gender inequality in uk essay

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Chelsea Phipps

November 15th, 2021, why we should still be concerned about gender inequality in the uk.

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As anyone who has tried their hand at measuring impact will know, this is no small feat. And when it comes to charitable giving, how should donors decide where their funding can have the most positive influence?

It is this question, amongst others, that I am excited to be working on as part of my mentorship for a Capstone Project team of current MPA students at LSE as we undertake a sector analysis for a client who would like to develop their funding strategy for the gender quality sector in the UK.

With a view toward understanding how to maximise impact, this team’s work will help build a foundational understanding of the sector, its main actors, the main efforts in the field, and where there are gaps. The project will have a particular focus on the role of existing movements in the sector.

Work on this issue is particularly critical now because very few British people view gender inequality as one of the most serious types of inequality in Great Britain . A 2021 survey found that only 23% of Britons consider inequality between men and women to be one of the most serious types of inequality – considerably less than the on average 33% of Europeans who view it as a serious concern in their country. [1] This is despite Great Britain being ranked only 23 rd on the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index. [2]

This is not to say we haven’t made progress. The gender pay gap has decreased, there are more women in higher-paid occupations, and gender inequality in political representation is decreasing. [3] Girls are even outperforming boys at school and women are more likely to enrol in higher education than men. [4]

But while some of the averages on metrics might be improving, progress has been uneven. For some women and girls, particularly those in poorer communities and for women and girls of colour, things have actually become worse. This has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to disproportionate burdens for women.

When people think the job is done and gender equality is a problem for elsewhere, our progress on the issue will stagnate. And the job is far from done :

• Women are less likely to be employed full-time with a rate of 45% compared to 61% of men
• 41% of women provide care for children, grandchildren, older people, or people with a disability compared to 25% of men
• Less than a third of members of parliament are women
• 85% of women cook and/or do housework every day, compared to 49% of men.
• Only 35% of board members for the largest publicly listed companies are women. [5]
• Only 35% of counsellors in England are women. At the current rate, we won’t achieve gender equality in local councils until 2077. [6]

Unsurprisingly , inequalities between genders are even more acute when they intersect with racial inequalities . According to a literature review, The Pay and Progression of Women of Colour , released in September by the Fawcett Society and the Runnymede Trust, in Britain:

• Black girls are twice as likely to be permanently excluded at school compared to white girls.
• Ethnic minority candidates had to send 60% more applications to enter the workforce to receive as many call backs as white people.
• One-third of women of colour say they’ve been unfairly passed over for or denied a promotion at work.
• Women make up only 6% of CEOs of FTSE 100 companies and 35% of civil service permanent secretaries – yet none of these are women of colour.

Achieving gender equality – particularly for those facing intersectional inequalities –isn’t just a question of justice. Increased equality leads to a multitude of positive outcomes for everyone : a stronger economy as women’s participation in work increases and the pay gap decreases, higher levels of peace and stability, better health outcomes given women (particularly women of colour) receive worse medical care than men, more productive and innovative companies, and less poverty. Empowering women also creates a multiplier effect by benefitting multiple generations as women tend to play a greater role in the health and well-being of both children and older generations.

A 2021 survey on what British people think are some of the most serious types of inequality in Great Britain showed that the highest shares of respondents selected income and wealth inequality (56%) and inequality between more and less deprived areas (51%). These forms of inequality are all interconnected: improving gender equality would also help improve wealth and spatial inequalities, the latter of which compound gender inequality.

Among the many culprits for why we haven’t yet achieved gender equality in the UK are social norms, bias, and stereotyping . Survey research has shown that boys and girls as young as the ages of 7-11 have already established gendered career aspirations; for example, boys are 20 times more likely to want to be an engineer or architect. [7] Women and girls – particularly if they are ethnic minorities – also face higher rates of harassment and violence, particularly in workplace or educational settings.

What would it take to change the harmful stereotypes in Britain that help keep inequalities entrenched? To begin to answer this question, the MPA Capstone group will explore the role of movements in achieving progress on gender equality.

We know that social movements have played a key role toward shifting behaviour, attitudes, and policy on many social issues. For example, women in Britain won equal voting rights in 1928 thanks to its famous suffragette movement led by Emmeline Pankhurst. Research has shown that movements have been associated with successful policy outcomes: data from 1975-2005 from studies on 70 countries has shown that there have been more comprehensive government responses to violence against women in countries with stronger women’s movements on the issue. [8]

Movements have the potential to build popular support, to apply political pressure on governments, but also to reframe an issue, including reframing whose issue it is. Widely supported movements can demonstrate that an issue isn’t just a concern of the few, it’s a concern of the many.

But movements are only one of many possible ways of effecting change; what works best differs based on the context. The MPA students will use their research to try to evaluate the impact of different approaches in the sector with a particular focus on determining the extent to which social movements can be a critical lever for change for progressing gender equality in the UK.

I look forward to working with these students to help their client develop a funding strategy that maximises impact on progress toward gender equality. Given what’s at stake and the benefits progress on gender equality would bring, I hope everyone can see why we should all be concerned.

[1] Duffy, B., Murkin, G., Hewlett, K., Benson, R., & Hesketh, R. (2021). Inequalities around the globe: what the world sees as most serious. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/149731100/inequalities_around_the_globe_final.pdf

[2] Cowper-Coles, M., Glennie, M., Mendes Borges, A., & Schmid, C. (Oct. 2021). Bridging the gap? An analysis of gender pay gap reporting in six countries.” https://www.kcl.ac.uk/giwl/assets/bridging-the-gap-full-report.pdf

[3] Equality and Human Rights Commission (2019). Is Britain Fairer? The state of equality and human rights in 2018. https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/is-britain-fairer-accessible.pdf

[4] Cowper-Coles, M., Glennie, M., Mendes Borges, A., & Schmid, C. (Oct. 2021). Bridging the gap? An analysis of gender pay gap reporting in six countries.” https://www.kcl.ac.uk/giwl/assets/bridging-the-gap-full-report.pdf

[5]  European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE). 28 October 2020. Gender Equality Index 2020. https://eige.europa.eu/publications/gender-equality-index-2020-united-kingdom

[6] Fawcett Society. 2021. We won’t see gender equality in local councils until 2077 – new data shows. https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/News/local-council-data-2021

[7] Equality and Human Rights Commission (2019). Is Britain Fairer? The state of equality and human rights in 2018. https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/is-britain-fairer-accessible.pdf

[8] Horn, Jessica. 2013. Gender and social movements: overview report. BRIDGE. https://www.ludenet.org/projects-files/6/resources/gender-and-social-movements-overview-report-2013-206.pdf

About the author

Chelsea Phipps is a Practitioner in Residence at the LSE Marshall Institute

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Gender inequality in the UK - Statistics & Facts

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Median annual earnings for full-time employees in the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2023, by gender (in nominal GBP)

Average weekly earnings for full-time employees in the UK 1997-2023, by gender

Median weekly earnings for full-time employees in the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2023, by gender (in nominal GBP)

Average full-time hourly wage in the UK 1997-2023, by gender

Median hourly earnings for full-time employees in the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2023, by gender (in nominal GBP)

Average weekly earnings for full-time employees in the UK 2023, by age and gender

Median weekly earnings for full-time employees in the United Kingdom in 2023, by age and gender (in GBP)

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Employment rate in the United Kingdom from 1st quarter 1971 to 2nd quarter 2024, by gender

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Women's opinion on progress in gender balance in politics Great Britain 2024

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Unequal Britain: equalities in Britain since 1945

Pat thane | 02 march 2010.

Executive Summary

• Despite the political rhetoric about Britain's traditions of 'liberty' and 'tolerance', the UK actually has a long history of inequality and discrimination on grounds of age, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation and disability.
• Yet awareness of these different forms of discrimination has been uneven and historians can contribute significantly to understanding the factors which have inhibited it or driven it forward.
• The first major advances came during the long period of prosperity after 1945, which led to a more confident, less deferential and more open-minded nation: groups which had until then been at best objects of philanthropic concern, and at worst criminalised and persecuted, began organising and speaking for themselves.
• Partly in response to this there was a remarkable run of legislation in the late 1960s under Labour governments, much of it initiated by backbenchers, but which could not have passed without government support.
• This in turn stimulated larger-scale, more colourful campaigning during the 1970s and the emergence of new campaigning groups.
• After Britain joined what was then the European Community, these groups were able to use the European Court of Human Rights to challenge UK legislation, culminating in another wave of reforms promoting equality under a new Labour government after 1997.
• However, progress in legal protection has not translated directly into social, cultural and political equality.
• One of the key inhibitors has been the persistence of hostility and prejudice, reinforced and reflected by some sections of the media.
• Meanwhile, one of the key drivers toward equality has been organised activism by people experiencing inequality, with the support of others, and using media opportunities that were unthinkable in 1946.
• This paper briefly considers the latest stage in the UK's progress towards equality: the Equality Act 2010.

Introduction

As the Equality Bill goes through parliament we should reflect on why it is now possible for a government credibly to propose a statutory duty on public authorities to address the inequalities experienced by members of their workforce and the communities due to their gender, race, religion, age disability, sexual orientation or socio-economic difference, and to ban discrimination on many of these grounds. Even at the end of the Second World War most of these issues were not seriously regarded as dimensions of inequality. Since then, there have been greater changes than at any time in British history in public perceptions of such inequalities.

In 1945 inequalities of age, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation and disability were deep-rooted, taken-for-granted facts of British culture, rarely openly discussed or challenged even by most of those who suffered from them. There has since been a remarkable growth in recognition that these inequalities exist and are unjust and some long marginalised groups have acquired legal rights, entitlements, social respect and cultural recognition to a degree unimaginable in 1945, though substantial inequalities remain. How and why have these changes happened? Why are they still incomplete? What are the continuing obstacles to change? And can history help us to understand how further change can come about? What follows is based upon a report prepared by historians in the Centre for Contemporary British History and the History & Policy network, commissioned by the Equalities Review team at the Cabinet Office, which requested answers precisely to these questions, now edited by Pat Thane as Unequal Britain. Equalities in Britain since 1945 (Continuum 2010).

The long history of discrimination

All these forms of inequality and discrimination have long histories. Jews were expelled from England from 1290 until the seventeenth century. The Aliens Act, 1905, the first official restriction of immigration by people not of British nationality, was designed to restrict the immigration of Jews fleeing from persecution in eastern Europe. Roman Catholics were unable to stand for parliament until 1829, despite their substantial numbers in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; or Jews until 1859. Buggery became a hanging offence in 1533 and by the early nineteenth century more men were hanged for homosexual offences than for murder. Gypsies have been simultaneously romanticised and marginalised throughout recorded history. Older and disabled people have always been among the poorest groups in society, discrimination against them largely taken for granted. In his influential and largely humane report of 1942, Social Insurance and Allied Services, William Beveridge could comment, without facing public criticism: 'it is dangerous to be in any way lavish to old age until adequate provision has been assured for all vital needs, such as prevention of disease and the adequate nutrition of the young'. By 'lavish' he meant paying a state pension adequate for more than basic needs, which was not, in fact, forthcoming following his report. Disabled people, especially those who were mentally disabled, benefited least from the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, though in the early 1950s they occupied half of all hospital beds, often in bleak conditions. Women - not a minority but a majority group through most of British history - had been protesting about inequality for at least a century and had, at last, by 1928, achieved the vote on equal terms with men. But still in 1945 they tended at all ages to be poorer, with more limited opportunities in all spheres of life, than men. Some women kept on campaigning through the 1940s and 1950s, for example for equal pay, which they gained in the public sector in 1955.

Other excluded groups were not wholly silent. Pensioners had been organising to fight for higher pensions since the mid 1930s. The first activist group of Black people in Britain, the League of Coloured Peoples, was formed in 1931; the Indian Workers' Association in 1938. Jews resisted fascists led by Oswald Mosley in East London in the 1930s. The British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology was founded in 1914 to lobby for more enlightened views on homosexuality - deliberately decorously named because it was an issue on which it was almost impossible to speak out publicly. The organisations now known as MENCAP and MIND were founded in 1946 to campaign for improved treatment of mentally ill people and those who were then known as 'backward children'.

Post-war prosperity and Labour reforms

But all these groups were small and marginal in 1945. How did they acquire stronger voices? When Attlee's Labour government was elected in 1945 it prioritised economic inequality over other social forms because the facts of mass poverty were so stark. By the 1960s the grosser manifestations of poverty had been eliminated. Other inequalities became more salient and the victims gained voices. One effect of post-war prosperity and improved health and education was a more confident, less deferential and, in some respects, more open-minded nation. The mass media, too, were more assertive and anxious for sensational stories of whatever kind.

In the 1960s groups who were at best, objects of philanthropic concern and at worst, criminalised and persecuted, began organising and speaking for themselves as never before. The Homosexual Law Reform Society was formed in 1958, in the wake of the 1957 Wolfenden Report on prostitution and homosexual offences (whose recommendations to tighten up the law relating to the former were followed by the government, while those to liberalise the law relating to the latter were not). The Minorities Research Group, campaigning for lesbians, was formed in 1963, again deliberately obscurely named; the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination was formed in 1964, following increased immigration, mainly from Commonwealth countries from the late 1940s, and some racist responses; the Disablement Income Group was founded in 1965; the Gypsy Council, in 1966, in a pub displaying an all-too-common 'No Gypsies' sign. The Women's Liberation Movement (formed 1969) made the demand for gender equality a significant public force again. The Gay Liberation Front, formed 1970, did the same, for the first time feeling able to claim publicly that they were 'Good As You'.

The very existence of these organisations, and their increasing visibility in the 1970s, suggests that the previous lobbying of their quieter predecessors had had a certain success and that cultural shifts were in progress, internationally, which gave them all the confidence to 'come out'. An important sign of this was the remarkable run of legislation in the late 1960s, under a Labour government, pre-dating the emergence of more militant movements. The Race Relations Act, 1965, set up the Race Relations Board to investigate complaints of unlawful discrimination, changed in 1968 to the Community Relations Commission with extended powers. Also in 1968 local authorities were required to provide sites for Gypsies and Travellers following reports of persecution. 'Homosexual acts' were partially decriminalised in 1967, when abortion was also legalised, a long-standing demand of women's groups. A response to another old demand for gender equality, the Equal Pay Act, came in 1970. In the same year the Chronically Sick and Disabled Act required local authorities to register disabled people and publicise services for them. Cash benefits for disabled people and their carers were introduced and improved community services encouraged. The provision was limited, but was improved in 1975 when Labour returned to office. Much of this legislation was initiated by backbenchers, but could not have passed without government support.

This unusual spate of legislation acknowledged and began to address fundamental inequalities and brought them into the public arena, but did not eradicate them. Rather they stimulated larger-scale, more colourful campaigning during the 1970s and the emergence of new campaigning groups. In 1979 the Trades Union Congress formed the National Pensions Convention and older people increasingly campaigned against the continuing low level of state pensions which left a high proportion of them dependent on means-tested supplements. A newly public group, Transvestites and Transsexuals, became increasingly open in their demands for legal rights. Rock Against Racism and the Anti-Nazi League were formed in 1977, militantly opposing continuing racism and the re-emergence of far-right political parties.

The importance of Europe

After Britain joined what was then the European Community in 1973, Europe became a new force for equality in the UK. Campaigning groups increasingly used the European Courts to challenge UK legislation. In 1980 Scotland decriminalised private homosexual acts as England and Wales had done in 1967, following years of campaigning and a case brought to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) by the Scottish Homosexual Reform Group. In the same year Northern Ireland's laws on homosexuality were also ruled in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights and in 1982 decriminalisation was extended to Northern Ireland. The age of consent for gay men was reduced to 18 in the UK in 1994 following another ruling in the ECHR. Another ruling in the ECHR led in 1999 to the lifting of the government ban on lesbians and gay men serving in the armed forces.

European court rulings in the 1980s, in cases brought with the support of the Equal Opportunities Commission, (established under the Sex Discrimination Act, 1975, itself thought to have been a response to European pressure), guaranteed equal pay for certain groups of women workers and led to a new Sex Discrimination Act in 1986, which outlawed discrimination in collective bargaining agreements and extended anti-discrimination law to small businesses. English Gypsies and Irish Travellers were successful in the British courts (where many of the above cases had failed) in 1988 in gaining legal recognition as an ethnic minority and acquiring protection under the Race Relations Act. Since 2000, when the 1998 Human Rights Act incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights in UK law, some Gypsies and Travellers have used it to oppose or delay eviction from their sites.

In 2000 ECHR ruled that transsexuals' self-designated gender should have legal status and in 2002 that the British government was in breach of the human rights of trans people to marry and enjoy respect for their private lives. In 2004 the UK Gender Recognition Act gave people the legal right to live in their acquired gender, including to marry. These changes owed much to the transsexual lobby group, Press for Change, formed in 1994 and led by lawyers. In 2006 the Labour government - rather reluctantly, and in a limited way - implemented the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations, introduced as part of a European initiative against age discrimination in the workplace. The Campaign against Age Discrimination in Retirement had been demanding an end to mandatory retirement ages since 1988 but was disappointed that the British regulations applied only to those under age 65.

From 1997, again under a Labour government, there was a succession of legislative reforms promoting equality, often impelled by campaigning groups or initiatives from Europe. Apart from those described above, unprecedented safeguards against racial and religious hatred were introduced when the Race Relations Act was extended in 2000 to include the police and all public authorities and outlawed indirect and direct discrimination. This followed the outcry over the police mishandling of the inquiry into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993. Anti-Muslim sentiment following the 9/11 and the July 2005 bombings in London led to the Racial and Religious Hatred Act, 2006, creating for the first time the offence of 'inciting religious hatred'. There were serious and successful efforts by the Labour Party to increase the very low representation of women in the Labour Party with the use of All Women Shortlists in 1993. In 2006 a Public Sector Duty for Gender Equality was introduced. From 2003, workplace discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation became illegal, extended in 2006 to all businesses involved in the provision of goods and services, creating ongoing tensions with providers who have asserted their right not to offer services to gay men and lesbians on religious grounds. In 2004 the historic crimes of buggery and gross indecency were finally abolished and the Civil Partnership Act gave same sex couples the same rights and responsibilities as married heterosexual couples. A series of laws, including the Disability Equality Duty Act, 2006, extended the legal rights of disabled people and their protection from discrimination.

In 2007 all of these groups came within the remit of the newly established Equality and Human Rights Commission, which brought together the laws and statutory bodies that had emerged over the previous 40 years to deal with equality issues. Their proliferation was causing confusion. Also it was recognized that the different forms of inequality were not mutually exclusive: a disabled Gypsy woman, for example could suffer multiple deprivations, subject to different laws.

Continuing inequalities

But real progress in legal protection has not simply translated into social, cultural and political equality. Among many continuing inequalities, mothers of young children, particularly Bangladeshi and Pakistani women, fare particularly badly in the employment market and there is pervasive gender inequality in pay and employment opportunities despite the relative and increasing success of women of all ethnic groups at all levels of education. Recognition that discrimination against older people exists at all has penetrated more slowly than awareness of other forms of discrimination. Older people themselves have been slow to acknowledge that they deserve better treatment and accusations of age and gender discrimination among broadcasters remain pervasive. Religion, more than race, has become a serious fault-line since 9/11. Gypsies and Travellers still have the worst social outcomes of any ethnic group, in terms of education, health and the labour market. Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transsexual people (LGBT) still experience prejudice and bullying. Mental illness remains stigmatised. Hate crime against disabled people, including those with learning difficulties, is all too frequent.

One of the key inhibitors to equality throughout the period since 1945 has been the persistence of hostility and prejudice, reinforced and reflected by some sections of the media. The other major inhibitor is the poverty and cultural isolation that often accompanies social inequality. Economic inequality remains at least as severe as cultural inequality and will not be removed by anti-discrimination legislation and institutions. Hence its inclusion in the Equality Bill is welcome.

Conclusions

But much has changed for the better since 1945. The main drivers towards equality have been:

• organised activism by people experiencing inequality, supported by others;
• government institutions established by legislation to promote equality;
• Labour governments, which have taken more action to further equality than Conservative ones, sometimes against the preferences of voters, as in the late 1960s;
• the EU and European Courts;
• cultural change, in particular the effects of higher standards of living and education, increased social confidence, diminished deference and more relaxed social and sexual attitudes;
• the media, in particular its new and expanding forms, which can give a voice to people experiencing inequality;
• technological change, in particular in facilitating equal living for disabled and older people.

'Good As You' could have been the campaign slogan of any of the groups whose experience in the recent past is surveyed above. This is what they have all aspired to, in different ways, on different timescales and with different, though all, to some degree positive, outcomes. None has yet achieved the degree of cultural and legal equality they aspire to. But since 1945, especially since the 1960s, they have come closer - some more than others - above all, by making their own voices heard as never before and using media opportunities unthinkable in 1946. This legacy of successfully speaking-up is perhaps their best guide for the future.

Now that the Equality Bill has passed all stages in parliament and has received Royal Assent it is clear that it builds on the experience of the past decades, further extending protection against discrimination, learning from the weaknesses revealed in previous laws by everyday experience, including in the law courts where recent case law has weakened discrimination protection. It also allows ministers to amend UK Equality legislation to comply with European law without the need for primary legislation. Among other things, it provides powers to extend age discrimination protection outside the workplace; extends protection from discrimination on grounds of gender reassignment to school pupils; and provides for legislation requiring that employers review gender pay differences within their oprganizations and publish the results.

• Power and politics

Further Reading

E. Breitenbach and P. Thane (eds), Women and Citizenship in Britain and Ireland in the Twentieth Century. What Difference did the Vote Make? (London: Continuum, forthcoming 2010).

S.Childs, J.Lovenduski and R.Campbell, Women at the Top 2005: Changing Numbers, Changing Politics (London: Hansard Society, 2005).

N. Crowson, M. Hilton and J. McKay (eds), NGOs in Contemporary Britain: Non-State Actors in Society and Politics since 1945 (London: Palgrave, 2009).

Equalities Review, Fairness and Freedom: the final report of the Equalities Review (Cabinet Office, 2007)

B. Taylor, A Minority and the State: Travellers in Britain in the Twentieth Century (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2008).

P. Thane (ed.), Unequal Britain. Equalities in Britain since 1945 (London: Continuum, 2010).

About the author

Pat Thane is Professor of Contemporary British History, Institute of Historical Research, University of London. Her publications include: The Foundations of the Welfare State (Longman, 2nd edn 1996); Old Age in England. Past Experiences, Present Issues (Oxford University Press, May 2000); The Long History of Old Age edited (Thames and Hudson, Getty Museum, LA, 2005); Britain's Pensions Crisis: History and Policy co-edited with Hugh Pemberton and Noel Whiteside (Oxford University Press/British Academy, 2005). She is a Co-Founder of History and Policy. [email protected] .

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Article Contents

Introduction, background: the need for a subnational gender equality index for gb, identifying domains of gender inequality in gb: mapping theory and policy, challenges in developing a gb subnational gender equality index: findings from the workshop, toward a gb subnational gender equality index: ideal versus existing indicators, supplementary data, acknowledgments.

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Measuring Gender Inequality in Great Britain: Proposal for a Subnational Gender Inequality Index

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Caitlin B Schmid, Rose Cook, Laura Jones, Measuring Gender Inequality in Great Britain: Proposal for a Subnational Gender Inequality Index, Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society , Volume 30, Issue 2, Summer 2023, Pages 580–606, https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxac005

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Tackling gender inequality is a key focus for both civil society and government policy in Great Britain (GB). Yet, there is currently no consensus on how to conceptualize or operationalize gender inequalities, nor any detailed measurement of gender inequalities at the subnational level, despite high levels of regional inequality. This is a barrier to the development and evaluation of gender equality programs and policies, and to holding the government accountable. To address this gap, we propose a framework for a subnational index of gender inequalities in GB based on a review of relevant indices, theoretical models, and policy. This framework was further developed in a workshop with stakeholders. We also scope the data currently available from survey and administrative sources to capture the proposed framework, highlighting gaps in our ability to comprehensively measure gender inequalities at the subnational level in GB.

There is widespread awareness that the lives of women and men are structured in unequal ways, illustrated by disparities in pay, health, and life expectancy as well as the prevalence of sexual harassment and violence. This “gender order” has long been recognized as multidimensional, operating across diverse domains ( Connell 1987 ). One way to expose patterns of inequality is by operationalizing them as measurable constructs. While imperfect, quantitative indicators have become influential in the development and evaluation of policy interventions addressing gender inequalities. We propose a subnational gender equality index for Great Britain (GB), which can be used for this purpose, while also functioning as an advocacy tool with which the government can be held accountable. The proposed index is intended as one instrument amongst a range of feminist approaches to understanding gender inequality in GB to be used alongside qualitative, contextual, and longitudinal analyses.

In this article, we investigate which dimensions and indicators should and could be included in a subnational measure of gender inequalities in GB, highlighting where current data is underutilized as well as data gaps. We focus on GB (England, Scotland, and Wales) as opposed to the whole United Kingdom (which additionally includes Northern Ireland) for both substantive and pragmatic reasons. Unlike the rest of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland is not subject to the Equality Act 2010, the primary legislation governing equalities in England, Scotland, and Wales and has a distinctive approach to equalities provision ( Hankivsky et al., 2019 ). Second, much of the data that are available to measure gender inequalities are not comparable between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.

First, we explain the need for a new subnational gender equality index for GB, while also addressing the limitations of quantitative indicators for the measurement of a diverse and complex social phenomenon such as gender inequality. Second, we introduce an initial conceptual framework developed through a review of theories of gender equality. Third, we present the findings of a workshop conducted in November 2020 with representatives from the government and third sector across GB. The workshop was intended to include a diverse range of stakeholders and to involve potential users in index development. The challenges and opportunities of a GB subnational gender equality index identified by workshop participants further refined the proposed conceptual framework. This discussion is complemented by a review of existing national and subnational indices from other countries to show possible approaches to dealing with the challenges. Finally, we present the findings of our data scoping, contrasting the identified ideal indicators with relevant and readily available data resources. We conclude with recommendations for future data collection.

This article makes a significant contribution by (i) proposing a conceptual framework to identify what domains and indicators should be included in a subnational measure of gender inequalities in GB, (ii) scoping what data are currently available from survey and administrative data sources, and (iii) comparing the conceptual framework and available data resources to highlight gaps in our ability to meaningfully measure local area gender inequalities, allowing us to recommend future innovations to data collection to make this possible.

Over the past twenty-five years, we have witnessed a proliferation of global and international gender equality indices (see Schmid 2021 for an overview). The United Kingdom has been included in many of these, including the UNDP’s Gender Development Index ( UNDP 2019a ) and Gender Inequality Index ( UNDP 2019b ), the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index ( World Economic Forum 2019) , and the European Institute for Gender Equality’s Gender Equality Index ( European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) 2021 ). Yet, existing indices fall short in providing a nuanced picture of the gender inequality context in the region for reasons outlined below.

Commonly Used Indicators Provide a Limited Picture of the Gender Equality Context in Britain

According to the 2020 Global Gender Gap report, the United Kingdom ranks highly on women’s health and education, and slightly worse on political participation and economic opportunity, though still well above the global average ( World Economic Forum 2019) . However, global rankings are partly a function of indicator selection, which is often driven by the availability of data across multiple countries rather than having a robust theoretical foundation. The need for global coverage results in the use of a limited range of indicators meant to capture the key inequalities universally faced by women; usually focusing on measures of educational attainment, health outcomes, or labor market participation. Yet, the process in determining what is “universal” is structured by power dynamics in that (i) indicators are usually conceptualized in the Global North, giving it an advantage to knowledge production ( Merry 2011 ) and (ii) domains with affinities to the Western mainstream (especially to employment) are more readily translated into indicators ( Verloo and van der Vleuten 2009 ). In instances where indicators are used to benchmark and rank country performance, actors with control over the data generation process can use this bias to their advantage, at times with adverse impact on progress ( Verloo and van der Vleuten 2009 ).

It comes as no surprise then, that across the existing global indices, women in the Global North are generally shown to be “doing well” in terms of economic opportunity, education, and health, with modest variation between countries at a similar stage of economic development. This is especially the case when indices take into account absolute levels of achievement (e.g., EIGE’s Gender Equality Index) rather than focusing exclusively on gender gaps (e.g., the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index). Yet, the absence of context in the production of global indicators lessens their informative value, portraying a simplistic vision of women’s position in rich Global North countries such as the United Kingdom. For instance, indicators of educational attainment and formal employment rates are less insightful in settings where women have overtaken men in university enrolments and are widely employed ( Fine, Sojo, and Lawford-Smith 2020 ). Instead, less globally available indicators of educational and occupational segregation would be more informative and would show women doing less “well” by many measures. In other words, we see a need for a measurement of gender equality in GB that is tailored to its specific national circumstances.

Although focusing on (sub)national rather than global indicators of gender equality avoids the power dynamics between the Global North and South, we are aware that social and political dynamics are at play within GB—its startling regional inequality is partly what drives our ambition to develop a subnational gender equality index that can help challenge this. We thus recognize that the generation of indicators in this context is also shaped by power. For instance, below in our data scoping we show that—as in the European Union and global context—gender equality domains with affinities to the mainstream are more widely available in GB data. Nevertheless, data gaps need not necessarily limit the theoretical richness of the proposed framework. As discussed in more detail below, the index can serve an additional function as an advocacy tool for increased efforts to improve data availability and relevance for capturing and challenging patterns of inequality in GB.

A Lack of Information Below the National Level Exists

While a move away from the global to a regional or national picture can provide theoretical richness, it can still mask wide subnational variation in gender equality. For instance, the EIGE’s Gender Equality Index benefits from a much broader range of indicators due to well-developed national data infrastructure in European countries. However, it cannot address country-specific contexts or unpick differences beneath the national level. The lack of subnational information on gender equality is a particular problem in GB, which has one of the highest levels of regional inequality in the developed world ( Davenport and Zaranko 2020 ). While the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), a widely used measure of relative deprivation for small areas in England, reveals stark inequalities in earnings and living conditions between regions and even between adjacent neighborhoods, it does not capture gender differences.

Gender inequalities in GB will be shaped by the high levels of regional inequalities. For example, while nationally men’s employment rate is 8 percentage points higher than women’s, this varies from 6 percentage points in the North East, to 12 percentage points in London ( Francis-Devine, Ward, and Foley 2020 ). Furthermore, there is evidence that neighborhood characteristics influence outcomes such as intimate partner violence and health ( Pinchevsky and Wright 2012 ; Stafford et al. 2005 ), and that area-level gender inequalities are related to other inequalities (e.g., Backhans, Lundberg and Månsdotter 2007 ; Chen et al. 2005 ; Perrons 1995 ). This highlights the need for a measure that is sensitive to regional differences so as not to homogenize the diversity of experiences faced by women and men in GB.

If the British government is serious about tackling regional inequalities via its “levelling up” agenda, the gendered dimensions of this need to be addressed. An obvious but to-date neglected way to do so is through the harnessing of finer-grained data. Plenty of data relevant to measuring gender inequalities are already routinely collected in GB, but either their potential impact is overlooked, or issues of access prevent their integration. Making better use of the existing subnational data can facilitate the evaluation of area-level gender equalities in GB to understand its impact on community and individual outcomes. Incorporating data reflecting gender inequalities at a subnational level requires a firm theoretical foundation and comprehensive data scoping, both of which we seek to provide.

But before we turn our attention to theory, we want to touch upon wider critiques of quantitative indicators and indices to call into mind that these instruments are social constructs shaped by power dynamics. Feminist scholars have highlighted points of contestation in relation to their epistemology, the power relations embedded in their generation, and their relationship to governance. Sally Merry (2011 , 2016 ) argues that complex and context-specific phenomenon such as gender equality and violence against women cannot be reduced to a universal indicator for measurement over time and space. Moreover, the process and consequences of abstraction can be problematic since the generation of gendered indicators produces “representations of the gendered world that are somewhat removed from women’s direct experiences” ( Walby 2005 , 372). The concept of gender in quantitative data itself can be limited for investigating gender inequalities since it is often represented as a dichotomous variable ( Lindqvist, Sendén, and Renström 2021 ) and intersecting inequalities modifying experiences depending on context, time, and place are not necessarily taken into consideration ( Scott, 2010 ). Further, we recognize the limitations of “‘outcome’-focused and quantitative analyses, as part of a closed policy cycle” ( Minto, Mergaert, and Bustelo 2020 , 278), especially as it risks placing focus on improving indicators rather than promoting social change ( Desrosières 2015 ). The complex and cross-cutting nature of gender inequality and pace of social change requires a holistic approach to policy development and evaluation, meaning that the interpretation of quantitative indicators must be enriched by qualitative, contextual, and longitudinal analyses ( Minto, Mergaert, and Bustelo 2020 ; Razavi 2019 ).

Given the valid critiques of quantitative indicators for measuring gender inequality, the proposed index is intended as one instrument amongst a range available in feminist approaches to governance and has the potential to offer longitudinal analyses if updated regularly. Within the limitations, our aim is to offer a tool that can help expose patterns of inequality in GB in order to challenge them. For now, this article proposes a conceptual framework for a GB subnational gender equality index. As a next step, this framework would need to be translated into an index by compiling, analyzing, and harmonizing the data. Our hope is that the index can eventually be developed into an easily accessible application for exploring patterns of gender inequality at the local area level, serving multiple purposes for different users. The granularity of the data adds a spatial dimension to analyses of inequality in GB which can aid researchers and guide policy-makers in monitoring existing initiatives and developing new ones. At the same time, this can help civil society hold the government to account for its (lack of) effort and against its own stated aims (e.g., The Equality Act). Moreover, to comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty stipulated by the Equality Act, public authorities frequently conduct Equality Impact Assessments prior to implementing policy to estimate the potential impact on different groups. The proposed subnational gender equality index could be used to improve the quality and comprehensiveness of these assessments, especially if measured over time. In light of the prominence of quantitative indicators in governance, we especially see value in strengthening the capacity of “grassroot and advocacy and non-state actors … to employ the high credibility of numeric evidence to promote alternative understandings of dominant institutions” ( Rottenburg and Merry 2015 , 4). In this objective, we also take inspiration from the Women’s Budget Group’s (2021) Local Data Project which seeks to put data into the hands of grassroots organizations in the United Kingdom by providing resources and training to strengthen the data literacy of women’s equality advocates. Ideally, the index can evolve into a democratic tool where the existing quantitative data (i.e., administrative and large-scale survey data) are enriched by data collected by local charities, although data harmonization poses a significant challenge.

What should be included in a subnational index of gender inequalities? Feminist scholarship has long attempted to define and systematize the diverse areas of life and society where women’s disadvantage is manifested, often as a way to create appropriate measurements or to describe a vision of what true equality would look like. To identify which domains should be included in our potential new index, we reviewed a selection of prominent scholarship relevant to Western Anglophone contexts published within the past few decades that define and systematize the diverse areas where gender inequalities manifest themselves. We also note where similar themes are reflected within GB policy documents concerned with gender inequalities, as well as international treaties the UK is party to. 1 The domains are summarized in table 1 .

Mapping theory and policy: Key sites of gender equality

Power and Participation

Raewyn Connell (1987 , 181) defines power as “the balance of advantage or inequality of resources in a workplace, household, or larger institution.” Women’s participation in influential roles within society’s key institutions is an important indicator of gender equality since representative institutions are more likely to promote policy change towards gender equality as well as implement policies that benefit women directly ( Pascall and Lewis 2004 , 389). This is very much how the issue of power is addressed in policies such as the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Equality Act, wherein the focus is on women’s numerical representation in conventional positions of power.

However, women’s lack of power can be manifested across multiple domains. For example, within Nancy Fraser’s (1997) principles of gender equality, women’s full participation in public life, including employment and civil society, as well as politics, is central to her principle of anti-marginalization. Her notion of equality of respect focuses on respect and recognition for women’s personhood. Sylvia Walby’s (1990) theory of patriarchy distinguishes between its “private” and “public” manifestations. “Public” patriarchy is based in sites such as employment and the state and could be manifested as the absence of women from positions of power; though for Walby, the patriarchal character of the state is much more expansive than women’s lack of representation within it. More broadly, gender equality in “social power” implies equity in the ability to define and frame key social issues, to “formulate ideals and morality, in short to assert hegemony” ( Connell 1987 , 181). Instead of power, Gillian Pascall and Jane Lewis refer to “voice,” which again can operate within the household as well as in the public sphere such as civil society and state ( Pascall and Lewis 2004 ). Martha Nussbaum (2003) and Ingrid Robeyns (2003) also conceptualize power and participation in terms of fair involvement in decision-making as well as the right to free speech and association.

Indicators of women’s power and participation could thus include representation in politics but also voice within civil society and social movements. In addition to numerical and substantive representation, policies that enable representation, such as the presence of policies like proportional representation and quotas, as well as the strength of women’s organizations, could provide indicators of women’s power and participation.

Economic Resources

Inequality in economic resources is probably the most studied aspect of gender inequality. For many theorists, this is mainly centered on employment. Pascall and Lewis (2004) emphasize “the equal opportunity to earn,” which includes equal pay but also minimum wage levels and sufficiency of work to support oneself, including in retirement. Robeyns (2003) also focuses on the ability to generate one’s own economic resources through employment. However, both Robeyns (2003) and Nussbaum (2003) also acknowledge access to activities that do not involve paid work but could bring resources such as well-being or access to relationships. Inequalities in paid work and economic resources feature centrally in policy priorities set out by both Westminster and the devolved nations that commit to increasing women’s labor market participation by reducing the barriers that women face in returning to or entering the labor market. This is illustrated for example by the requirement of larger UK companies to report their gender pay gaps annually. However, many feminist theorists would go further; Walby (1990) argues that women’s position within the employment structure is also crucial. Connell (1987) also focuses on the sexual division of labor that is argued to be a manifestation of a larger patriarchal structure of production, consumption, and distribution within capitalism.

Theorists also focus more directly on women’s economic exploitation. Walby argues that the patriarchal exploitation of women’s labor has moved from the private sphere (i.e., within households) to the public sphere (e.g., workplaces), which can be observed through women working in low-paid, poor-quality jobs. For Fraser (1997) , poverty among women is key, especially among groups of women more vulnerable to poverty, such as single mothers. Her principle of anti-exploitation is strongly linked to poverty prevention. The level of exploitation could be assessed through women’s dependence on others such as male partners for survival or the sufficiency of their independently owned resources.

Education and Skills

Fraser (1997) , Walby (1990) , and Pascall and Lewis (2004) do not mention education and skills as a key site of gender inequality. Indeed, it is unclear how gender inequalities in education and skills should be measured in a context such as the United Kingdom where women participate in education to an equal or even greater extent than men. Connell (1987) focuses on the sexual division of labor and the differential training and “skilling” that leads to this. Robeyns (2003) cites differences in the attention paid to boys and girls within educational institutions and in the subjects chosen and career aspirations (e.g., science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).

Unpaid Work

For some (e.g., Walby), women’s disproportionate share of domestic work and care for children, the elderly, and the sick indicates their exploitation by men, a clear indicator of gender inequality. For others, unpaid work is important because it limits access to paid employment, an independent income, the chance to access positions of power and influence, and participation in civil society. Unpaid care work also represents the “other side” of equality on which progress has been slower—while women have entered the labor force (a previously male domain) this has not been matched by men doing more unpaid work. Therefore, this domain can focus more on men’s behavior and actions towards reducing inequalities rather than on where women have made progress. Although women’s unpaid work receives relatively little attention within GB legislation, it has been acknowledged more recently in Scottish and Welsh roadmaps for gender equality and is somewhat recognized by the promotion of “family-friendly” workplace policies ( Scottish Government 2020 ; Welsh Government 2020 ).

An indicator of whether women perform these domestic and caring activities or not would not be enough to signal advantage or disadvantage; the amount of time spent on these activities as well as the frequency (as the degree to which these activities are detrimental or limiting to the individual depends on these time aspects) in relation to other domains of activity (paid work, leisure) is important as it relates to “the gender division of time and responsibilities for market work, nonmarket work, and leisure” ( Robeyns 2003 , 82). This is important for gender inequality since it relates to time autonomy and well-being. Critical to Fraser (1997) is the recognition and respect of women’s work, especially care work. This implies measuring not only women’s engagement in unpaid work but also the respect and value accorded to this work (in the “universal caregiver model” proposed by Fraser, childbearing, child-rearing, and informal domestic labor are given the same status as formal paid labor). However, this is more challenging to measure.

Health and Well-being

Health and well-being play a minor role across the theoretical frameworks consulted, except among theorists informed by the capabilities approach, where they are central. Accordingly, indicators would include mortality, good health including reproductive health, access to adequate nutrition, and shelter ( Nussbaum 2003 ). Robeyns (2003) centers both physical health and mental well-being, citing life expectancy at birth, access to and quality of healthcare; rates of ill health and unhealthy behaviors, and the prevalence of psychological distress. However, other theorists do not see these as central to gender inequalities, perhaps because they focus on disadvantages to women whereas health inequalities often disadvantage men. Fraser (1997) and Pascall and Lewis (2004) refer to time poverty and lack of time autonomy as potentially leading to poor well-being among women and mention lack of leisure time as an indicator. However, overall there is no consensus that health and well-being should form part of any comprehensive measurement of gender inequality.

Violence against Women and Girls

There is considerable debate about the place of violence within gender equality frameworks. For theorists such as Walby, male violence against women and girls (VAWG) is central to any definition and measurement of gender inequality ( Walby 1990 , 2020 ; Walby and Towers 2017 ) and should constitute a domain in its own right. She refers to explicit examples of male violence against women—rape, sexual assault, workplace sexual harassment—but also views patriarchal violence as a wider social structure with diverse manifestations, connected to the masculine character of “institutionalized violence,” for example, the military, police, and prison system. Others argue that the importance of violence is underestimated and rather than being a separate domain, it is “central, hierarchical, and regulates and works across all domains” ( Hearn et al. 2020 , 4), reflecting the view that violence against women is often “symbolic,” involving the objectification and denigration of women as well as overt acts of violence. However, being difficult to measure in quantitative terms, the use of indices to measure such constructs is disputed.

Following the initial review and identification of key sites of gender inequality relevant to the GB context (see table 1 ), we now turn to presenting findings of a workshop conducted in 2020 with a diverse group of experts and potential users, inviting them to respond to our proposed framework and explore the challenges and opportunities offered by a subnational GB gender equality index. The following discussion builds on our report of the workshop findings ( Schmid et al., 2021 ) by including a review of existing national and subnational indices from other countries to show possible approaches to dealing with identified challenges.

Twenty-four academics, activists, researchers, and policy practitioners from across England, Wales, and Scotland took part in the two-hour online session, offering their expertise in gender equality as well as their knowledge of regional disparities and data in GB. The interactive consultation was structured around three main questions: (i) what would an ideal GB gender equality index be composed of? (ii) who could make use of it? and (iii) how would it advance our understanding of gender equality in GB?

The intention of the workshop was to include a range of individuals from different backgrounds to enrich our theoretical and policy review, informing the conceptual framework of the index. We refer to the participants as stakeholders although we are conscious that this is not an exhaustive group with interests in promoting gender equality in GB. Moreover, the selection process and attendance will have been shaped by structural factors resulting in exclusion of other viewpoints. For instance, the selection of participants occurred through institutional channels (universities, charities, government institutions, trade unions, research institutions). Furthermore, we faced particular difficulties in getting individuals working on ending VAWG to join the workshop, potentially due to skepticism of quantitative approaches to studying this field.

In light of this, we acknowledge that we may not have sufficiently incorporated a diversity of voices in this process and ideally the workshop would be repeated to further enrich the discussion and framework. The resulting framework therefore represents an initial proposal and we invite contributions and critiques in the interest of incorporating diverse perspectives to promote gender equality in GB. With this in mind, the results of the workshop are presented below, starting with a discussion of the challenges to the development of a GB gender equality index.

Choice of Domains

Participants were divided into six groups broadly representing the domains in table 1 . There was general agreement that these domains reflect key sites of gender inequalities in the GB context. The Economic Resources group did, however, argue that inequalities in the sphere of paid employment should be captured separately from gender differences in financial resources and poverty to facilitate analysis of their relationship. The discussions also confirmed that gender inequalities in the economic, educational, or political sphere are easier to operationalize and translate into quantitative indicators than those relating to health and violence. The choice of domains within the existing subnational gender equality indices support this finding (see table 2 ).

Overview of existing gender equality indices on national and subnational level

Indicators of existing national and subnational indices have been categorized into the domains identified in this article according to our reviews and workshop findings and do not necessarily reflect the domains present in each index.

Including a Health & Well-being domain as part of the index was viewed critically, since analyses of the relationship between gender equality levels and health outcomes might be more informative if health indicators are excluded. The Additive Index of Gender Equality for Swedish Municipalities ( Backhans, Lundberg, and Månsdotter 2007 ) follows this logic, using compound indicators to measure gender equality levels and then analyzing their correlation with morbidity and mortality rates. Participants noted that there are multiple ways to conceptualize health, resulting in a disparate choice of indicators. For instance, if built around women’s empowerment, the indicators selected would allow gender-specific measures to be included. An example of this is the US Women, Peace and Security Index by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) (2017) , which includes women-specific health outcomes as part of the core index (i.e., maternal mortality rate and access to abortion clinics). If the aim is to capture gender differences, indicators will be included in which women might be at an advantage (e.g., life expectancy), as is the case in the Subnational Gender Development Index by Jeroen Permanyer and Smits (2020) . Scotland’s Gender Equality Index ( Scottish Government 2020 ) proposes a novel way of combining the two approaches by including a core domain measuring gender differences in health outcomes, complemented with a satellite domain capturing women-specific health outcomes.

Since the EIGE index is one of the most comprehensive gender quality indices to date, includes GB, and has conceptually influenced at least three local area indices, 2 it is worth briefly contrasting its dimensions (Work, Money, Knowledge, Time, Power, and Health) to that of our proposed index. Table 3 summarizes our choice of domains and includes key sub-domains identified by the workshop participants.

Overview of proposed domains and sub-domains for a subnational GB gender equality index

As mentioned, participants argued for the separation of employment (i.e., labor market participation, quality of work, segregation) from financial resources (e.g., income, wealth). We therefore propose splitting Economic Resources into the two separate dimensions—Paid Work and Money, as in the EIGE index. Our domain Education and Skills mirrors the EIGE domain of Knowledge. The EIGE includes the domain Power, which measures women’s representation in political and civil institutions and commercial organizations. Participants argued for the importance of also measuring gender differences in political participation (i.e., voting behaviors, party membership). We therefore label this domain Power & Participation.

Further, we propose including a distinct domain of Unpaid Work, covering unpaid care for children and adults, domestic labor, and volunteering, as also recommended by the participants. While the EIGE index covers these indicators, it places them alongside measures of time spent on leisure, sporting, and cultural activities. This approach has been argued to obscure the centrality of unpaid work in perpetuating gender inequalities ( Schmid 2021 ). Instead, including Unpaid Work as a core domain alongside Paid Work helps signal the equal value of “productive” and “reproductive” labor, while also highlighting their interrelation.

We decided against including Health & Well-being in the core index, following participants’ suggestions. Instead, we propose a satellite domain measuring gender differences in health outcomes, which could potentially be complemented by an analysis of differences in women’s reproductive health and access to services. Similarly, we recognize that varied forms of VAWG are central to understanding gender inequalities ( Strid et al. 2021 ) and therefore suggest including a satellite domain. We strongly advise interpreting this satellite domain alongside qualitative data to highlight its structural and cross-cutting nature and include the voices of affected individuals. Going beyond quantitative data is particularly important in the case of VAWG considering limitations in the richness and quality of existing quantitative data, as identified by the participants as well as the literature (e.g., Merry 2016 ; Walby and Towers 2017 ).

Intersectionality

A central challenge to the development of a gender equality index is to avoid obscuring other forms of inequality. Participants stressed the importance of the index adopting an intersectional approach, ideally drawing on harmonized data disaggregated by local area level for each nation and protected characteristic (including sex, age, disability, race, religion or belief, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy, and maternity). This way, subnational variation in gender equality could be analyzed for different groups of women.

However, disaggregated data are still largely absent in GB (discussed below) and beyond, making this aim challenging to fulfill. For this reason, most existing subnational gender equality indices fail to incorporate an intersectional approach. Notable exceptions include the EIGE index, which adds a satellite domain on intersecting inequalities, enabling analysis of variation in gender gaps across social categories (e.g., citizenship, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, religion, or age) ( EIGE 2013 , 31). A further exception is the Women’s Hour Index ( Dunatchik et al. 2017 ) which measures women’s quality of life across 380 British local authorities. It too includes satellite domains aimed at capturing variation across age groups.

Data Availability and Quality

An intersectional approach requires harmonized data disaggregated by local area level for each GB country and as many relevant protected characteristics as possible. Workshop participants raised concerns regarding the current availability of such data and consistency across the three nations. One approach might be to develop different indices for each nation using the available indicators, similar to the IMD. Data availability is a commonly cited problem, especially when seeking to go beneath the national level, affecting the choice of indicators and therefore the scope of the index (e.g., Bozzano 2012 ; Di Bella et al. 2020 ; Di Noia 2002 ; Dunatchik et al. 2017 ; Gil-Lafuente et al. 2019 ; Harvey, Blakely, and Tepperman 1990 ; Kjeldstad and Kristiansen 2001 ).

Absolute and Relative Levels

The difficulty of capturing different forms of inequality further points to the question of whether to measure relative or absolute levels of equality. This is a longstanding dilemma in the gender equality index literature, especially since the introduction of the UNDP’s 1995 global indices ( UNDP 1995 ) that led to the development of direct measures of gender equality (e.g., Dijkstra 2002 ; Dijkstra and Hanmer 2000 ; Klasen and Schüler 2011 ). Our project had set out to measure the differences between the values for women and men (i.e., relative levels). In some instances, however, regional differences in the total values for both women and men (i.e., absolute levels) prove more telling than gender differences.

For example, in 2020 Greater Manchester reported a gender pay gap of 9.1 percent, which is below the GB average of 16.3 percent. Yet, this narrower gap is due to men’s median earnings in Greater Manchester falling 9.1 percent below the GB average of male earnings rather than women’s high earnings. In fact, women’s earnings in Greater Manchester also fall below the national average by 1.2 percent ( Rubery et al. 2021 ). This exemplifies how measuring gender differences poses challenges in instances where a whole region is relatively disadvantaged. Further, it raises questions around defining relevant gender equality benchmarks for regions when the required policy strategy might necessitate structural socioeconomic changes.

The Regional Gender Equality Index applied to Italy by Di Bella et al. (2020) applies a similar correction coefficient to the EIGE index intended to “correct” gender gaps of each region by its overall level of achievement (i.e., both women and men) in each indicator. Yet, this approach has attracted critique; in the case of the EIGE, Iñaki Permanyer (2015) , and Caitlin Schmid and Mark Elliot (n.d.) show that overall achievement levels, rather than their gender differences, primarily drive the index scores and rankings, thereby unjustly penalizing lower-income countries. A useful approach to balancing absolute and relative levels is proposed the Regional Gender Equality Monitor ( Norlén, Papadimitriou, and Dijkstra 2019 ). It offers two separate indices, one of which measures gender gaps (i.e., Female Disadvantage Index) and the other overall achievement levels (i.e., Female Achievement Index).

Level of Measurement

Tradeoffs of focusing on the national versus local area level were highlighted. Individuals may work or study in different areas from where they live. Further, policy solutions required to reduce the gender division of labor, for instance, would operate above the local area level, although quality of service provision might well vary on the sub-local authority level. Yet, participants noted that local campaign groups could benefit considerably from the index measuring below the national level, as this could support cases for policy intervention and applications for government funding. Moreover, it could facilitate knowledge sharing of effective policy strategy and gender equality campaigns on the local authority level or regional level. Regional or local area pictures could grab media attention and exert pressure on local authorities to increase efforts. Finally, looking below the national level is required to assess the effectiveness of the devolution strategy or “levelling up” agenda for supporting women. In either case, the usefulness of the index depends on accessibility: the participants emphasized the importance of making the underlying data and results easily accessible and interpretable for activists, researchers, and practitioners. This would be especially valuable in light of a tendency towards underutilization of regional data due to lack of awareness and accessibility.

A tradeoff also exists in relation to the granularity of measurement and the substantive scope of gender equality indices. Amongst the existing subnational indices, only a handful manage to look below the national or regional level, yet often at the expense of the theoretical comprehensiveness, suggested by the number of indicators included. A remarkable exception is the Women’s Hour Index ( Dunatchik et al. 2017 ), which includes thirty-two indicators of women’s quality of life and is indexed to the local authority level. To achieve this, the index imputes regional averages in instances where local authority data are missing or uses combined values of women and men where lower-layer data are not disaggregated by sex.

Aggregation of Scores

Stakeholders identified advantages and uses of different levels of aggregation; while an overall index score may prove more popular with the media as it allows areas to be ranked, this approach might be less directly engaging for policy-makers and less useful in decision-making. Therefore, the data must be available on a disaggregated level, not just in the form of an overall index score. Further, regional differences in achievement levels of both women and men can more readily be identified and compared to GB averages if domain scores and underlying data are easily accessible.

Two UK-specific scorecards measure aspects of gender equality without aggregating them into a summary score. The Feminist Scorecard, produced by Oxfam Cymru and the Women’s Equality Network Wales (2020) , assesses the gender equality context in Wales, while the Pankhurst–Fawcett Scorecards by GM4Women2028 (2018 ) focuses on gender inequalities across the local authorities of Greater Manchester.

The domains and sub-domains ideally included in a subnational GB gender equality index are summarized in table 3 . We contrast these domains and sub-domains with existing data from relevant survey and administrative sources, noting whether the indicators are disaggregated by local area level and by protected characteristics, in particular sex. This provides an initial data catalogue (see Supplementary Appendix 2 ) showing how close we are to comprehensively and intersectionally measuring gender inequalities on the subnational level in GB. While our proposal is for a GB-wide index, we included Northern Ireland in the data scoping. The lack of comparative data between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom provides part of the rationale for a GB focus. This is a provisional table of readily available data with potential gaps. In the spirit of the collaborative approach previously taken in this project, we invite contributions toward completing this table.

The data catalogue shows that with the exception of Violence, UK or GB data sets are available for each domain even if not for each ideal indicator. Yet frequently, the GB and UK data only provide national averages for Wales, Scotland, and especially Northern Ireland, even if the data set is measured on the regional or local authority level for England. A central challenge to the development of an intersectional measurement on the subnational level has been previously noted by Walby, Armstrong, and Humphreys (2008) : robust data are currently rarely available for minority populations below the UK, GB, or national level. While this is less the case for disaggregation by sex, it is a particular issue for capturing characteristics such as ethnicity, sexual orientation, and religion. Although a number of the available data sets included in the catalog are broken down by ethnicity, age, citizenship, and disability, sample sizes may be too small for reliable analyses of intersecting inequalities. A next step is to establish where data permit a combination of different characteristics for an intersectional analysis at the local authority level.

The matching of ideal and existing data corroborates the finding that in GB too, dimensions that are closer to the mainstream are more readily conceptualized and operationalized ( Walby 2005 ; Verloo and Van der Vleuten 2009 ). We found a significant number of sex-differentiated indicators for the domains of Power & Participation, Paid Work, and Money. Further, the indicators relevant to these domains more frequently cover all four UK countries and are available at lower geographical areas. None of the available indicators in the domain of Violence are available on the subnational level, nor do relevant GB or UK data sets exist. Supplementary Appendix 2 provides a more detailed discussion of each of the domains and the available data.

The data catalogue highlights the need for increased efforts to collect and improve sex-disaggregated data covering all four nations of the United Kingdom with consistent geographical units and sample sizes large enough to permit intersectional analyses on lower geographical areas. Although data gaps remain, the data catalogue shows that we could nonetheless make a substantial start in the construction of a GB subnational gender equality index. Rather than eliminating the subdomains and indicators for which data are missing completely or on the subnational level, we insist on retaining the indicators identified by the participants, even if it initially results in incomplete index scores. As Nancy Folbre (2006) notes, presenting concrete examples of policy-relevant measures can help mobilize support for closing data gaps. Therefore, we insist on the theoretical adequacy and policy relevance of our framework, so the index can serve an additional function as an advocacy tool for increased efforts in collecting harmonized and disaggregated data in the United Kingdom.

The next steps toward developing this theoretically comprehensive index will involve exploration of conceptual and methodological issues related to the amalgamation of indicators at different levels of geography. Using the data catalogue, data measured at different levels will have to be integrated into a harmonized data set. For indicators measured at the household/individual level, this will involve ensuring that the same units of measurement are used to aggregate up to an area level. For other indicators based on relatively small numbers, combining the individual area data in a weighted combination with data from a larger encompassing area may be necessary. Where data are only available at larger area levels, it is possible to experiment with modeling methods to generate data at the lower area level. Alternatively, the index could impute regional averages where data are missing on the local area, as done in the Women’s Hour Index ( Dunatchik et al. 2017 ).

Tackling gender inequality is a key focus for both civil society and government policy in GB. Yet, there is currently no appropriate measurement of gender inequalities tailored to the GB context, nor is there any detailed measurement of gender inequalities at the subnational level. This highlights the need for a measure that is both GB-specific and sensitive to regional differences, given GB’s high levels of regional inequality. Based on a review of relevant theory and policy, existing regional indices from other countries and a consultation with stakeholders, we propose a subnational index consisting of the domains Paid Work, Money, Power & Participation, Education & Skills, and Unpaid Work, with Health & Well-being and VAWG as satellite domains. We invite contributions and critiques to the proposed framework in the interests of incorporating additional perspectives to the promotion of gender equality in GB.

The scoping of data sources available in the United Kingdom confirms that domains closer to the mainstream have more frequently been translated into sex-disaggregated indicators, for instance those related to employment. The presented data catalogue in Supplementary Appendix 2 highlights the need for increased efforts to collect high-quality data covering all four UK nations with consistent geographical units, disaggregated by protected characteristics to permit intersectional analyses on the national and subnational level. Alongside gender differences (i.e., relative levels), the index should aim to capture regional variation in achievement levels of both women and men (i.e., absolute levels) while keeping these two approaches separate. Whether the index combines the indicator values into an overall score for each local area or keeps them disaggregated, it is essential that the underlying data are easily accessible and interpretable to increase the relevance and usefulness of the index for policy, research, and activism purposes. We suggest that the index be constructed using the proposed indicators and sub-domains, even if this results in incomplete scoring. By exposing data gaps and thus gaps in the understanding of gender inequalities at a subnational level, the index can serve as an advocacy tool for improved data collection.

Given the limitations of quantitative indicators for measuring gender inequalities, the index is intended as one instrument amongst a range of available feminist approaches to exposing and challenging patterns of inequality. The granularity of the data the index seeks to collate would offer a spatial dimension to analyses of inequality in GB that can guide policy-makers in monitoring and evaluating of existing policy, developing new initiatives and targeting limited resources. As such, the index would refine and complement the picture of regional and area-level inequalities offered by existing instruments such as the IMD. Simultaneously, the index could operate as an advocacy tool, helping civil society hold the government accountable for its (lack of) actions and against its own stated policy aims. In light of the prominence of quantitative indicators in governance, we especially see value in strengthening the capacity of “grassroot and advocacy and non-state actors … to employ the high credibility of numeric evidence to promote alternative understandings of dominant institutions” ( Rottenburg and Merry 2015 , 4). Overall, the multiple benefits signal that a subnational gender equality index following the above principles would offer a valuable resource to activists, researchers, and policy-makers in the pursuit of gender equality in GB.

Supplementary data can be found at [email protected] .

These include the 2010 Equality Act, the main legislative framework for gender equality in GB, as well as the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Beijing Platform for Action. For more information on legislative frameworks for gender equality in the GB context, see the Supplementary Appendix .

This includes the Regional Gender Equality Monitor ( Norlén, Papadimitriou, and Dijkstra 2019 ), Scotland’s Gender Equality Index ( Scottish Government 2020 ), and the Regional Gender Equality applied to Italy ( Di Bella et al. 2020 ).

This article is the result of an international project with Professor Anne Laure Humbert (Oxford Brookes University), Dr Jon Reades (University College London), Dr Tania King (University of Melbourne), Dr Victor Sojo Monzon (University of Melbourne), and Professor Louise Howard (King’s College London) and we would like to thank them for the collaboration. We would also like to thank the editor and reviewers for their helfpul comments. Finally, we are especially grateful to the stakeholders who offered their time and invaluable insights during the November 2020 workshop.

This work was supported by the King’s Together Multi and Interdisciplinary Research Scheme.

Conflict of interest

We have no conflict of interest to declare.

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Gender equality in the UK: The next stage of the journey

Over the last 50 years, gender equality has transformed our society. However, despite all this progress, both men and women are starting to recognise and worry that we’re still a long way off achieving true gender equality in this country.

By Darci Darnell and Orit Gadiesh

• September 16, 2013

A note from the authors Over the last 50 years, gender equality has transformed our society. No longer are specific jobs reserved for men or for women. Our universities are close to having true gender parity in admissions, and the traditional family model is increasingly being redefined for modern attitudes and working styles—in fact, stay-at-home fathers whose spouse goes out to work now accounts for 10% of UK families. Nearly 20% of board members in the FTSE 350 are women. We've come a long way and a lot has been achieved.

However, despite all this progress, both men and women are starting to recognise and worry that we’re still a long way off achieving true gender equality in this country. Within wider business leadership roles, the speed of change has been slower. Men still account for 85% of senior executives, and there is only one female CEO running a FTSE 100 company.

Bain & Company’s survey of more than 800 UK professionals shows that whilst many organisations have gender parity programmes, the results of these initiatives are mixed. At the same time, as attracting and retaining the best talent is increasingly seen as key to business success, companies more than ever need to support women and prevent women from opting out.

So, what is it that is holding women back? What needs to be done? We’ve identified three issues that are impeding progress:

• Many male leaders believe the playing field is now level and that gender parity no longer needs to be a corporate priority. The data doesn’t agree with this view. And neither do women.
• Top executives, especially men with non-working spouses, need to better understand the challenges that women and dual-career couples face.
• Leadership behaviours and attitudes need to better reflect the importance of inclusion, and leaders need to have the confidence to promote individuals from a different mould.

Changing corporate culture and leadership behaviours is hard. However, there are a number of actions that men, women and companies can and must do if we truly want to promote equality and gender parity.

• CEOs and executives need to develop a genuine understanding of the challenges faced by women, identify the behaviours that encourage women to succeed—and then apply that knowledge to each action and decision they make.
• Women in turn, need to help executives understand the behaviours that encourage them to succeed, and proactively work with their sponsors to create and promote their shared success stories.
• Companies need to continue to strengthen their gender parity programmes.

To many, creating gender equality is about being fair. But for business, it’s about access to talent. Our research shows that effective gender parity efforts increasingly make the workplace better for women and men. Both benefit from programmes that support flexibility and ease the juggling act of professional and personal obligations, and programmes look less like special treatment and more like the norm when men also take advantage of them.

It may seem ironic, but that fact that both genders will benefit from ‘gender parity programmes’ may just make them more likely to be a success. Companies that nurture their talented women today will also support men with those same programmes and approaches as traditional family roles continue to evolve. In the end, creating the right environment and the right platform for talent to succeed, irrespective of gender, will be key to the future success of any business.

Few UK companies are led by women

Most women in the UK are dissatisfied with their jobs, according to a Bain & Company survey. Too many are stuck in middle management positions or opt out of career advancement because they lack corporate support to balance family obligations with professional aspirations. Many companies offer gender parity programmes aimed to keep talented women engaged with their careers, but these programmes haven’t solved the problem.

Now family dynamics are changing. There are more dual-income households as more women pursue careers that are as demanding as their husbands’. And increasingly, the struggle to balance work and family—traditionally a challenge faced mostly by women—is affecting men as well. The gender parity programmes that sought to address these pressures for women are now necessary for all employees. And recognizing this cultural shift will give companies the competitive edge they need to attract and retain top talent.

But there’s a lot of work to be done before companies can enjoy those benefits. The existing programmes don’t advance women’s careers, and until they do, they won’t help men either. Bain’s 2013 survey of 820 British men and women, at all career levels, suggests that although many companies provide gender parity programmes, those programmes aren’t succeeding due to the lack of leaders supporting them and failure of both sexes to commit to changing their behaviours.

While UK companies have made a collective effort at the board level, women are still under-represented in executive management positions. Today, 97% of the CEOs at FTSE 350 companies are men; only 11 CEOs at those companies are women. Not every woman aspires to be a CEO, of course. But even among senior executives, only one in five are women. These numbers show that too many women’s careers are stalling before they reach their full potential. The British government, in an effort to promote gender parity, recently commissioned a report outlining a series of best practices to help women advance in their careers. It called on companies to set voluntary targets to double the number of women on FTSE 100 boards over five years, from 12.5% in 2010 to 25% by 2015. Yet despite the increasing focus on gender parity at British companies, the ratio of men to women in top positions remains deeply unbalanced (see Figure 1).

Notwithstanding the evidence that gender equality throughout the ranks produces real business benefits, fewer than half of the male respondents in Bain’s survey felt it should be a strategic issue at their companies— perhaps because well over half of this group also believes that women already have the same opportunities as men for promotion to senior management positions. That’s in sharp contrast with women’s perceptions: More than half of women respondents said gender parity should be a strategic priority at their companies, but fewer than half believe they have equal opportunity for advancement (see Figure 2).

The perception among a majority of men that the playing field is already level often leads to a lack of support for gender parity programmes—and unsatisfactory results. In fact, Bain’s survey shows that the most satisfied employees are senior-level men with supportive spouses who don’t work. In other words, those with the most power to effect change are those least aware of the challenges faced by dual-income families or women balancing work and home.

Barriers to success

The majority of university graduates in the UK are women. These talented individuals find jobs as easily as their male peers, but they soon encounter two barriers— structure and style—that make advancement difficult (see Figure 3).

The structural barrier that women encounter is the need to balance work and family commitments, which slows the progression of their careers. And while this issue increasingly affects both sexes, it still has a highly disproportionate effect on women. Balancing domestic responsibilities with professional obligations often causes women to opt out of opportunities to take on broader or more challenging roles at work. One respondent told us, ‘Taking time out when having children takes women “off the ladder”. They tend to be the primary caregivers, balancing childcare with work. They look for less challenging roles with a better lifework balance.’

And women who opt for less challenging roles tend to do so because of they lack support or encouragement from their companies. ‘British workplaces do not have an institutionalised approach to balancing work and family life,’ said one respondent. ‘As a result, men lose out on family life by choosing a career and women lose out in their careers by choosing family.’

Having a non-working, supportive spouse frees many executives from the dissatisfaction that affects employees who are attempting to strike this balance ( see below, ‘Your partner’s job deeply influences your happiness with your employer’ ), but this is perhaps one more indication that current workplace structures are designed for a traditional family structure, which is no longer dominant. In fact, two-thirds of two-adult households in the UK are now dual income, according to a report from the Resolution Foundation’s Commission on Living Standards.

Other workplace traditions also create barriers for women. Gender stereotypes persist, of course. The fact that both men and women have biases—intentional and unintentional—is well established, and preconceived notions often lead both sexes to choose a man over a woman in the corporate setting. Yet, a larger problem may simply be differences in leadership style. Both male and female respondents in our survey acknowledged that women are more likely to be overlooked for a role because of their style differences. Long dominated by men, the business world still retains a bias towards the leadership style more commonly possessed by men. In that traditional male culture, senior men are more likely to appoint or promote those with a style similar to their own.

Both men and women agree on the four style attributes that organisations most value and reward. Problem solving is the winner, followed by team building, influencing and inspiring (the last three attributes received roughly the same scores from both women and men).

Women are confident that they have the skills their jobs require: They rated themselves equal to or better than men in each of those four categories and generally felt that other women were also as capable as men (see Figure 4). Men, however, don’t agree, reporting that they are significantly better than women at problem solving and influencing others.

While men gave themselves high marks for the most valued skills, they rated women higher on attributes that companies are less likely to emphasise and praise, such as rewarding, consulting and mentoring others. And men are more likely to recognise these skills in women, perhaps because of women’s tendency to undersell themselves on the skills that are more valued.

To address that disconnect, women can actively seek to change their own behaviour so their talents aren’t overlooked. Women are twice as likely as men to believe that women undersell their experience and capabilities, indicating they have a self-awareness that their behaviour must change. Men can meet them halfway by looking outside their own style preferences and valuing the skills women innately possess. Incorporating women’s skills in the boardroom makes a difference. In an interview, Kumsal Bayazit, Reed Elsevier’s chief strategy officer, told us, ‘The more diversity in a room, the better the quality of the thinking that comes out of the room. Whether it is gender, religion or ethnicity—it doesn’t really matter—the important thing is to have different points of view challenging the thinking.’ That approach can lead to faster decision making, better efficiency and more compliance with a business strategy.

Mike Walsh, CEO of Legal and Professional at Lexis-Nexis (part of Reed Elsevier), agrees: ‘I believe that by having a critical mass of women on your executive team, you are more confident that you are hearing different points of view. The entire team feels more comfortable and empowered to identify problems and solve them.’

Multinational companies like Unilever are beginning to recognise the benefits of having a more diverse workforce. In January 2013, Catalyst, a nonprofit organisation devoted to furthering women in business, gave Unilever an award for its initiative to expand opportunities that advance women in its workforce. In his acceptance speech, CEO Paul Polman said, ‘The benefits of having a gender-balanced organisation are plain to see; it helps power creativity and innovation, deepens the talent pool and allows us to better serve our diverse consumer base.’

The path to gender parity: Hardware and software

A common school of thought among companies is that offering gender parity programmes is the best way to help women overcome the obstacles that stand between them and senior leadership roles. But to truly achieve their goals, companies need more than just the ‘hardware’. For a change effort to be successful, companies have to combine the hardware with the right software. Our research shows that no corporate gender parity programme can succeed without committed leaders who actively demonstrate desired behaviours and rally support from line managers. When these disparate hardware and software elements are used together— we refer to this process as ‘the path to gender parity’ (see Figure 5)—they become a way for companies to achieve true, lasting gender diversity.

Gender parity programmes

Let’s look at the hardware of gender parity programmes and why the software is essential to make programmes work. Throughout the UK, well-intentioned companies use a variety of gender parity programmes. The number and penetration of these initiatives vary widely, and the majority of companies offer three or fewer programmes. Here are the most frequently offered programmes:

• Flexible work arrangements: flexible working hours, part-time, leaves of absence, working from home (or remotely), job sharing
• Flexible or non-traditional career paths: job rotation (across functions, from client-facing roles to internal operations and so on)
• Networking groups: affinity-based groups that support building relationships through regular gatherings
• Formal mentorship and coaching programmes: mentor/mentee programmes for less experienced employees, aimed at accelerating their professional growth by helping them develop specific skills and knowledge; coaching programmes to develop specific skills for employees’ current roles
• Formal sponsorship programmes: programmes that foster relationships with sponsors who advocate and fight for their protégés’ career advancement

Flexible work arrangements have the longest historical precedent and are the most common: Almost 80% of organisations in our survey offer them. But perhaps it’s because most people expect their companies to offer work flexibility that these programmes don’t affect employees’ loyalty and satisfaction as much as others. If flexible work arrangements are not available, however, there is a considerable negative effect on employees’ happiness (see Figure 6).

Formal mentorship and coaching are the second most common programmes, followed by non-traditional career paths. Sponsorships are at the other end of the spectrum, generally because they are difficult to set up and challenging to define. The lack of clarity around sponsorships was obvious in our survey results: Some respondents said they were unsure if their companies have sponsorship programmes.

Measuring employee satisfaction and loyalty

Do gender parity programmes really have an effect on women’s careers and loyalty to their employers? Do they actually help women meet their career goals or make women who are already in top roles happier? To find out, our survey used the employee Net Promoter Score SM (NPS®), a reliable indicator of employees’ loyalty. We asked employees to rate on a scale of zero to 10 the likelihood that they would recommend their companies or managers as organisations or people to work for. Depending on their scores, we categorised respondents as promoters, passives or detractors. ( See ‘Employee Net Promoter Score explained’ below for more detail. ) The higher the score, the more loyal employees are to their organisations.

While many aspects of their jobs can affect employees’ loyalty to their employers, gender parity programmes have a striking impact. We found that all programmes have a positive effect on loyalty. Just the simple existence of a gender parity policy makes employees feel happier about their jobs, regardless of the number of programmes—or even if they work. This is true for men and women: Both reported feeling significantly more loyal to employers that had gender parity programmes, and the more programmes in place, the greater employees’ loyalty. Our survey found that the employee NPS difference in companies with no programmes compared with those that have five programmes was 93 points for women and 60 points for men.

Ironically, the two programmes that have the highest impact on employees’ loyalty—flexible career paths and sponsorships—are the ones least offered. One reason may be that these programmes take a long time to produce results, making them difficult to track and measure.

A sponsor can make a real difference in an individual’s career, yet men are far more likely than their female counterparts to have sponsors. Based on our research, the companies leading the way towards gender parity establish sponsorships for all women in middle management positions. But defining and then activating sponsor relationships is a harder task. Simply assigning sponsors to protégés isn’t enough. Instead, companies must seek ways to encourage successful sponsorships. The most effective sponsors are those who feel personally vested in the success of their protégés—those who believe their own success is measured in part by their protégés’ success and act as advocates for them.

For Reed Elsevier’s Bayazit, sponsorship was pivotal. ‘Sponsorship has made a big difference in my career,’ Bayazit told us. ‘It had not occurred to me that I should put my name in the hat for an operating role, but my sponsor encouraged me to apply.’ She got the job and also learned an important lesson: ‘Women tend to feel that they should be 100% ready for a role before they take it on. They have to trust their skills and realise that a lot of learning happens on the job.’

And about his role as Bayazit’s sponsor, Mike Walsh remarked: ‘The most significant thing I did for Kumsal was to be available to listen. She would come to me with a challenge and want to talk it through. I listened mostly, but these discussions helped her forge her path within the organisation and shaped my thinking as well.’

Like sponsorships, flexible career paths also have a high impact on loyalty, but are offered far less frequently than other programmes. Also, as with sponsorship and many other gender parity programmes, flexible career paths benefit both sexes. Both male and female survey respondents expressed interest in them. While this option has been traditionally viewed as a way to meet family needs, the next generation of executives is increasingly interested in receiving mid-career support to pursue other passions, such as entrepreneurship or social impact opportunities. As such options grow in popularity, companies that offer only a rigid career progression may find themselves at a disadvantage in attracting and retaining talented employees.

Committed leadership

Regardless of which programmes companies offer, our survey shows that failing to encourage and support the women who use them can produce poor results, indifference or even turn employees into detractors. But employee NPS soars at companies that not only offer gender parity programmes, but also demonstrate leaderships’ clear commitment to them (see Figure 7). For example, flexible career paths earned an employee NPS of 38 at companies that actively support that programme, compared with a score of 21 for companies that offer but don’t visibly encourage participation in the programme. And flexible work arrangements, the bellwether of any gender parity initiative, went from an employee NPS of just 12 to 33 when offered in a culture where the programme is strongly supported.

In companies where support for programmes is inadequate, many respondents feel that taking advantage of flexible career paths and other options will limit their long-term career potential. They also believe they will be punished for deviating from a traditional career trajectory. One respondent told us, ‘Flexible working is not really accepted across all departments.’

At Reed Elsevier, Bayazit applauds her company’s culture. She believes her company understands the importance of helping employees balance their priorities. For example, if a child has a ballet recital or doctor’s appointment, it is completely acceptable to reschedule a meeting so the parent can be available. Bayazit says, ‘The meeting can’t always be rescheduled, but there’s no penalty for asking. That gave me real comfort because I never felt like I missed an important moment in my children’s lives because of something that could have been moved.’

For managers, it is important to recognise that employees who take advantage of flexitime are no less dedicated to their jobs. One respondent who uses the flexible model to work a shorter-than-average week told us, ‘I am no less invested in my career than anyone else. I am 100% committed to my job 80% of the time.’ Leaders who demonstrate that they value different styles and work models can help move their companies beyond the widespread perception that employees must be ‘always on’ in order to move up in their organisations.

Targets and incentives

Dialogue alone isn’t enough to produce that high level of commitment. Once a suite of gender parity programmes is in place, companies must have targets and incentives to manage and contribute to the effort. While macro targets—such as Lord Davies’s goal of increasing the number of women on FTSE 100 boards to 25% by 2015— help call attention to the issue, the most effective targets are internal company targets that measure success not by quotas but by employee satisfaction and loyalty levels.

The Net Promoter System can provide leadership teams with the tracking and response mechanisms they need to measure the success of their organisations’ gender parity programmes, department by department—and respond when they are falling short. This system is particularly valuable because it provides not only a scoring mechanism, but also asks why employees responded the way they did. Verbatim feedback and employee NPS can help executives and managers continuously improve the effectiveness of programmes.

Incentives are also essential to ensure commitment throughout the organisation to gender parity goals. And like most gender parity programmes, these incentives are most effective when they are gender neutral. Managers’ performance evaluations should include the overall employee NPS of their teams. It is up to company leaders to examine programme results and determine whether gender parity concerns are the root cause of dissatisfaction among women employees or, equally important, whether satisfaction among women is in part the result of the success of gender parity programmes.

Supportive behaviours

Even after programmes are in place and someone is managing them properly and measuring progress, the journey is only halfway complete. Everyone— from the CEO to line managers—must recognise opportunities to make decisions that support gender parity goals rather than undermine them.

We recommend that every line manager and executive reading this report do the following:

• Get to know the talented women on your team. What are their goals and ambitions both at work and at home? What are their life circumstances?
• Ask those women for feedback on what you can do to advance their career goals. Push for specifics, or get an intermediary to ask so you get actionable feedback.
• Be a sponsor. Encourage women to pursue the right opportunities that will further their careers.
• Actively recognise different styles of behaviour. Talk about them in meetings or when planning projects. Praise a variety of styles whenever possible.
• Make sure all voices are heard in meetings. Solicit feedback from those who don’t typically contribute. Give the gift of unqualified praise when appropriate, and tip the balance in favour of encouraging coaching over constructive feedback.
• Be transparent about your own lifestyle boundaries. Make it clear when you have to leave early for a child’s school event or other family commitment.

Companies can also host open forums, giving employees the opportunity to discuss what they consider supportive. That can improve leaders’ understanding of how software can supplement gender parity programmes. Imagine what your organisation would be capable of if all your employees—or even just the 46% who are women— were able to meet their potential.

Cultural change through gender parity

Before an organisation can take action, its leaders must assess its current position by looking at the programmes it offers. Leaders must determine if these programmes are effective, measuring the demand for them from both male and female employees and identifying which ones will work best for their organisation. Consider flexible work arrangements. Such programmes may not be well-suited to jobs requiring fixed schedules, like those in the military or oil and gas companies, but leaders could still offer variants of those options, offering blocks of time off during school holidays, for instance. Once a company has assessed its needs, it should design and quickly implement programmes to fit with its business and operating model, making it clear to employees that the programmes aren’t just short-term initiatives, but here to stay.

Another way to ensure widespread acceptance and appreciation of gender parity programmes is to avoid presenting them as gender specific. Actively promoting them to women can help achieve gender parity goals, but these efforts are more likely to receive companywide support if men recognise that they, too, are being offered help in balancing the demands of home and career.

Managing change includes offering training programmes and sharing best practices between departments and job levels—especially around behaviours. To that end, company leaders must take these steps:

• Define the business outcome that they wish to achieve and identify the population that can influence that outcome
• Communicate with their people and train them, reinforcing the right behaviours
• Identify and reward the employees who best exhibit the desired behaviours
• Put metrics in place to measure employees’ satisfaction with the programmes

Finally, programmes have to be adapted over time, evolving as the business develops and changes. It may be necessary to revisit one or more of the five steps on the gender parity framework, tweaking the hardware by changing the type of programmes offered or finding ways to reinforce and reenergise the software, or the supportive behaviours. When both elements work together, an organisation can truly experience cultural change—the keystone of any business initiative.

Achieving gender parity requires changing deeply ingrained behaviours and long-held beliefs. And the time for that change is now. Thus far, gender parity targets have been set by companies at their discretion, but that may change as more governments begin to impose mandates. The European Commission is considering imposing quotas that EU member states must meet. Individual countries like Spain, Norway and Iceland already have legislations in place, and Germany made a commitment to board quotas in April of this year.

Far more important than any regulatory threat, however, are the responses of talented employees to companies whose policies and cultures don’t keep pace with the times. Traditional gender roles and workplace structures are changing. The average household is dual income. Men are more interested in being actively involved fathers. And more women are entering the workforce with ambitions that don’t fade when they become mothers. The programmes that once targeted women exclusively will now benefit all employees. Companies that set targets for increasing the number of women on their executive committees and improving the satisfaction of all of their employees will be ahead of the game if government regulations are put in place. And, more important, they will be stronger organisations for the diversity of their leadership and the ability to retain a happy workforce.

If you are in a position to put your company on this path, the outcome is clear. If you are a line manager or an executive, the steps outlined in our report can improve your business—and your own career. Gender parity in the workplace won’t be achieved overnight; change takes time, focus, determination and planning. Success requires changes in behaviour for both men and women, and for leaders and line managers, it takes courage and discipline.

Methodology

The 820 people who responded to our February 2013 survey come from a variety of positions and circumstances. Slightly more men than women responded: a ratio of 55% to 45%, respectively. Almost half of the respondents are from private companies, 30% are from public firms and the rest are from government, nonprofits or other organisations. Most of the respondents are experienced junior or senior managers; only 14% are new employees. Of the 12% who told us they are executives or CEOs, 80% are men. About 42% of respondents are married and have children, and 30% are married but have no children. Almost 20% are single with no children. Almost half have spouses who work outside the home in jobs with similar demands. Approximately 23% have spouses who are the primary caretakers of the home and children.

Darci Darnell is a Bain & Company partner based in the firm’s London office. Orit Gadiesh is chairman of Bain & Company.

Your partner’s job deeply influences your happiness with your employer

Men hold the top positions in the majority of companies. For these men, the home and children are frequently the primary responsibility of their spouses. And that has a huge effect on their job satisfaction: Our survey shows that married men with dependent children and a spouse who doesn’t work outside of the home feel very satisfied with their jobs. They had an employee Net Promoter Score SM (NPS®) of 15. Compare that with married men whose wives work and who are therefore more likely to take on domestic and childcare responsibilities. Like women, those men have difficulties juggling the two roles—and their employee loyalty suffers as a result. Their employee NPS plummets to negative 19 (see figure).

For women, the trend isn’t as pronounced. Having a supportive spouse who takes on domestic responsibilities only increases women’s employee NPS by two points (from just three points to five).

Because a majority of senior executives have supportive spouses—and report high levels of satisfaction with their jobs—they may not see the need for gender parity programmes, like flexible schedules. However, upcoming generations of male executives are much more likely to have spouses with equally demanding professional careers. They will pay more attention to what their companies do to support flexible work schedules as they face the same challenges that women with work and home obligations face. The availability of flex options will contribute enormously to how they feel about their employers. Companies must work to make a variety of programmes available for all employees so they are sure to retain the talent they put effort into recruiting and developing.

Employee Net Promoter Score explained

The employee Net Promoter Score groups respondents into three categories: promoters, passives and detractors.

• Promoters (score of 9 or 10): People who feel that their lives have been enriched by their relationships with their organisations or leaders. They behave like loyal employees, typically staying longer and talking the organisation up to their friends and colleagues.
• Passives (score of 7 or 8): People who are fairly satisfied, but not loyal, employees. They rarely talk their companies up, and when they do, it’s likely to be qualified and unenthusiastic. If a better offer comes along, they are likely to defect.
• Detractors (score of 0 to 6): People who feel their lives have been diminished by their associations with their organisations or leaders. They are dissatisfied and even dismayed by how they are treated. They frequently speak negatively about their organisations and are likely to leave as soon as they find something better.

Five daily actions for every executive or line manager

Know your top women. Do you know them as well as your top men? What are their career ambitions? What are their personal constraints, challenges and hopes? What is your plan to help them succeed?

Tell your top women that they have what it takes. Women need to hear this more often than men. Encourage them to take risks in tough assignments and stretch roles.

Don’t let your own leadership style dominate. First, know your own style and then actively seek out complementary styles in your team, particularly those that are supportive. Make sure you hear from your entire team by proactively asking for input from women.

Talk about your life outside of work and share your trade-offs. Be specific: Mention the football match or spring service that you wouldn’t miss. This is important for women and men. Don’t encourage a martyr culture. Instead, nurture an environment where commitment to work and family can coexist.

Create an action plan and hold yourself accountable. What does your team think of you and your impact on them? Ask both men and women. What do you do that is supportive and inclusive? What do you do that undermines others? Be specific about what you will do differently and tell your team. Have your team do the same.

Net Promoter® and NPS® are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.

Net Promoter System SM and Net Promoter Score SM are trademarks of Bain & Company, Fred Reichheld and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.

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(2020) PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science. --> - Submitted Version Despite substantial progress, gender gaps in labour market outcomes persist. Several key factors help explain remaining gaps. First, men and women continue to work in different jobs. Second, parenthood appears to be a crucial point in the life course at which gender gaps widen. Third, traditional beliefs and norms about the appropriate roles of men and women, particularly in the context of parenthood, are obstacles to closing remaining gender gaps. At the same time, advancements in automation technologies are transforming the world of work and may have genderspecific impacts. Motivated by these observations, this thesis advances understanding of several factors related to gender inequality in the labour market. These factors are gendered university major choices, attitudes towards gender roles in the context of parenthood, and effects of recent transformations in labour markets on the gender gap in pay. The thesis consists of four empirical papers. The first paper studies the role of intergenerational transmission for gendered university major choices of young adults. Using regression analysis and exploiting survey data from a recent cohort of university students in Germany, the paper investigates to what extent and why gender-typicality of mother's and father's occupation affect the gender-typicality of their child's university major. Results show signifficant intergenerational associations and indicate that parental resources and a transmission of gender roles are both relevant transmission channels, particularly for sons' major choices. The second and third paper examine how gender role attitudes are shaped in the context of parenthood. The second paper analyses effects of the 2007 paid parental leave reform (Elterngeld) in Germany on parents' gender role attitudes; specifically, attitudes towards the gender division of work, towards the roles of fathers, and towards the labour force participation of mothers. Exploiting the reform as a natural experiment, results indicate that men affected by the reform hold more traditional attitudes towards the role of fathers, whereas there is no effect on the other two iv outcomes. Focusing on the UK, the third paper explores whether parenting daughters affects attitudes towards a traditional male breadwinner model in which it is the husband's role to work and the wife's to stay at home. Using panel data and individual fixed effects models, the results indicate that fathers are less likely to hold traditional views on the gender division of work if they raise a girl. No robust effects on mothers' attitudes are found. Results from the second and third paper inform the broader literature on attitudinal change, suggesting that gender role attitudes are not stable throughout the life course and can be significantly shaped by adulthood experiences. The final paper studies whether technological change increases gender inequality. Using individual-level data from around 28 million individuals in 20 European countries and an instrumental variable strategy, the study provides the first large-scale evidence concerning the impact of industrial robots on the gender gap in earnings. Findings indicate that robot adoption increases both male and female earnings but also increases the gender pay gap. These results are driven by countries with high initial levels of gender inequality and can be explained by the fact that men in medium- and high-skilled occupations disproportionately benefit from robotization, through a productivity effect. Item Type: Thesis (PhD) Additional Information: © 2020 Julia Philipp Library of Congress subject classification: Sets: Supervisor: Özcan, Berkay and Costa-Font, Joan URI: Actions (login required) Record administration - authorised staff only Downloads per month over past year View more statistics King's College London 07 April 2021 We need a regional picture of gender inequality in the UK Caitlin schmid. We're working on an index to build our understanding of these disparities A UK sub-national gender equality index: challenges in developing a conceptual framework Read the briefing Gender inequality remains a tenacious problem in the UK, affecting multiple dimensions of women and men’s lives — from the gender pay gap, the prevalence of sexual harassment and gender-based violence, to disparities in health and life expectancy. Mounting evidence shows that where people live impacts multiple socio-economic outcomes, highlighting the importance of capturing regional variations in gender inequality across the UK. Yet to date, no measure of gender inequality exists below the national level, leaving gaps in our knowledge of women and men’s differential experiences. To address this, the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership is leading a project, funded by the King’s Together Seed Fund, to pilot an index measuring regional variation in gender inequality across the UK. Combining data from surveys, administrative resources and big data, the index will measure how differently women and men’s experiences are structured according to where they live. In turn, this will facilitate evaluation of campaigns and policy interventions addressing gender inequality as well as helping researchers investigate its relevance to other outcomes. In the first phase of this project, a stakeholder workshop was organised in November 2020 to consult both leading experts and potential users on the conceptual framework of a sub-national gender equality index. A central aim of the workshop was to identify the key indicators relevant to the gender inequality context across the UK that should be included. The process of selecting concrete measures and assessing their usefulness further led to a fruitful discussion of the opportunities and challenges involved in the development of this index. These related to intersectionality, data availability and quality, relative vs. absolute levels of equality, the level of measurement and the aggregation of scores. The workshop collaboration resulted in the formulation of six guiding principles for the development of a useful sub-national UK gender equality index: Identifying differences on the local area level could sharpen the focus on gender inequalities across the UK and strengthen the evidence base for local campaign groups and policy makers. Complex trade-offs between different definitions of “local” were revealed, however. These are dependent on data availability, spatial variation, policy relevance and scope for actionability. To identify the most appropriate and feasible level of measurement, these factors need to be examined further. Relevant domains to include in the index are: Power & Participation, Education & Skills, Economic Resources, Unpaid Work & Care, and Violence. Adopting an intersectional approach is crucial to shedding light on the multiple manifestations of gender inequality as well as its intersection with other forms of inequality across the UK. To guarantee conceptual adequacy and maximise index usability, the UK needs to increase efforts to collect reliable data disaggregated by protected characteristics on both the national as well as the local level. Alongside gender differences (i.e. relative levels), the index should aim to capture regional variation in achievement levels of both women and men (i.e. absolute levels). Whether the index combines the indicator values into an overall score for each local area or keeps them disaggregated, it is essential that the underlying data are easily accessible and interpretable. This will facilitate analysis of local area differences in absolute levels of achievement and increase the relevance and usefulness of the index for policy, research and activism purposes. Benefits and opportunities If the above principles can be fulfilled, a sub-national UK gender equality index would offer a bespoke tool to measure gender inequality while also capturing its geographical variation. This index would fill a gap by combining gender-differentiated indicators across relevant dimensions of gender equality in the UK. The evidence it generates could help evaluate policy interventions aimed at tackling gender inequalities, as well as helping to better target limited resources. Finally, the index could help strengthen a dialogue between regions, local authorities or neighbourhoods, facilitating knowledge-sharing of effective policy strategy and gender equality campaigns which is of particular interest in the context of devolution. Taken together, the multiple benefits signal that the development of a UK sub-national gender equality index following the above principles would offer a valuable resource to policymakers, researchers and activists across the UK. Caitlin Schmid is a Research Assistant at the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, King’s College London, and a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Manchester. Related departments King's Global Institute for Women’s Leadership In the decades since the Equal Pay Act and the Sex Equality Act were passed in the UK, women have exceeded men’s educational attainment, they have entered the workplace in larger numbers, they have combined family with work and they have gained far more positions of power and influence. Yet how close are we to sex equality? What is holding us back? And why should we care? A panellist’s introduction, by Lucinda Platt The chapter written by Alison Andrew, Oriana Bandiera, Monica Costa-Dias and Camille Landais, the two commentaries by Fran Bennett and Lynn Prince Cooke , and the article by Claudia Goldin, Sari Pekkala Kerr and Claudia Olivetti address these questions. They are approached in different ways with a focus on different elements of men’s and women’s lives and their contexts. Yet there is consistency in the diagnosis of the imbalances we currently observe, whether in employment and earnings, childcare and housework, poverty across the life course, or the experience of violence and representation, and of what is needed to redress them. Institutional and social processes that allocate roles differently to men and women, and the hierarchy of value attached to particular roles and activities, result in a situation in which women tend to do more of the nurturing roles within society than men, and the roles they take on tend to be less valued and leave them with lower earnings, incomes and social status. As the commentaries and article show, this is bad for both men and women, even if men benefit financially from the status quo. The answer? Rather than seeing differences in patterns of employment or care as innate or as ‘choices’, what is required is the transformation of gendered norms and expectations, through institutional arrangements that not only enable women to enter the labour force, but also enable men to undertake caring roles, and address the different social and economic valuation of each. Andrew et al. plot earnings gaps of women compared with men over a 25-year span. These earnings gaps are made up of differences in chances of being in employment, and in number of hours worked and hourly wages for those in work. While the earnings gap closed slightly over the period, this could largely be accounted for by the large increases in qualifications women gained relative to men over the same period, driving greater participation in paid work. Moreover, the authors show differences in the trends for women with different levels of qualifications, and in the relative role of employment, hours and wage rates in the overall earnings gap. For example, while earnings gaps are greater among those with lower qualifications, due in large part to their lower likelihood of being in employment, it is only among these women that the overall earnings gap and the gap in hourly wages have decreased. This can be attributed partly to policies such as the minimum wage that maintains a floor on earnings of the lower-paid alongside the declining earnings of less-educated men in recent years. For higher-educated women by contrast, the largest share of the overall earnings gap comes from differences in hourly wages, though differences in hours and in employment rates still play an important role. The authors highlight the role of motherhood in impacting employment and hours, with sharp drops in both after the birth of a child. The effect on wage rates of those in work is more gradual as the consequences of loss of experience with reduced hours or of changes in jobs consequent on motherhood kick in. The result is that 10 years after the birth of a child, mothers’ earnings are around half those of men. The importance of motherhood in determining labour market inequalities between women and men cannot be attributed to the relative earnings of men and women within a couple. That is, it is not simply the lower earner who takes on the caring role. Instead, it is the gendered way in which the tasks related to child rearing are allocated, which has consequences for mothers’ but not, typically, fathers’ work and careers. This was brought into sharp relief during the COVID-19 lockdown, which brought with it school closures and greater working from home. It was observed that even in those cases where the mother was the higher earner in a couple – even after having children – she still took on more of the childcare and housework. The authors highlight the ways in which gendered norms around breadwinning and caregiving influence men and women at all stages of their lives, including in early decisions they make about their future work and study, which can then have long-term consequences for their employment and earnings. But norms also influence all those who interact with men and women, creating barriers for men in enacting caring roles as well as for women in resisting such roles. The result is costs not only for individual men and women, but also for society with the potential of both men and women not being used to its fullest extent. The status quo is not only ‘unfair’, it is also ‘inefficient’. The solution? The authors argue for a ‘big push’ in policy which, rather than accepting women’s primary responsibility for childcare, creates clear incentives for a better division of both work and care between men and women. Goldin, Kerr and Olivetti take up the issue of the ‘motherhood penalty’ in earnings; but, looking at the US case, they explore women’s outcomes further down the track. That is, they consider the extent to which those women facing a ‘motherhood penalty’ in their employment and earnings when their children are young, catch up as those children grow older. The authors focus on college-educated men and women, since it is among these more-educated women that motherhood is more likely to interrupt careers and to impact their accumulation of experience when they reduce hours or change jobs to accommodate their childcare roles. The article shows that mothers can compensate for the employment and earnings deficits they faced as a result of childcare responsibilities by increasing their work as their children approach maturity. However, they never catch up with fathers, whose earnings continue to dramatically outstrip women’s. Men gain in terms of earnings from fatherhood, while women lose out from motherhood. The fact, however, that mothers can catch up with non-mothers later in the career suggests that it is not motherhood alone driving gender gaps – at least in later mid-life. This raises the question of how far the gender norms that lead mothers to undertake the lion’s share of both childcare and domestic work also shape the lives of non-mothers, whether through their own behaviours and activities – such as care for older relatives, prioritising partners’ careers, or the jobs they end up in – or through the behaviours of others – whether employer discrimination, the dominance of partners’ over their own advancement, or the differential demands made on women relative to men by parents or other relatives needing care. Such issues are picked up by both Bennett and Cooke. Cooke highlights issues of power and hierarchy in terms of the jobs men and women end up in, the valuation accorded them, and also within interpersonal relationships. She discusses how the allocation of differential status, and hence rewards, leads to legitimisation of these differences by those with both higher and lower positions in the hierarchy, resulting in a vicious cycle. As she puts it, ‘Women’s relative social status puts them at a disadvantage in the organisational allocation of economic resources and power, and their relative level of economic resources and power reinforces their lower social status’. Cooke also draws attention to issues of physical power and violence. We know that in the UK, a woman is killed by a man every three days on average. In nearly two-thirds of these cases, the man is a partner or ex-partner, and in a similar share of cases there was a history of domestic violence. While men are more likely to be homicide victims than women, they are rarely victims of domestic homicide or killed by women. Lack of representation of women in positions of power and authority, outlined by Cooke, can also have consequences for the status hierarchy and for political willingness to address gendered inequalities. But this is not immune to interventions such as ‘all-women shortlists’ that can shift the status quo. However, she cautions in favour of a robust but incremental approach in order to avoid the backlash against women’s advances to greater equality, a backlash that we have already observed. Like Andrew et al., Cooke also supports changes to parental leave policies that explicitly encourage men’s caring role. Moreover, she argues that enhancing men’s caring roles has the potential to undermine the role of violence in the power hierarchy. Bennett echoes Cooke’s attention to force and male control of women when considering intra-household dynamics, a key focus of her contribution. She questions the assumption of equal well-being of all household members that is implied by household measures of income and poverty. Instead, she urges us to consider also the dynamics of the household, the costs of time and energy that household management imposes on women, particularly in poorer households, as well as the imbalances of power and control of those with different contributions to household income. Bennett highlights the issue of financial control and coercion – forms of domestic abuse that are now beginning to receive greater attention. She stresses the importance of autonomy and independent access to secure sources of income at an individual level to ensure such autonomy. Bringing a social policy perspective to the question of gender inequalities, Bennett is particularly concerned with poverty and the economic precarity disproportionately faced by women at different life stages, including in later life, and the specific policies that might sustain work, progression and income. Like Andrew et al., Bennett challenges the idea that women’s ‘preferences’ are met by working below their potential or in poorly paid jobs. But that lack of options for managing work and care may result in them getting stuck. She draws attention to the fact that care constraints may not only be about childcare but about meeting the needs of older or disabled relatives, where women also take on the lion’s share of caring. And such demands maybe increase as children reach independence, limiting the possibilities for catch-up highlighted by Goldin, Kerr and Olivetti. Bennett also stresses the need to ‘bring men in’ to analysis of gender inequalities, noting the disadvantages both economic and socio-emotional that single men may face at different stages of the life course. Taken together, these pieces provide an account of the challenges that face greater movement towards gender equality. They also highlight the familial processes that generate inequalities in households but also across society, through intergenerational transmission of norms and behaviours as well as between partners and parents. The challenges are not insuperable and all the contributions offer discussion of policy and institutional frameworks that sustain inequalities alongside the potential of interventions to reduce them. A common thread is that to understand inequalities it is not effective to only target women, but that greater equality – and greater gains for society – will only be achieved through also promoting men’s opportunities and incentives to take on caring roles. Women and men at work This is not the latest version of this publication. For the final version, published by Oxford University Press on 17th July 2024, please see here. This chapter is... Gender revolution, evolution or neverlution? In the 1960s, second-wave feminists heralded a gender revolution. Women demanded control over their reproduction and sought full, equal participation in public economic... Gendered economic inequalities: a social policy perspective This commentary addresses gender inequalities from a social policy perspective. Social policy has key concerns – ‘human need, social justice, and individual and... The other side of the mountain: women’s employment and earnings over the family cycle Women earn less than men, and that is especially true of mothers relative to fathers. Much of the widening occurs with family formation. We estimate two earnings and... Gender, immigration and ethnicity In their chapter on gender inequality, Andrew et al. (2021) highlight heterogeneity in women’s economic outcomes, focusing primarily on level of education. Participation,... Contributors Alison Andrew Institute for Fiscal Studies Oriana Bandiera London School of Economics Fran Bennett University of Oxford Lynn Prince Cooke University of Bath Monica Costa Dias Claudia Goldin Harvard University and the National Bureau of Economic Research Sari Pekkala Kerr Wellesley College & National Bureau of Economic Research Camille Landais Claudia Olivetti Dartmouth College & National Bureau of Economic Research Related content Events, Seminars & Conferences 1 May 2024 Gender Inequalities Podcast 23 August 2023 PODCAST: Still a man’s world? Gender inequalities, parenthood and the workplace Events, Seminars & Conferences 24 May 2022 Conference – Inequalities in the 21st Century Explainer 29 March 2022 Gender inequalities in work and pay Press release 4 March 2022 Barely any change to gender earnings gap in last 25 years once you account for increases in women’s education Events, Seminars & Conferences 6 December 2021 Event – Men and women at work: the more things change the more they stay the same? Chapter 6 December 2021 Commentary 6 December 2021 Article 6 December 2021 Report 12 March 2021 The careers and time use of mothers and fathers Report 11 June 2020 COVID-19 and inequalities Blog 28 April 2020 We may be in this together, but that doesn’t mean we are in this equally Background reading. The gender wage gap Wage progression and the gender wage gap: the causal impact of hours of work Wages, experience and training of women over the lifecycle The gender pay gap: women work for lower-paying firms than men The ‘gender commuting gap’ widens considerably in the first decade after childbirth 5 Powerful Essays Advocating for Gender Equality Gender equality – which becomes reality when all genders are treated fairly and allowed equal opportunities –  is a complicated human rights issue for every country in the world. Recent statistics are sobering. According to the World Economic Forum, it will take 108 years to achieve gender parity . The biggest gaps are found in political empowerment and economics. Also, there are currently just six countries that give women and men equal legal work rights. Generally, women are only given ¾ of the rights given to men. To learn more about how gender equality is measured, how it affects both women and men, and what can be done, here are five essays making a fair point. Take a free course on Gender Equality offered by top universities! “Countries With Less Gender Equity Have More Women In STEM — Huh?” – Adam Mastroianni and Dakota McCoy This essay from two Harvard PhD candidates (Mastroianni in psychology and McCoy in biology) takes a closer look at a recent study that showed that in countries with lower gender equity, more women are in STEM. The study’s researchers suggested that this is because women are actually especially interested in STEM fields, and because they are given more choice in Western countries, they go with different careers. Mastroianni and McCoy disagree. They argue the research actually shows that cultural attitudes and discrimination are impacting women’s interests, and that bias and discrimination is present even in countries with better gender equality. The problem may lie in the Gender Gap Index (GGI), which tracks factors like wage disparity and government representation. To learn why there’s more women in STEM from countries with less gender equality, a more nuanced and complex approach is needed. “Men’s health is better, too, in countries with more gender equality” – Liz Plank When it comes to discussions about gender equality, it isn’t uncommon for someone in the room to say, “What about the men?” Achieving gender equality has been difficult because of the underlying belief that giving women more rights and freedom somehow takes rights away from men. The reality, however, is that gender equality is good for everyone. In Liz Plank’s essay, which is an adaption from her book For the Love of Men: A Vision for Mindful Masculinity, she explores how in Iceland, the #1 ranked country for gender equality, men live longer. Plank lays out the research for why this is, revealing that men who hold “traditional” ideas about masculinity are more likely to die by suicide and suffer worse health. Anxiety about being the only financial provider plays a big role in this, so in countries where women are allowed education and equal earning power, men don’t shoulder the burden alone. Liz Plank is an author and award-winning journalist with Vox, where she works as a senior producer and political correspondent. In 2015, Forbes named her one of their “30 Under 30” in the Media category. She’s focused on feminist issues throughout her career. “China’s #MeToo Moment” –  Jiayang Fan Some of the most visible examples of gender inequality and discrimination comes from “Me Too” stories. Women are coming forward in huge numbers relating how they’ve been harassed and abused by men who have power over them. Most of the time, established systems protect these men from accountability. In this article from Jiayang Fan, a New Yorker staff writer, we get a look at what’s happening in China. The essay opens with a story from a PhD student inspired by the United States’ Me Too movement to open up about her experience with an academic adviser. Her story led to more accusations against the adviser, and he was eventually dismissed. This is a rare victory, because as Fan says, China employs a more rigid system of patriarchy and hierarchy. There aren’t clear definitions or laws surrounding sexual harassment. Activists are charting unfamiliar territory, which this essay explores. “Men built this system. No wonder gender equality remains as far off as ever.” – Ellie Mae O’Hagan Freelance journalist Ellie Mae O’Hagan (whose book The New Normal is scheduled for a May 2020 release) is discouraged that gender equality is so many years away. She argues that it’s because the global system of power at its core is broken.  Even when women are in power, which is proportionally rare on a global scale, they deal with a system built by the patriarchy. O’Hagan’s essay lays out ideas for how to fix what’s fundamentally flawed, so gender equality can become a reality. Ideas include investing in welfare; reducing gender-based violence (which is mostly men committing violence against women); and strengthening trade unions and improving work conditions. With a system that’s not designed to put women down, the world can finally achieve gender equality. “Invisibility of Race in Gender Pay Gap Discussions” – Bonnie Chu The gender pay gap has been a pressing issue for many years in the United States, but most discussions miss the factor of race. In this concise essay, Senior Contributor Bonnie Chu examines the reality, writing that within the gender pay gap, there’s other gaps when it comes to black, Native American, and Latina women. Asian-American women, on the other hand, are paid 85 cents for every dollar. This data is extremely important and should be present in discussions about the gender pay gap. It reminds us that when it comes to gender equality, there’s other factors at play, like racism. Bonnie Chu is a gender equality advocate and a Forbes 30 Under 30 social entrepreneur. She’s the founder and CEO of Lensational, which empowers women through photography, and the Managing Director of The Social Investment Consultancy. You may also like 11 Examples of Systemic Injustices in the US Women’s Rights 101: History, Examples, Activists What is Social Activism? 