UK Employment: A Study of Gender Discrimination and Legal Framework

This essay provides an overview of gender discrimination in the UK employment sector, referencing the Equality Act 2010 and the Equal Pay Act 1970. It discusses various forms of discrimination, including unequal pay and limited access to high-level positions for women. The essay highlights that despite legal protections, gender inequality persists due to societal norms and biases. It emphasizes the need for stricter enforcement of equality laws and changes in societal attitudes to promote women's development and contribute to the UK's overall economic growth. Desklib offers a platform for students to access similar solved assignments and past papers.

Intersectionality

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Explain about the discrimination based on gender in the employment sector and less
women in high position of any organisation. Why women get less pay for the same work
done by the men? ..................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
References:.......................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
The term intersectionality refers to creating differences in the organisation on the basis
of caste, gender, sex, weight, religion, physical appearance, etc. The term intersectionality was
coined by Kimberley Crenshaw in 1989. These differences hinders the overall development of
the people in the society(Sánchez, et.al., 2020). This includes the differences based on the colour
of the people. Generally black people are discriminated in the organisation as well as in the
society. It has created the concept of feminism. There are various types of discrimination that
takes place in the organisation. The discrimination includes giving preference to male candidate
while recruitment process in the organisation (Broad, et.al., 2018). There are various laws that
govern these types of discrimination. But, these laws are not applied equally to all the places in
the country. The backward areas of the country generally suffers from these types of
discrimination. There are various instances that shows that women are paid less for the same
work as done by the male employee. The judiciary of UK also sets an example for such type of
gender discrimination. There are very less number of women as compare to men in the courts of
UK. This essay explains about the gender discrimination the employment sector of the country.
Further, it also explains about the statues that govern these matters. This report also discusses
about the case laws related to such discrimination in UK.
MAIN BODY
Explain about the discrimination based on gender in the employment sector and less women in
high position of any organisation. Why women get less pay for the same work done by
the men?
There are different types of discrimination such as age, belief, sex, gender, colour, ethnic,
nationality, sexual orientation,etc. It also includes discrimination on the basis of being
pregnant ,married or disabled. Discrimination can be seen in all the places of the country.
Generally, there are instances of discrimination in workplace. But, in UK there are the laws that
works against these types of discrimination. One of the major act for discrimination is Equality
Act,2010(Begeny and Ryan 2018). This act protects from discrimination at work, education
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sector, public services, renting the property, member of association or as a consumer. The
Equality Act came into effect from 5th April 2011. All the public authorities are bound to follow
all the provision of this act while formulating the policies for the country. This act also protects
the people from discrimination by association. Discrimination by association means treating
people with inequality on the basis of discrimination with their family member or friend. For
instance, treating the parents of lesbian with inequality just because their daughter is lesbian.
This type of discrimination is also illegal in UK(Daftary, et.al., 2020). The act also protects from
other types of discrimination such as indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation of the
employee in the organisation. This act also bounds the public authority such as police officers to
take steps in order to minimise discrimination in the society. This duty of public authority is
known as Public Sector Equality Duty. The Equality act applies to employers, public service,
health services and consumer services. It also includes the professional services given by
teachers, lawyers and doctors(Ball and Porter,2018). These professional cannot legal
discriminate between its clients. There is a prescribed process for legal actions to be taken
against such discrimination. Firstly, the victim has to file a complain in which it must be clearly
stated the type of discrimination and all the other material details. The victim must specify the
details of the employer and organisation whichever the case may be. The response for the same
will come and if the victim is unhappy with response he can further file the complaint in the
higher authority. The victim can also take the advice from Equality Advisory and Support
Service. The Part 5 Work of Equality Act provides for the provisions of discrimination at
workplace. The section 60 of this act provides that no person must be discriminated on the basis
of health before giving him employment by the employer.
According to the Global gender gap index, the UK comes on 23rd number among the
other countries for inequality ratio in the world. In 2020, the gender gap was 15.5% among all of
the employees of the organisation. The reason for gender inequality are stereotypes, bias, social
norms and cultural practices. The women are discriminated also because of the prejudice. The
discrimination is also held during the recruitment in the organisation. The maximum women
works at the lower level of management. This is because of the male dominated society of UK.
The male members tries their best that the higher position must not go in the hands of women.
Generally, women are discriminated ever if they are capable to hold such high position. This can
be seen in any sector of the society(Walkey, et.al., 2022). This type of discrimination can also be
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seen in judiciary. In the higher level of courts, there are very few women in the higher positions
of the courts. There are very less number of women judges in the country even in today's modern
world. This is all because of the male dominated psychology of the citizens of the country.
People thinks that if women will hold the higher position in the organisation, then they male
member have to obey her (Cameron, et.al., 2019). This will degrade their social identity in the
society.
There is also a very big problem of difference in the salary of men and women working at
the same position in an organisation. This is because of this discrimination done against the
women of the society. As a consequence of this, the women even if more capable cannot do best
of its ability(Fagan and Rubery, 2018). It hinders the overall growth and development of the
women. This further hinders the development of the country as the growth of the women affects
the economy of the country.
All these above mentioned discrimination is illegal. But, they are taking place in UK under the
name of customs and culture. There is a wide need to stop this discrimination among the citizens
of the country. Moreover, the women are discriminated in house also. For instance, there is no
value of home maker in the society. Instead, they must be given full exposure and entitlement to
develop further in their life. All the hindrances must be set aside in order to achieve the overall
development of women.
The government of UK must take adequate steps in order to minimise this discrimination.
This discrimination is not only hindering the present development of UK rather, it is taking UK
below its ranking in the whole country in terms of justice and equality. All the provisions of
equality law must be practised regularly in order to reduce this discrimination. The courts must
provide strict punishments and fines to the defaulter party. Only then, this discrimination would
be reduced. In one of the cases, it is held by the court that women must not be discriminated on
the basis of pregnancy and maternity benefits. The Equal Pay Act,1970 is created in order to
provide provisions for the equal payment for equal work done by the employees irrelevant of
their sex. According to this act, if an employee thinks that he is not paid equally as per the
employee of the same organisation at the same level, then the employee can make a complaint
regrading this discrimination in the court of the country. Moreover, after such complaint he
would seek justice by the court. This is because the employer is bound to follow the rules of this
act. But, for this the employee must ensure that the other employee who is being compared with
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must work at the same level and in the same organisation. Further, the citizens cannot be even
discriminated on the basis of sex in educational fields(Macdonald and Charlesworth, 2018).
CONCLUSION
The above report concludes about the drastic condition of women the society. The
women are discriminated in every field of development. The main reason behind this is the
dominance of male in the society from time immemorial. But, the UK government has made
various laws regarding this ill treatment towards the women. But, the provisions are not applied
effectively in the whole country. Many backward areas are still discriminating women. Many of
the organisations also pay less salary to its women employees for the same work as of male
employees. The laws that govern these discrimination are mainly the Equality Act, 2010 and
Equal Pay Act,1970. These laws also provides for the remedies that the innocent party can take.
This essay further concludes that the innocent party must take steps to file a complaint against
the defaulter party of the case. However, there must be some steps taken by the government of
UK in order to reduce this ill treatment towards the women employee of the organisation.
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References:
Books and Journals
Ball, V. and Porter, L., 2018. Editors' Introduction: Gendered Patterns of Discrimination in the
Creative Industries. Feminist Media Histories, 4(4), pp.1-7.
Begeny, C.T. and Ryan, M., 2018. Gender discrimination in the veterinary profession: a brief
report of the BVA Employers’ Study 2018.
Broad, J., .et.al., 2018. Discrimination, harassment and non‐reporting in UK medical
education. Medical education, 52(4), pp.414-426.
Cameron, H.,.et.al., 2019. Equality Law Obligations in Higher Education: reasonable adjustments
under the Equality Act 2010 in assessment of students with unseen disabilities. Legal
Studies, 39(2), pp.204-229.
Daftary, .et.al., 2020. Discrimination, depression, and anxiety among college women in the
Trump era. Journal of gender studies, 29(7), pp.765-778.
Fagan, C. and Rubery, J., 2018. Advancing gender equality through European employment
policy: the impact of the UK's EU membership and the risks of Brexit. Social Policy
and Society, 17(2), pp.297-317.
Macdonald, F. and Charlesworth, S., 2018. Failing to live up to the promise: The politics of equal
pay in ‘new’workplace and industrial relations institutions. Australian Journal of
Political Science, 53(4), pp.446-462.
Sánchez-Monedero, .et.al., 2020, January. What does it mean to'solve'the problem of
discrimination in hiring? Social, technical and legal perspectives from the UK on
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automated hiring systems. In Proceedings of the 2020 conference on fairness,
accountability, and transparency (pp. 458-468).
Walkey, et.al., 2022. Breaking the Impasse: Rethinking Refugee Integration through the Equality
Act 2010 in the United Kingdom. Social Policy and Society.
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