Gender - Relevant Legislation

 

Sex discrimination

Sex discrimination occurs when someone is treated unfairly because of their gender. Women, men and transsexual people can all experience sex discrimination. The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 prohibits direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation on grounds of a person’s sex. The law covers education, employment (including vocational training) and access to goods and services.
 
In education, the law covers all students and staff and applies to state-funded and private schools, universities, further education colleges and other education providers. All the activities and services of educational institutions are covered by the law.
 

Examples:

  • It would be unlawful for a mixed sex school to limit certain subjects to one sex only such as only offering science classes to boys or textiles to girls.
  •  It would be unlawful for an employer to say that they only wanted to take on male work experience students. A mixed school which complied with the request would also be acting unlawfully.  
  •  It would be unlawful to restrict jobs to men only or women only (unless there is a genuine reason for doing so which is exempted under the law eg. jobs were there is a degree of intimate personal care might require same-sex carers or where an acting role is gender specific).
  •  It would be unlawful for an employer to specify that applicants for a job must be over six feet tall, even though this would not affect the person’s ability to do the job. This would be indirect discrimination against women, since it would be harder for them to fulfil this criterion.
For more information about the law on gender have a look at the Equality and Human Rights Commission  (EHRC) website.
 

Equal pay

The Equal Pay Act 1970 makes it unlawful for employers to discriminate between men and women in their pay and conditions where they are doing the same or similar work; work rated as equivalent, or work of equal value. The Act applies to both men and women but any comparison must be with a person of the opposite sex.
Examples:
  •  It would be unlawful for an employer to pay a male worker more money to do the same job that a female worker is doing and vice versa. 
  •  It would be unlawful to pay different rates of pay for work which has been rated as work of equal value for e.g. the work done by 'dinner ladies' and caretakers in schools has been shown to be of equivalent value and therefore paying them different rates of pay could be unlawful.
Most of the legal cases in the field of pay and reward have been made under the Equal Pay Act and relate to gender. However, pay discrimination is also illegal under the Race Relations Act, the Disability Discrimination Act, the Age Discrimination Regulations and the Part Time Workers Regulations.
 
So, as well as looking at differences between men and women, it is important to consider other aspects of equality such as race, disability, age and contractual status.
 
For more information about the law on equal pay have a look at the EHRC website .

 

Public sector duties

The Equality Act 2006 introduced the Gender Equality Duty, which places an obligation on public bodies (such as schools) to take action on gender equality, to address and eliminate unlawful sex discrimination and harassment, and to promote equality of opportunity between men and women.
Schools are required to set out in their equality scheme how they will ensure that education is available to all pupils irrespective of their gender and that no children will be left at a disadvantage because of their gender. The scheme should aim to tackle gender issues within the school for students, staff and other service users of the school.
 
The Gender Duty also requires public bodies to take action on tackling inequalities for transsexual people in employment, related fields and vocational training (including further and higher education) and in the provision of goods, facilities and services.
 
See EHRC website for more information on  the gender duty  and  public sector duties by clicking the links.
 

Human Rights Act 1998

Human Rights Act 1998 has sixteen basic rights, which affect all aspects of human rights, from freedom from torture and killing to individual rights in everyday life. It also includes the right not to be treated differently because of your race, religion, sex, political views or any other status, unless it can be objectively justified. Further information can be obtained from the EHRC website.
 
 

Equality Bill

Current gender and equal pay legislation may be replaced in 2010 when the Government hopes to receive Royal Assent for the Equality Bill. The new law (which seeks to introduce a single Equality Act covering a range of equality areas) is likely to come into force from Autumn 2010. For more information see: