It includes the cases
and statutes along with the regulations and many more. Secondary research is also conducted for
the same by gathering the information regrading the background information to the issues which
are associated with the legal topics1. Non legal sources are also researched in order to investigate
about the supporting information so that proper justification and evidences are carried out. In
context of the given scenario, if research is undertaken on the gender discrimination in retail
industry of UK, then it is important to focus on the criteria of the concepts of equality act 2010
so that the gender discrimination can be reduced.
Outline key issues in the proposed research
Proposed research undertaken is on the identification of the role of equality act 2010 in
reducing gender discrimination within UK retail industry. There are several key issues which are
faced by the retail employees in terms of gender discrimination. Such as unequal pay is one of
the issue in the proposed research. Some of the retail business in UK pay their employees as per
their family relations or some other factor irrespective of the valuable employees or worth paying
the salary to the staff. Sexual harassment is an another issue in the proposed research. It is the
illegal irrespective of men and women. Earlier only women were the victim of sexual harassment
but now a days men are also becoming the victim at workplaces2. Racism is also one of the
another issue in the proposed research. It is any type of discrimination which are faced by the
retail employees in terms of caste, colour, religion and many more. Unequal promotion is also an
another issue in the proposed research. In the retail business UK, men are promoted more in
1 'FEMALE LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION AND GENDER WAGE
DISCRIMINATION' (2020) 6 Journal of Research in Gender Studies
2 Ayres I, 'Fair Driving: Gender And Race Discrimination In Retail Car Negotiations' (2022)
104 Harvard Law Review
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terms of salary as compared to women and they underestimate in terms of work more as
compared to men.
Recognise the implications of the tension between different research methodologies
Research philosophy used in the current research is the Interpretivism instead of
positivism and realism because research is based on theories and cases. Research approach used
in the current research is the inductive instead of deductive and abduction because research is
based on theoretical concepts using models and approaches. Research choice used in the current
research is the mono method instead of mixed and multi method because research is based on the
qualitative choice. Research strategy used in the current research is the case study instead of
experiments and surveys because research is based on the scenario of retail business3. Research
time horizon used in the current research is the cross sectional instead of longitudinal because
research is undertaken for the short duration. Research techniques and procedures used in the
current research is the secondary instead of primary because research is based on the data
collection with the helps of books and journals along with the articles and internet.
Assess the diversity of research methods used in socio-legal studies
A socio legal study is defined as the approach which is interdisciplinary in nature. It is
used to analyse the law and legal phenomenon along with the relationships among the wider
society. It includes both the types of work such as theoretical and empirical work which draws
the perspectives and methodologies from the areas of humanities and the social sciences as well.
In context of the current research undertaken on the gender discrimination, research methods are
used in a qualitative manner in terms of participant surveys and unstructured interviews along
with the life histories as well4. It more focuses on the observational area because it is based on
the theoretical concepts and that is why the results are drawn out on the basis of real time case
studies and observations from the perspective of gender discrimination in UK retail business.
Critically identify ethical dimensions, strengths and criticisms of socio-legal approaches
As per the current research, socio legal approach for the gender discrimination in UK
retail business is the following up of the equality law 2010. it is one of the ethical as well as the
3 Buallay A, 'Sustainability Reporting And Retail Sector Performance: Worldwide Evidence'
[2022] The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research
4 HASAN A, 'Foreign Direct Investment In Organised Retail Sector' (2018) 3 Indian Journal
of Applied Research
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legal dimension in order to reduce the gender discrimination5. It has several strengths along with
the criticisms also. Its advantages includes that all the public bodies are involved in the act which
promotes equality instead of reducing inequality. It is more effective and efficiency body in the
commission which reduces the costs while proving more rights to the people and assist in raising
the awareness for the same. It also creates more opportunities for both men and women. It is
criticised because most of the people are the victim of corruption and if anyone go against any
discrimination its been ignored.
Critically assess features of the black-letter approaches to doctrinal legal research
Doctrinal legal research methodology is also known as the black letter methodology. It
mainly focuses on the letter of law instead of law in action. This method is used by the
investigator in order to describe and compose the detailed analysis of the legal rules which are
found in the primary or secondary sources. Such as cases and statuses long with the regulations.
It has the feature of using the various tools for the legal research such as statutory materials and
subordinate legal materials along with the case laws6. It has the features of conducting the in
depth analysis of the process of development and the legal reasoning as well. It provides the
insight of the various laws and legislation related to the case scenario so that their articles can be
understood in order to follow them in a legal manner. It assist the companies in following the
equality law in the retail sector UK so that they can reduce the gender discrimination.
TASK 2
Research aim
To identify the role of equality act 2010 in reducing gender discrimination within UK retail
industry.
Research objectives
 To examine the conceptual framework of Equality act 2010 and gender discrimination
 To investigate the negative implications faced by UK retail industry due to presence of
gender discrimination
5 Hviid M, and Price C, 'Non‐Discrimination Clauses In The Retail Energy Sector' (2019)
122 The Economic Journal
6 Kainer J, 'Gender, Corporate Restructuring And Concession Bargaining In Ontario's Food
Retail Sector' (2019) 53 Relations industrielles
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 To elaborate the role of Equality Act, 2010 in minimising gender discrimination in UK
retail industry
Research questions
 What is the conceptual framework of Equality act 2010 and gender discrimination?
 What is the negative implications faced by UK retail industry due to presence of gender
discrimination?
 What is the role of Equality Act, 2010 in minimising gender discrimination in UK retail
industry?
Literature review
What is the conceptual framework of Equality act 2010 and gender discrimination?
Gender discrimination is defined as unequal behaviour faced by individual on the basis of
gender. Gender discrimination is the discrimination on the basis of gender in which privilege are
not being acquired by individual7. Gender discrimination is prohibited under human right and in
order to prevent the same laws are introduced by the advisory. Workplace discrimination may
comes under different forms but it means that an employee is not treated in favourably manner
due to biasness within gender. Due to gender discrimination in business organisation
differentiated losses can be seen. Gender discrimination could be of different types and these
impact the well-being of employees in negative manner. Due to gender discrimination, unfair
treatment is seen within the workplace and due to this unequal chances of opportunities are
provided within individual. This includes the workplace gender discrimination which is
associated with different forms. Examples of gender discrimination is such as not being hired,
not being paid or paid lesser, employees treated as harshly. Being lesser paid than person in
which gender orientation in which employees are not satisfied. Sometimes gender discrimination
may lead into denied of promotion so that employees are not able to get their acquired or
eligible pay as the pay scale is wholly based on gender8. Workplace gender discrimination is
considered as one of the unlawful practices which is required to be avoided so that overall
environment can be managed. Gender discrimination is based on current rate of practices in
which women are facing unequal economic up gradation as well.
7 Sharma I, 'Gender Discrimination And Status Of Women In India' (2018) 27
Contemporary Social Sciences
8 David M Haugen and Susan Musser, Discrimination.
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What is the negative implications faced by UK retail industry due to presence of gender
discrimination?
According to gender equality is one of the negative practices which is associated with
minimising capabilities of employees. This is determined that workplace discrimination is
treating in unequal manner on the basis of their gender9. There are different negative impacts of
workplace discrimination over UK retail industry which are demonstrated as under:
Effect on organisational performance: Due to existence of gender discrimination within UK
retail industry organisational performance gets impacted in negative manner. Employees will not
be able to perform their workings in fuller manner and due to this business objectives cannot be
attained on timely manner. The structure and discrimination practices are interrelated which
means that if such practices are seen within UK retail industry this means that employees will not
be able to contribute in attaining business objectives.
High employee turnover: Due to presence of gender high employee turnover can be seen within
the organisation due to which overall efficiency can be lost by the organisation. Employees are
treated as asset for retail industry as all the tasks and management is executed by employee in
direct manner. Female employee may feel dis-valued and this is the reason that employees are
not giving fuller attention in developing business objectives in appropriate manner.
Disputes and conflicts: If workplace discrimination is existed within the workplace then
disputes and conflicts can be created within the organisation so that negative working
environment can be seen in the workplace. This is seen that due to gender discrimination,
employees do not work happily and in the same manner overall judgement can be minimised.
Communication gap: Due to gender discrimination at workplace, communication gap can be
seen within the workplace and this is the reason for which roles and responsibilities of the
employees cannot be executed in defined manner. Communication is defined as the key for
success within the organisation and in this manner employees are not able to communicate with
their sub-ordinates in proper or needed manner.
What is the role of Equality Act, 2010 in minimising gender discrimination in UK retail
industry?
9 Flabbi L, 'GENDER DISCRIMINATION ESTIMATION IN A SEARCH MODEL WITH
MATCHING AND BARGAINING*' (2020) 51 International Economic Review
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For minimising gender discrimination Equality act, 2010 is propounded so that
management practices can be inserted in the organisation. Equality act protects rights of every
gender so that irrespective of gender opportunities can be inhaled by them. The equality act,
2010 helps the people in protecting them from discrimination in the company and in the whole
society. It replaced the previous laws related to anti-discrimination with a single act which helps
in understanding the law in a easy way and in strengthening protection. The equality act 2010
serves three main purposes which helps in eliminating discrimination, victimisation and
harassment at the work place10. This means that protecting he employees from unfair treatment
according to certain personal characteristics such as age, race, disability, religion or belief. The
law states that every person working in the UK retail industry has equal right to take part in the
decision making process for protecting them from discrimination in the company. There are
different types of discrimination that can occur in a workplace but law of equality helps in
protecting their interests in the retail industry11. Direct discrimination is like failing to hire or
promote a person, and terminating them without any reason affects the confidence of a person.
Indirect discrimination is like not hiring or retaining a person in the company because of height
issues or not have experience. Harassment occurs because when the behaviour or conduct is
unwanted which means that the conduct has effected the dignity of a person or creating a hostile.
Victimisation occurs in the company when a employee is treated in a different manner because
they have file a complaint about discrimination. So for eliminating the effect of these
discrimination, the equality act, 2010 plays a very important role in protecting the rights of
employees.
Suitable research technique
Within a research, research techniques are of higher importance as this assists in
managing the research in effective and appropriate manner. Research techniques are used for the
major objective of selecting accurate research path within the research so that research objectives
can be attained. Legal researches are related with managing legality within the work and to
10 Robinson R, 'Culture And Legal Policy Punctuation In The Supreme Court's Gender
Discrimination Cases' (2019) 42 Policy Studies Journal
11 N.Leila M, 'Gender-Based Discrimination In Egyptian Judicial Appointments: Was The
Shift From Gender-Neutral To Gender-Conscious Provisions Inevitable?' [2021] SSRN
Electronic Journal
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develop such assistance so that legal aspects can also be undertaken. Only with the help of
suitable research technique results and interference within research can be exerted and this would
manage different inconsistencies within the research. Research technique is useful in gathering
useful data to the research so that all the activities and processes of the research can be executed
in appropriate manner12. There are different research techniques such as survey methods, focus
group, case study, interview, web analytics and many others. For managing the current research
case study is taken as research techniques so that to manage authenticity of the research.
There are two types of research choices such as qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative
research choice helps in gaining in-depth information related with research topic so that accurate
information can be gathered and at the same time overall research can be managed in desired
manner. With the help of qualitative research, human and direct involvement can be minimised
so that in prompt manner research can be executed. Qualitative research methods are related with
in-depth examination related with research topic and this is going to assist in developing the
research in such manner that areas of biasness can be minimised. Qualitative researches are
flexible in nature so that semi-structured data collection methods can be used within the research.
Using qualitative research methods overall influence over the behaviour and topic can be taken
out so that all the relevant information can be taken out related with the research topic.
Qualitative research topic is determining information in the manner that natural settings within
the research can be seen. Focus group is one of the qualitative research method which helps in
taking different beliefs, values and aspects within the research so that insight within the research
can be attained.
Quantitative research methods are related with gaining statistical aspects within the
research so that clear results can be obtained13. Quantitative research methods are useful in
observing the perceived situation so that statistics can be managed within the research and at the
same time research objectives can be attained. It can be said that quantitative research methods
consume high time and cost due to which objectives can be delayed. Communication is one of
12 Fletcher A, 'Applying Critical Realism In Qualitative Research: Methodology Meets
Method' (2016) 20 International Journal of Social Research Methodology
13 Kuecker E, 'The Ethos Of Citation In Qualitative Research Methodology' (2021) 12
Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology
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the major aspect of quantitative research in which overall research and its outcomes can be
communicated within all the associated party.
In the current research, qualitative research methods are used so that to manage the
research in in-depth manner in order to attain research objectives in appropriate manner. Using
qualitative research this is easier that to acquire results in such manner that all the research
questions can be addressed.
Research tools
Research tools are defined as the methods by which data can be collected within the
research in order to manage the research in needed manner14. Using research tools methods this
is easier that to collect data using different dimensions so that purpose of the research can be
satisfied. Different research tools are such as interview, questionnaire and secondary data
collection methods such as books, journals and many others. Under the current research
secondary methods of data collection will be used so that to gather appropriate results within the
research. This will assist the researcher in framing significant research results so that research
objectives can be attained15. There are two methods of data collection such as primary and
secondary. In terms of primary data collection methods first hand and raw information can be
gathered so that accuracy can be maintained within research. On other side, secondary data
collection methods are defined as the method in which already existing information is collected
using different articles and books. These are the methods which are helpful in gaining in-depth
view over the research topic16. In the current research, secondary data collection methods will be
used so that to acquire detailed results within the research.
Conclusion
The current research is based on gender discrimination and the role of Equality act in
minimising gender discrimination within the workplace. In the terms of an organisation
workplace gender discrimination can turned as a negative aspect which may affect goodwill and
14 Danieli A, and Woodhams C, 'Emancipatory Research Methodology And Disability: A
Critique' (2005) 8 International Journal of Social Research Methodology
15 Danieli A, and Woodhams C, 'Emancipatory Research Methodology And Disability: A
Critique' (2005) 8 International Journal of Social Research Methodology
16 Preser R, 'A Methodology Of Damage' (2019) 19 International Journal of Social
Research Methodology
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