15 Inspiring Movies about Activism 15 Examples of Civil Disobedience Academia in Times of Genocide: Why are Students Across the World Protesting? Pinkwashing 101: Definition, History, Examples 15 Inspiring Quotes for Black History Month 10 Inspiring Ways Women Are Fighting for Equality 15 Trusted Charities Fighting for Clean Water 15 Trusted Charities Supporting Trans People 15 Political Issues We Must Address About the author, emmaline soken-huberty. Emmaline Soken-Huberty is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon. She started to become interested in human rights while attending college, eventually getting a concentration in human rights and humanitarianism. LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and climate change are of special concern to her. In her spare time, she can be found reading or enjoying Oregon’s natural beauty with her husband and dog. Gender Inequality Essay 500+ words essay on gender inequality. For many years, the dominant gender has been men while women were the minority. It was mostly because men earned the money and women looked after the house and children. Similarly, they didn’t have any rights as well. However, as time passed by, things started changing slowly. Nonetheless, they are far from perfect. Gender inequality remains a serious issue in today’s time. Thus, this gender inequality essay will highlight its impact and how we can fight against it.   About Gender Inequality Essay Gender inequality refers to the unequal and biased treatment of individuals on the basis of their gender. This inequality happens because of socially constructed gender roles. It happens when an individual of a specific gender is given different or disadvantageous treatment in comparison to a person of the other gender in the same circumstance. Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas Impact of Gender Inequality The biggest problem we’re facing is that a lot of people still see gender inequality as a women’s issue. However, by gender, we refer to all genders including male, female, transgender and others. When we empower all genders especially the marginalized ones, they can lead their lives freely. Moreover, gender inequality results in not letting people speak their minds. Ultimately, it hampers their future and compromises it. History is proof that fighting gender inequality has resulted in stable and safe societies. Due to gender inequality, we have a gender pay gap. Similarly, it also exposes certain genders to violence and discrimination. In addition, they also get objectified and receive socioeconomic inequality. All of this ultimately results in severe anxiety, depression and even low self-esteem. Therefore, we must all recognize that gender inequality harms genders of all kinds. We must work collectively to stop these long-lasting consequences and this gender inequality essay will tell you how. How to Fight Gender Inequality Gender inequality is an old-age issue that won’t resolve within a few days. Similarly, achieving the goal of equality is also not going to be an easy one. We must start by breaking it down and allow it time to go away. Firstly, we must focus on eradicating this problem through education. In other words, we must teach our young ones to counter gender stereotypes from their childhood. Similarly, it is essential to ensure that they hold on to the very same beliefs till they turn old. We must show them how sports are not gender-biased. Further, we must promote equality in the fields of labour. For instance, some people believe that women cannot do certain jobs like men. However, that is not the case. We can also get celebrities on board to promote and implant the idea of equality in people’s brains. All in all, humanity needs men and women to continue. Thus, inequality will get us nowhere. To conclude the gender inequality essay, we need to get rid of the old-age traditions and mentality. We must teach everyone, especially the boys all about equality and respect. It requires quite a lot of work but it is possible. We can work together and achieve equal respect and opportunities for all genders alike. FAQ of Gender Inequality Essay Question 1: What is gender inequality? Answer 1: Gender inequality refers to the unequal and biased treatment of individuals on the basis of their gender. This inequality happens because of socially constructed gender roles. It happens when an individual of a specific gender is given different or disadvantageous treatment in comparison to a person of the other gender in the same circumstance. Question 2: How does gender inequality impact us? Answer 2:  The gender inequality essay tells us that gender inequality impacts us badly. It takes away opportunities from deserving people. Moreover, it results in discriminatory behaviour towards people of a certain gender. Finally, it also puts people of a certain gender in dangerous situations. Customize your course in 30 seconds Which class are you in. 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Loading metrics Open Access Peer-reviewed Research Article Twenty years of gender equality research: A scoping review based on a new semantic indicator Contributed equally to this work with: Paola Belingheri, Filippo Chiarello, Andrea Fronzetti Colladon, Paola Rovelli Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing Affiliation Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Energia, dei Sistemi, del Territorio e delle Costruzioni, Università degli Studi di Pisa, Largo L. Lazzarino, Pisa, Italy Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Software, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing * E-mail: [email protected] Affiliations Department of Engineering, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy, Department of Management, Kozminski University, Warsaw, Poland Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing Affiliation Faculty of Economics and Management, Centre for Family Business Management, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bozen-Bolzano, Italy Paola Belingheri,  Filippo Chiarello,  Andrea Fronzetti Colladon,  Paola Rovelli Published: September 21, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256474 Reader Comments 9 Nov 2021: The PLOS ONE Staff (2021) Correction: Twenty years of gender equality research: A scoping review based on a new semantic indicator. PLOS ONE 16(11): e0259930. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259930 View correction Gender equality is a major problem that places women at a disadvantage thereby stymieing economic growth and societal advancement. In the last two decades, extensive research has been conducted on gender related issues, studying both their antecedents and consequences. However, existing literature reviews fail to provide a comprehensive and clear picture of what has been studied so far, which could guide scholars in their future research. Our paper offers a scoping review of a large portion of the research that has been published over the last 22 years, on gender equality and related issues, with a specific focus on business and economics studies. Combining innovative methods drawn from both network analysis and text mining, we provide a synthesis of 15,465 scientific articles. We identify 27 main research topics, we measure their relevance from a semantic point of view and the relationships among them, highlighting the importance of each topic in the overall gender discourse. We find that prominent research topics mostly relate to women in the workforce–e.g., concerning compensation, role, education, decision-making and career progression. However, some of them are losing momentum, and some other research trends–for example related to female entrepreneurship, leadership and participation in the board of directors–are on the rise. Besides introducing a novel methodology to review broad literature streams, our paper offers a map of the main gender-research trends and presents the most popular and the emerging themes, as well as their intersections, outlining important avenues for future research. Citation: Belingheri P, Chiarello F, Fronzetti Colladon A, Rovelli P (2021) Twenty years of gender equality research: A scoping review based on a new semantic indicator. PLoS ONE 16(9): e0256474. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256474 Editor: Elisa Ughetto, Politecnico di Torino, ITALY Received: June 25, 2021; Accepted: August 6, 2021; Published: September 21, 2021 Copyright: © 2021 Belingheri et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its supporting information files. The only exception is the text of the abstracts (over 15,000) that we have downloaded from Scopus. These abstracts can be retrieved from Scopus, but we do not have permission to redistribute them. Funding: P.B and F.C.: Grant of the Department of Energy, Systems, Territory and Construction of the University of Pisa (DESTEC) for the project “Measuring Gender Bias with Semantic Analysis: The Development of an Assessment Tool and its Application in the European Space Industry. P.B., F.C., A.F.C., P.R.: Grant of the Italian Association of Management Engineering (AiIG), “Misure di sostegno ai soci giovani AiIG” 2020, for the project “Gender Equality Through Data Intelligence (GEDI)”. F.C.: EU project ASSETs+ Project (Alliance for Strategic Skills addressing Emerging Technologies in Defence) EAC/A03/2018 - Erasmus+ programme, Sector Skills Alliances, Lot 3: Sector Skills Alliance for implementing a new strategic approach (Blueprint) to sectoral cooperation on skills G.A. NUMBER: 612678-EPP-1-2019-1-IT-EPPKA2-SSA-B. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Introduction The persistent gender inequalities that currently exist across the developed and developing world are receiving increasing attention from economists, policymakers, and the general public [e.g., 1 – 3 ]. Economic studies have indicated that women’s education and entry into the workforce contributes to social and economic well-being [e.g., 4 , 5 ], while their exclusion from the labor market and from managerial positions has an impact on overall labor productivity and income per capita [ 6 , 7 ]. The United Nations selected gender equality, with an emphasis on female education, as part of the Millennium Development Goals [ 8 ], and gender equality at-large as one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030 [ 9 ]. These latter objectives involve not only developing nations, but rather all countries, to achieve economic, social and environmental well-being. As is the case with many SDGs, gender equality is still far from being achieved and persists across education, access to opportunities, or presence in decision-making positions [ 7 , 10 , 11 ]. As we enter the last decade for the SDGs’ implementation, and while we are battling a global health pandemic, effective and efficient action becomes paramount to reach this ambitious goal. Scholars have dedicated a massive effort towards understanding gender equality, its determinants, its consequences for women and society, and the appropriate actions and policies to advance women’s equality. Many topics have been covered, ranging from women’s education and human capital [ 12 , 13 ] and their role in society [e.g., 14 , 15 ], to their appointment in firms’ top ranked positions [e.g., 16 , 17 ] and performance implications [e.g., 18 , 19 ]. Despite some attempts, extant literature reviews provide a narrow view on these issues, restricted to specific topics–e.g., female students’ presence in STEM fields [ 20 ], educational gender inequality [ 5 ], the gender pay gap [ 21 ], the glass ceiling effect [ 22 ], leadership [ 23 ], entrepreneurship [ 24 ], women’s presence on the board of directors [ 25 , 26 ], diversity management [ 27 ], gender stereotypes in advertisement [ 28 ], or specific professions [ 29 ]. A comprehensive view on gender-related research, taking stock of key findings and under-studied topics is thus lacking. Extant literature has also highlighted that gender issues, and their economic and social ramifications, are complex topics that involve a large number of possible antecedents and outcomes [ 7 ]. Indeed, gender equality actions are most effective when implemented in unison with other SDGs (e.g., with SDG 8, see [ 30 ]) in a synergetic perspective [ 10 ]. Many bodies of literature (e.g., business, economics, development studies, sociology and psychology) approach the problem of achieving gender equality from different perspectives–often addressing specific and narrow aspects. This sometimes leads to a lack of clarity about how different issues, circumstances, and solutions may be related in precipitating or mitigating gender inequality or its effects. As the number of papers grows at an increasing pace, this issue is exacerbated and there is a need to step back and survey the body of gender equality literature as a whole. There is also a need to examine synergies between different topics and approaches, as well as gaps in our understanding of how different problems and solutions work together. Considering the important topic of women’s economic and social empowerment, this paper aims to fill this gap by answering the following research question: what are the most relevant findings in the literature on gender equality and how do they relate to each other ? To do so, we conduct a scoping review [ 31 ], providing a synthesis of 15,465 articles dealing with gender equity related issues published in the last twenty-two years, covering both the periods of the MDGs and the SDGs (i.e., 2000 to mid 2021) in all the journals indexed in the Academic Journal Guide’s 2018 ranking of business and economics journals. Given the huge amount of research conducted on the topic, we adopt an innovative methodology, which relies on social network analysis and text mining. These techniques are increasingly adopted when surveying large bodies of text. Recently, they were applied to perform analysis of online gender communication differences [ 32 ] and gender behaviors in online technology communities [ 33 ], to identify and classify sexual harassment instances in academia [ 34 ], and to evaluate the gender inclusivity of disaster management policies [ 35 ]. Applied to the title, abstracts and keywords of the articles in our sample, this methodology allows us to identify a set of 27 recurrent topics within which we automatically classify the papers. Introducing additional novelty, by means of the Semantic Brand Score (SBS) indicator [ 36 ] and the SBS BI app [ 37 ], we assess the importance of each topic in the overall gender equality discourse and its relationships with the other topics, as well as trends over time, with a more accurate description than that offered by traditional literature reviews relying solely on the number of papers presented in each topic. This methodology, applied to gender equality research spanning the past twenty-two years, enables two key contributions. First, we extract the main message that each document is conveying and how this is connected to other themes in literature, providing a rich picture of the topics that are at the center of the discourse, as well as of the emerging topics. Second, by examining the semantic relationship between topics and how tightly their discourses are linked, we can identify the key relationships and connections between different topics. This semi-automatic methodology is also highly reproducible with minimum effort. This literature review is organized as follows. In the next section, we present how we selected relevant papers and how we analyzed them through text mining and social network analysis. We then illustrate the importance of 27 selected research topics, measured by means of the SBS indicator. In the results section, we present an overview of the literature based on the SBS results–followed by an in-depth narrative analysis of the top 10 topics (i.e., those with the highest SBS) and their connections. Subsequently, we highlight a series of under-studied connections between the topics where there is potential for future research. Through this analysis, we build a map of the main gender-research trends in the last twenty-two years–presenting the most popular themes. We conclude by highlighting key areas on which research should focused in the future. Our aim is to map a broad topic, gender equality research, that has been approached through a host of different angles and through different disciplines. Scoping reviews are the most appropriate as they provide the freedom to map different themes and identify literature gaps, thereby guiding the recommendation of new research agendas [ 38 ]. Several practical approaches have been proposed to identify and assess the underlying topics of a specific field using big data [ 39 – 41 ], but many of them fail without proper paper retrieval and text preprocessing. This is specifically true for a research field such as the gender-related one, which comprises the work of scholars from different backgrounds. In this section, we illustrate a novel approach for the analysis of scientific (gender-related) papers that relies on methods and tools of social network analysis and text mining. Our procedure has four main steps: (1) data collection, (2) text preprocessing, (3) keywords extraction and classification, and (4) evaluation of semantic importance and image. Data collection In this study, we analyze 22 years of literature on gender-related research. Following established practice for scoping reviews [ 42 ], our data collection consisted of two main steps, which we summarize here below. Firstly, we retrieved from the Scopus database all the articles written in English that contained the term “gender” in their title, abstract or keywords and were published in a journal listed in the Academic Journal Guide 2018 ranking of the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) ( https://charteredabs.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/AJG2018-Methodology.pdf ), considering the time period from Jan 2000 to May 2021. We used this information considering that abstracts, titles and keywords represent the most informative part of a paper, while using the full-text would increase the signal-to-noise ratio for information extraction. Indeed, these textual elements already demonstrated to be reliable sources of information for the task of domain lexicon extraction [ 43 , 44 ]. We chose Scopus as source of literature because of its popularity, its update rate, and because it offers an API to ease the querying process. Indeed, while it does not allow to retrieve the full text of scientific articles, the Scopus API offers access to titles, abstracts, citation information and metadata for all its indexed scholarly journals. Moreover, we decided to focus on the journals listed in the AJG 2018 ranking because we were interested in reviewing business and economics related gender studies only. The AJG is indeed widely used by universities and business schools as a reference point for journal and research rigor and quality. This first step, executed in June 2021, returned more than 55,000 papers. In the second step–because a look at the papers showed very sparse results, many of which were not in line with the topic of this literature review (e.g., papers dealing with health care or medical issues, where the word gender indicates the gender of the patients)–we applied further inclusion criteria to make the sample more focused on the topic of this literature review (i.e., women’s gender equality issues). Specifically, we only retained those papers mentioning, in their title and/or abstract, both gender-related keywords (e.g., daughter, female, mother) and keywords referring to bias and equality issues (e.g., equality, bias, diversity, inclusion). After text pre-processing (see next section), keywords were first identified from a frequency-weighted list of words found in the titles, abstracts and keywords in the initial list of papers, extracted through text mining (following the same approach as [ 43 ]). They were selected by two of the co-authors independently, following respectively a bottom up and a top-down approach. The bottom-up approach consisted of examining the words found in the frequency-weighted list and classifying those related to gender and equality. The top-down approach consisted in searching in the word list for notable gender and equality-related words. Table 1 reports the sets of keywords we considered, together with some examples of words that were used to search for their presence in the dataset (a full list is provided in the S1 Text ). At end of this second step, we obtained a final sample of 15,465 relevant papers. PPT PowerPoint slide PNG larger image TIFF original image https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256474.t001 Text processing and keyword extraction Text preprocessing aims at structuring text into a form that can be analyzed by statistical models. In the present section, we describe the preprocessing steps we applied to paper titles and abstracts, which, as explained below, partially follow a standard text preprocessing pipeline [ 45 ]. These activities have been performed using the R package udpipe [ 46 ]. The first step is n-gram extraction (i.e., a sequence of words from a given text sample) to identify which n-grams are important in the analysis, since domain-specific lexicons are often composed by bi-grams and tri-grams [ 47 ]. Multi-word extraction is usually implemented with statistics and linguistic rules, thus using the statistical properties of n-grams or machine learning approaches [ 48 ]. However, for the present paper, we used Scopus metadata in order to have a more effective and efficient n-grams collection approach [ 49 ]. We used the keywords of each paper in order to tag n-grams with their associated keywords automatically. Using this greedy approach, it was possible to collect all the keywords listed by the authors of the papers. From this list, we extracted only keywords composed by two, three and four words, we removed all the acronyms and rare keywords (i.e., appearing in less than 1% of papers), and we clustered keywords showing a high orthographic similarity–measured using a Levenshtein distance [ 50 ] lower than 2, considering these groups of keywords as representing same concepts, but expressed with different spelling. After tagging the n-grams in the abstracts, we followed a common data preparation pipeline that consists of the following steps: (i) tokenization, that splits the text into tokens (i.e., single words and previously tagged multi-words); (ii) removal of stop-words (i.e. those words that add little meaning to the text, usually being very common and short functional words–such as “and”, “or”, or “of”); (iii) parts-of-speech tagging, that is providing information concerning the morphological role of a word and its morphosyntactic context (e.g., if the token is a determiner, the next token is a noun or an adjective with very high confidence, [ 51 ]); and (iv) lemmatization, which consists in substituting each word with its dictionary form (or lemma). The output of the latter step allows grouping together the inflected forms of a word. For example, the verbs “am”, “are”, and “is” have the shared lemma “be”, or the nouns “cat” and “cats” both share the lemma “cat”. We preferred lemmatization over stemming [ 52 ] in order to obtain more interpretable results. In addition, we identified a further set of keywords (with respect to those listed in the “keywords” field) by applying a series of automatic words unification and removal steps, as suggested in past research [ 53 , 54 ]. We removed: sparse terms (i.e., occurring in less than 0.1% of all documents), common terms (i.e., occurring in more than 10% of all documents) and retained only nouns and adjectives. It is relevant to notice that no document was lost due to these steps. We then used the TF-IDF function [ 55 ] to produce a new list of keywords. We additionally tested other approaches for the identification and clustering of keywords–such as TextRank [ 56 ] or Latent Dirichlet Allocation [ 57 ]–without obtaining more informative results. Classification of research topics To guide the literature analysis, two experts met regularly to examine the sample of collected papers and to identify the main topics and trends in gender research. Initially, they conducted brainstorming sessions on the topics they expected to find, due to their knowledge of the literature. This led to an initial list of topics. Subsequently, the experts worked independently, also supported by the keywords in paper titles and abstracts extracted with the procedure described above. Considering all this information, each expert identified and clustered relevant keywords into topics. At the end of the process, the two assignments were compared and exhibited a 92% agreement. Another meeting was held to discuss discordant cases and reach a consensus. This resulted in a list of 27 topics, briefly introduced in Table 2 and subsequently detailed in the following sections. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256474.t002 Evaluation of semantic importance Working on the lemmatized corpus of the 15,465 papers included in our sample, we proceeded with the evaluation of semantic importance trends for each topic and with the analysis of their connections and prevalent textual associations. To this aim, we used the Semantic Brand Score indicator [ 36 ], calculated through the SBS BI webapp [ 37 ] that also produced a brand image report for each topic. For this study we relied on the computing resources of the ENEA/CRESCO infrastructure [ 58 ]. The Semantic Brand Score (SBS) is a measure of semantic importance that combines methods of social network analysis and text mining. It is usually applied for the analysis of (big) textual data to evaluate the importance of one or more brands, names, words, or sets of keywords [ 36 ]. Indeed, the concept of “brand” is intended in a flexible way and goes beyond products or commercial brands. In this study, we evaluate the SBS time-trends of the keywords defining the research topics discussed in the previous section. Semantic importance comprises the three dimensions of topic prevalence, diversity and connectivity. Prevalence measures how frequently a research topic is used in the discourse. The more a topic is mentioned by scientific articles, the more the research community will be aware of it, with possible increase of future studies; this construct is partly related to that of brand awareness [ 59 ]. This effect is even stronger, considering that we are analyzing the title, abstract and keywords of the papers, i.e. the parts that have the highest visibility. A very important characteristic of the SBS is that it considers the relationships among words in a text. Topic importance is not just a matter of how frequently a topic is mentioned, but also of the associations a topic has in the text. Specifically, texts are transformed into networks of co-occurring words, and relationships are studied through social network analysis [ 60 ]. This step is necessary to calculate the other two dimensions of our semantic importance indicator. Accordingly, a social network of words is generated for each time period considered in the analysis–i.e., a graph made of n nodes (words) and E edges weighted by co-occurrence frequency, with W being the set of edge weights. The keywords representing each topic were clustered into single nodes. The construct of diversity relates to that of brand image [ 59 ], in the sense that it considers the richness and distinctiveness of textual (topic) associations. Considering the above-mentioned networks, we calculated diversity using the distinctiveness centrality metric–as in the formula presented by Fronzetti Colladon and Naldi [ 61 ]. Lastly, connectivity was measured as the weighted betweenness centrality [ 62 , 63 ] of each research topic node. We used the formula presented by Wasserman and Faust [ 60 ]. The dimension of connectivity represents the “brokerage power” of each research topic–i.e., how much it can serve as a bridge to connect other terms (and ultimately topics) in the discourse [ 36 ]. The SBS is the final composite indicator obtained by summing the standardized scores of prevalence, diversity and connectivity. Standardization was carried out considering all the words in the corpus, for each specific timeframe. This methodology, applied to a large and heterogeneous body of text, enables to automatically identify two important sets of information that add value to the literature review. Firstly, the relevance of each topic in literature is measured through a composite indicator of semantic importance, rather than simply looking at word frequencies. This provides a much richer picture of the topics that are at the center of the discourse, as well as of the topics that are emerging in the literature. Secondly, it enables to examine the extent of the semantic relationship between topics, looking at how tightly their discourses are linked. In a field such as gender equality, where many topics are closely linked to each other and present overlaps in issues and solutions, this methodology offers a novel perspective with respect to traditional literature reviews. In addition, it ensures reproducibility over time and the possibility to semi-automatically update the analysis, as new papers become available. Overview of main topics In terms of descriptive textual statistics, our corpus is made of 15,465 text documents, consisting of a total of 2,685,893 lemmatized tokens (words) and 32,279 types. As a result, the type-token ratio is 1.2%. The number of hapaxes is 12,141, with a hapax-token ratio of 37.61%. Fig 1 shows the list of 27 topics by decreasing SBS. The most researched topic is compensation , exceeding all others in prevalence, diversity, and connectivity. This means it is not only mentioned more often than other topics, but it is also connected to a greater number of other topics and is central to the discourse on gender equality. The next four topics are, in order of SBS, role , education , decision-making , and career progression . These topics, except for education , all concern women in the workforce. Between these first five topics and the following ones there is a clear drop in SBS scores. In particular, the topics that follow have a lower connectivity than the first five. They are hiring , performance , behavior , organization , and human capital . Again, except for behavior and human capital , the other three topics are purely related to women in the workforce. After another drop-off, the following topics deal prevalently with women in society. This trend highlights that research on gender in business journals has so far mainly paid attention to the conditions that women experience in business contexts, while also devoting some attention to women in society. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256474.g001 Fig 2 shows the SBS time series of the top 10 topics. While there has been a general increase in the number of Scopus-indexed publications in the last decade, we notice that some SBS trends remain steady, or even decrease. In particular, we observe that the main topic of the last twenty-two years, compensation , is losing momentum. Since 2016, it has been surpassed by decision-making , education and role , which may indicate that literature is increasingly attempting to identify root causes of compensation inequalities. Moreover, in the last two years, the topics of hiring , performance , and organization are experiencing the largest importance increase. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256474.g002 Fig 3 shows the SBS time trends of the remaining 17 topics (i.e., those not in the top 10). As we can see from the graph, there are some that maintain a steady trend–such as reputation , management , networks and governance , which also seem to have little importance. More relevant topics with average stationary trends (except for the last two years) are culture , family , and parenting . The feminine topic is among the most important here, and one of those that exhibit the larger variations over time (similarly to leadership ). On the other hand, the are some topics that, even if not among the most important, show increasing SBS trends; therefore, they could be considered as emerging topics and could become popular in the near future. These are entrepreneurship , leadership , board of directors , and sustainability . These emerging topics are also interesting to anticipate future trends in gender equality research that are conducive to overall equality in society. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256474.g003 In addition to the SBS score of the different topics, the network of terms they are associated to enables to gauge the extent to which their images (textual associations) overlap or differ ( Fig 4 ). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256474.g004 There is a central cluster of topics with high similarity, which are all connected with women in the workforce. The cluster includes topics such as organization , decision-making , performance , hiring , human capital , education and compensation . In addition, the topic of well-being is found within this cluster, suggesting that women’s equality in the workforce is associated to well-being considerations. The emerging topics of entrepreneurship and leadership are also closely connected with each other, possibly implying that leadership is a much-researched quality in female entrepreneurship. Topics that are relatively more distant include personality , politics , feminine , empowerment , management , board of directors , reputation , governance , parenting , masculine and network . The following sections describe the top 10 topics and their main associations in literature (see Table 3 ), while providing a brief overview of the emerging topics. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256474.t003 Compensation. The topic of compensation is related to the topics of role , hiring , education and career progression , however, also sees a very high association with the words gap and inequality . Indeed, a well-known debate in degrowth economics centers around whether and how to adequately compensate women for their childbearing, childrearing, caregiver and household work [e.g., 30 ]. Even in paid work, women continue being offered lower compensations than their male counterparts who have the same job or cover the same role [ 64 – 67 ]. This severe inequality has been widely studied by scholars over the last twenty-two years. Dealing with this topic, some specific roles have been addressed. Specifically, research highlighted differences in compensation between female and male CEOs [e.g., 68 ], top executives [e.g., 69 ], and boards’ directors [e.g., 70 ]. Scholars investigated the determinants of these gaps, such as the gender composition of the board [e.g., 71 – 73 ] or women’s individual characteristics [e.g., 71 , 74 ]. Among these individual characteristics, education plays a relevant role [ 75 ]. Education is indeed presented as the solution for women, not only to achieve top executive roles, but also to reduce wage inequality [e.g., 76 , 77 ]. Past research has highlighted education influences on gender wage gaps, specifically referring to gender differences in skills [e.g., 78 ], college majors [e.g., 79 ], and college selectivity [e.g., 80 ]. Finally, the wage gap issue is strictly interrelated with hiring –e.g., looking at whether being a mother affects hiring and compensation [e.g., 65 , 81 ] or relating compensation to unemployment [e.g., 82 ]–and career progression –for instance looking at meritocracy [ 83 , 84 ] or the characteristics of the boss for whom women work [e.g., 85 ]. The roles covered by women have been deeply investigated. Scholars have focused on the role of women in their families and the society as a whole [e.g., 14 , 15 ], and, more widely, in business contexts [e.g., 18 , 81 ]. Indeed, despite still lagging behind their male counterparts [e.g., 86 , 87 ], in the last decade there has been an increase in top ranked positions achieved by women [e.g., 88 , 89 ]. Following this phenomenon, scholars have posed greater attention towards the presence of women in the board of directors [e.g., 16 , 18 , 90 , 91 ], given the increasing pressure to appoint female directors that firms, especially listed ones, have experienced. Other scholars have focused on the presence of women covering the role of CEO [e.g., 17 , 92 ] or being part of the top management team [e.g., 93 ]. Irrespectively of the level of analysis, all these studies tried to uncover the antecedents of women’s presence among top managers [e.g., 92 , 94 ] and the consequences of having a them involved in the firm’s decision-making –e.g., on performance [e.g., 19 , 95 , 96 ], risk [e.g., 97 , 98 ], and corporate social responsibility [e.g., 99 , 100 ]. Besides studying the difficulties and discriminations faced by women in getting a job [ 81 , 101 ], and, more specifically in the hiring , appointment, or career progression to these apical roles [e.g., 70 , 83 ], the majority of research of women’s roles dealt with compensation issues. Specifically, scholars highlight the pay-gap that still exists between women and men, both in general [e.g., 64 , 65 ], as well as referring to boards’ directors [e.g., 70 , 102 ], CEOs and executives [e.g., 69 , 103 , 104 ]. Finally, other scholars focused on the behavior of women when dealing with business. In this sense, particular attention has been paid to leadership and entrepreneurial behaviors. The former quite overlaps with dealing with the roles mentioned above, but also includes aspects such as leaders being stereotyped as masculine [e.g., 105 ], the need for greater exposure to female leaders to reduce biases [e.g., 106 ], or female leaders acting as queen bees [e.g., 107 ]. Regarding entrepreneurship , scholars mainly investigated women’s entrepreneurial entry [e.g., 108 , 109 ], differences between female and male entrepreneurs in the evaluations and funding received from investors [e.g., 110 , 111 ], and their performance gap [e.g., 112 , 113 ]. Education has long been recognized as key to social advancement and economic stability [ 114 ], for job progression and also a barrier to gender equality, especially in STEM-related fields. Research on education and gender equality is mostly linked with the topics of compensation , human capital , career progression , hiring , parenting and decision-making . Education contributes to a higher human capital [ 115 ] and constitutes an investment on the part of women towards their future. In this context, literature points to the gender gap in educational attainment, and the consequences for women from a social, economic, personal and professional standpoint. Women are found to have less access to formal education and information, especially in emerging countries, which in turn may cause them to lose social and economic opportunities [e.g., 12 , 116 – 119 ]. Education in local and rural communities is also paramount to communicate the benefits of female empowerment , contributing to overall societal well-being [e.g., 120 ]. Once women access education, the image they have of the world and their place in society (i.e., habitus) affects their education performance [ 13 ] and is passed on to their children. These situations reinforce gender stereotypes, which become self-fulfilling prophecies that may negatively affect female students’ performance by lowering their confidence and heightening their anxiety [ 121 , 122 ]. Besides formal education, also the information that women are exposed to on a daily basis contributes to their human capital . Digital inequalities, for instance, stems from men spending more time online and acquiring higher digital skills than women [ 123 ]. Education is also a factor that should boost employability of candidates and thus hiring , career progression and compensation , however the relationship between these factors is not straightforward [ 115 ]. First, educational choices ( decision-making ) are influenced by variables such as self-efficacy and the presence of barriers, irrespectively of the career opportunities they offer, especially in STEM [ 124 ]. This brings additional difficulties to women’s enrollment and persistence in scientific and technical fields of study due to stereotypes and biases [ 125 , 126 ]. Moreover, access to education does not automatically translate into job opportunities for women and minority groups [ 127 , 128 ] or into female access to managerial positions [ 129 ]. Finally, parenting is reported as an antecedent of education [e.g., 130 ], with much of the literature focusing on the role of parents’ education on the opportunities afforded to children to enroll in education [ 131 – 134 ] and the role of parenting in their offspring’s perception of study fields and attitudes towards learning [ 135 – 138 ]. Parental education is also a predictor of the other related topics, namely human capital and compensation [ 139 ]. Decision-making. This literature mainly points to the fact that women are thought to make decisions differently than men. Women have indeed different priorities, such as they care more about people’s well-being, working with people or helping others, rather than maximizing their personal (or their firm’s) gain [ 140 ]. In other words, women typically present more communal than agentic behaviors, which are instead more frequent among men [ 141 ]. These different attitude, behavior and preferences in turn affect the decisions they make [e.g., 142 ] and the decision-making of the firm in which they work [e.g., 143 ]. At the individual level, gender affects, for instance, career aspirations [e.g., 144 ] and choices [e.g., 142 , 145 ], or the decision of creating a venture [e.g., 108 , 109 , 146 ]. Moreover, in everyday life, women and men make different decisions regarding partners [e.g., 147 ], childcare [e.g., 148 ], education [e.g., 149 ], attention to the environment [e.g., 150 ] and politics [e.g., 151 ]. At the firm level, scholars highlighted, for example, how the presence of women in the board affects corporate decisions [e.g., 152 , 153 ], that female CEOs are more conservative in accounting decisions [e.g., 154 ], or that female CFOs tend to make more conservative decisions regarding the firm’s financial reporting [e.g., 155 ]. Nevertheless, firm level research also investigated decisions that, influenced by gender bias, affect women, such as those pertaining hiring [e.g., 156 , 157 ], compensation [e.g., 73 , 158 ], or the empowerment of women once appointed [ 159 ]. Career progression. Once women have entered the workforce, the key aspect to achieve gender equality becomes career progression , including efforts toward overcoming the glass ceiling. Indeed, according to the SBS analysis, career progression is highly related to words such as work, social issues and equality. The topic with which it has the highest semantic overlap is role , followed by decision-making , hiring , education , compensation , leadership , human capital , and family . Career progression implies an advancement in the hierarchical ladder of the firm, assigning managerial roles to women. Coherently, much of the literature has focused on identifying rationales for a greater female participation in the top management team and board of directors [e.g., 95 ] as well as the best criteria to ensure that the decision-makers promote the most valuable employees irrespectively of their individual characteristics, such as gender [e.g., 84 ]. The link between career progression , role and compensation is often provided in practice by performance appraisal exercises, frequently rooted in a culture of meritocracy that guides bonuses, salary increases and promotions. However, performance appraisals can actually mask gender-biased decisions where women are held to higher standards than their male colleagues [e.g., 83 , 84 , 95 , 160 , 161 ]. Women often have less opportunities to gain leadership experience and are less visible than their male colleagues, which constitute barriers to career advancement [e.g., 162 ]. Therefore, transparency and accountability, together with procedures that discourage discretionary choices, are paramount to achieve a fair career progression [e.g., 84 ], together with the relaxation of strict job boundaries in favor of cross-functional and self-directed tasks [e.g., 163 ]. In addition, a series of stereotypes about the type of leadership characteristics that are required for top management positions, which fit better with typical male and agentic attributes, are another key barrier to career advancement for women [e.g., 92 , 160 ]. Hiring is the entrance gateway for women into the workforce. Therefore, it is related to other workforce topics such as compensation , role , career progression , decision-making , human capital , performance , organization and education . A first stream of literature focuses on the process leading up to candidates’ job applications, demonstrating that bias exists before positions are even opened, and it is perpetuated both by men and women through networking and gatekeeping practices [e.g., 164 , 165 ]. The hiring process itself is also subject to biases [ 166 ], for example gender-congruity bias that leads to men being preferred candidates in male-dominated sectors [e.g., 167 ], women being hired in positions with higher risk of failure [e.g., 168 ] and limited transparency and accountability afforded by written processes and procedures [e.g., 164 ] that all contribute to ascriptive inequality. In addition, providing incentives for evaluators to hire women may actually work to this end; however, this is not the case when supporting female candidates endangers higher-ranking male ones [ 169 ]. Another interesting perspective, instead, looks at top management teams’ composition and the effects on hiring practices, indicating that firms with more women in top management are less likely to lay off staff [e.g., 152 ]. Performance. Several scholars posed their attention towards women’s performance, its consequences [e.g., 170 , 171 ] and the implications of having women in decision-making positions [e.g., 18 , 19 ]. At the individual level, research focused on differences in educational and academic performance between women and men, especially referring to the gender gap in STEM fields [e.g., 171 ]. The presence of stereotype threats–that is the expectation that the members of a social group (e.g., women) “must deal with the possibility of being judged or treated stereotypically, or of doing something that would confirm the stereotype” [ 172 ]–affects women’s interested in STEM [e.g., 173 ], as well as their cognitive ability tests, penalizing them [e.g., 174 ]. A stronger gender identification enhances this gap [e.g., 175 ], whereas mentoring and role models can be used as solutions to this problem [e.g., 121 ]. Despite the negative effect of stereotype threats on girls’ performance [ 176 ], female and male students perform equally in mathematics and related subjects [e.g., 177 ]. Moreover, while individuals’ performance at school and university generally affects their achievements and the field in which they end up working, evidence reveals that performance in math or other scientific subjects does not explain why fewer women enter STEM working fields; rather this gap depends on other aspects, such as culture, past working experiences, or self-efficacy [e.g., 170 ]. Finally, scholars have highlighted the penalization that women face for their positive performance, for instance when they succeed in traditionally male areas [e.g., 178 ]. This penalization is explained by the violation of gender-stereotypic prescriptions [e.g., 179 , 180 ], that is having women well performing in agentic areas, which are typical associated to men. Performance penalization can thus be overcome by clearly conveying communal characteristics and behaviors [ 178 ]. Evidence has been provided on how the involvement of women in boards of directors and decision-making positions affects firms’ performance. Nevertheless, results are mixed, with some studies showing positive effects on financial [ 19 , 181 , 182 ] and corporate social performance [ 99 , 182 , 183 ]. Other studies maintain a negative association [e.g., 18 ], and other again mixed [e.g., 184 ] or non-significant association [e.g., 185 ]. Also with respect to the presence of a female CEO, mixed results emerged so far, with some researches demonstrating a positive effect on firm’s performance [e.g., 96 , 186 ], while other obtaining only a limited evidence of this relationship [e.g., 103 ] or a negative one [e.g., 187 ]. Finally, some studies have investigated whether and how women’s performance affects their hiring [e.g., 101 ] and career progression [e.g., 83 , 160 ]. For instance, academic performance leads to different returns in hiring for women and men. Specifically, high-achieving men are called back significantly more often than high-achieving women, which are penalized when they have a major in mathematics; this result depends on employers’ gendered standards for applicants [e.g., 101 ]. Once appointed, performance ratings are more strongly related to promotions for women than men, and promoted women typically show higher past performance ratings than those of promoted men. This suggesting that women are subject to stricter standards for promotion [e.g., 160 ]. Behavioral aspects related to gender follow two main streams of literature. The first examines female personality and behavior in the workplace, and their alignment with cultural expectations or stereotypes [e.g., 188 ] as well as their impacts on equality. There is a common bias that depicts women as less agentic than males. Certain characteristics, such as those more congruent with male behaviors–e.g., self-promotion [e.g., 189 ], negotiation skills [e.g., 190 ] and general agentic behavior [e.g., 191 ]–, are less accepted in women. However, characteristics such as individualism in women have been found to promote greater gender equality in society [ 192 ]. In addition, behaviors such as display of emotions [e.g., 193 ], which are stereotypically female, work against women’s acceptance in the workplace, requiring women to carefully moderate their behavior to avoid exclusion. A counter-intuitive result is that women and minorities, which are more marginalized in the workplace, tend to be better problem-solvers in innovation competitions due to their different knowledge bases [ 194 ]. The other side of the coin is examined in a parallel literature stream on behavior towards women in the workplace. As a result of biases, prejudices and stereotypes, women may experience adverse behavior from their colleagues, such as incivility and harassment, which undermine their well-being [e.g., 195 , 196 ]. Biases that go beyond gender, such as for overweight people, are also more strongly applied to women [ 197 ]. Organization. The role of women and gender bias in organizations has been studied from different perspectives, which mirror those presented in detail in the following sections. Specifically, most research highlighted the stereotypical view of leaders [e.g., 105 ] and the roles played by women within firms, for instance referring to presence in the board of directors [e.g., 18 , 90 , 91 ], appointment as CEOs [e.g., 16 ], or top executives [e.g., 93 ]. Scholars have investigated antecedents and consequences of the presence of women in these apical roles. On the one side they looked at hiring and career progression [e.g., 83 , 92 , 160 , 168 , 198 ], finding women typically disadvantaged with respect to their male counterparts. On the other side, they studied women’s leadership styles and influence on the firm’s decision-making [e.g., 152 , 154 , 155 , 199 ], with implications for performance [e.g., 18 , 19 , 96 ]. Human capital. Human capital is a transverse topic that touches upon many different aspects of female gender equality. As such, it has the most associations with other topics, starting with education as mentioned above, with career-related topics such as role , decision-making , hiring , career progression , performance , compensation , leadership and organization . Another topic with which there is a close connection is behavior . In general, human capital is approached both from the education standpoint but also from the perspective of social capital. The behavioral aspect in human capital comprises research related to gender differences for example in cultural and religious beliefs that influence women’s attitudes and perceptions towards STEM subjects [ 142 , 200 – 202 ], towards employment [ 203 ] or towards environmental issues [ 150 , 204 ]. These cultural differences also emerge in the context of globalization which may accelerate gender equality in the workforce [ 205 , 206 ]. Gender differences also appear in behaviors such as motivation [ 207 ], and in negotiation [ 190 ], and have repercussions on women’s decision-making related to their careers. The so-called gender equality paradox sees women in countries with lower gender equality more likely to pursue studies and careers in STEM fields, whereas the gap in STEM enrollment widens as countries achieve greater equality in society [ 171 ]. Career progression is modeled by literature as a choice-process where personal preferences, culture and decision-making affect the chosen path and the outcomes. Some literature highlights how women tend to self-select into different professions than men, often due to stereotypes rather than actual ability to perform in these professions [ 142 , 144 ]. These stereotypes also affect the perceptions of female performance or the amount of human capital required to equal male performance [ 110 , 193 , 208 ], particularly for mothers [ 81 ]. It is therefore often assumed that women are better suited to less visible and less leadership -oriented roles [ 209 ]. Women also express differing preferences towards work-family balance, which affect whether and how they pursue human capital gains [ 210 ], and ultimately their career progression and salary . On the other hand, men are often unaware of gendered processes and behaviors that they carry forward in their interactions and decision-making [ 211 , 212 ]. Therefore, initiatives aimed at increasing managers’ human capital –by raising awareness of gender disparities in their organizations and engaging them in diversity promotion–are essential steps to counter gender bias and segregation [ 213 ]. Emerging topics: Leadership and entrepreneurship Among the emerging topics, the most pervasive one is women reaching leadership positions in the workforce and in society. This is still a rare occurrence for two main types of factors, on the one hand, bias and discrimination make it harder for women to access leadership positions [e.g., 214 – 216 ], on the other hand, the competitive nature and high pressure associated with leadership positions, coupled with the lack of women currently represented, reduce women’s desire to achieve them [e.g., 209 , 217 ]. Women are more effective leaders when they have access to education, resources and a diverse environment with representation [e.g., 218 , 219 ]. One sector where there is potential for women to carve out a leadership role is entrepreneurship . Although at the start of the millennium the discourse on entrepreneurship was found to be “discriminatory, gender-biased, ethnocentrically determined and ideologically controlled” [ 220 ], an increasing body of literature is studying how to stimulate female entrepreneurship as an alternative pathway to wealth, leadership and empowerment [e.g., 221 ]. Many barriers exist for women to access entrepreneurship, including the institutional and legal environment, social and cultural factors, access to knowledge and resources, and individual behavior [e.g., 222 , 223 ]. Education has been found to raise women’s entrepreneurial intentions [e.g., 224 ], although this effect is smaller than for men [e.g., 109 ]. In addition, increasing self-efficacy and risk-taking behavior constitute important success factors [e.g., 225 ]. Finally, the topic of sustainability is worth mentioning, as it is the primary objective of the SDGs and is closely associated with societal well-being. As society grapples with the effects of climate change and increasing depletion of natural resources, a narrative has emerged on women and their greater link to the environment [ 226 ]. Studies in developed countries have found some support for women leaders’ attention to sustainability issues in firms [e.g., 227 – 229 ], and smaller resource consumption by women [ 230 ]. At the same time, women will likely be more affected by the consequences of climate change [e.g., 230 ] but often lack the decision-making power to influence local decision-making on resource management and environmental policies [e.g., 231 ]. Research gaps and conclusions Research on gender equality has advanced rapidly in the past decades, with a steady increase in publications, both in mainstream topics related to women in education and the workforce, and in emerging topics. Through a novel approach combining methods of text mining and social network analysis, we examined a comprehensive body of literature comprising 15,465 papers published between 2000 and mid 2021 on topics related to gender equality. We identified a set of 27 topics addressed by the literature and examined their connections. At the highest level of abstraction, it is worth noting that papers abound on the identification of issues related to gender inequalities and imbalances in the workforce and in society. Literature has thoroughly examined the (unconscious) biases, barriers, stereotypes, and discriminatory behaviors that women are facing as a result of their gender. Instead, there are much fewer papers that discuss or demonstrate effective solutions to overcome gender bias [e.g., 121 , 143 , 145 , 163 , 194 , 213 , 232 ]. This is partly due to the relative ease in studying the status quo, as opposed to studying changes in the status quo. However, we observed a shift in the more recent years towards solution seeking in this domain, which we strongly encourage future researchers to focus on. In the future, we may focus on collecting and mapping pro-active contributions to gender studies, using additional Natural Language Processing techniques, able to measure the sentiment of scientific papers [ 43 ]. All of the mainstream topics identified in our literature review are closely related, and there is a wealth of insights looking at the intersection between issues such as education and career progression or human capital and role . However, emerging topics are worthy of being furtherly explored. It would be interesting to see more work on the topic of female entrepreneurship , exploring aspects such as education , personality , governance , management and leadership . For instance, how can education support female entrepreneurship? How can self-efficacy and risk-taking behaviors be taught or enhanced? What are the differences in managerial and governance styles of female entrepreneurs? Which personality traits are associated with successful entrepreneurs? Which traits are preferred by venture capitalists and funding bodies? The emerging topic of sustainability also deserves further attention, as our society struggles with climate change and its consequences. It would be interesting to see more research on the intersection between sustainability and entrepreneurship , looking at how female entrepreneurs are tackling sustainability issues, examining both their business models and their company governance . In addition, scholars are suggested to dig deeper into the relationship between family values and behaviors. Moreover, it would be relevant to understand how women’s networks (social capital), or the composition and structure of social networks involving both women and men, enable them to increase their remuneration and reach top corporate positions, participate in key decision-making bodies, and have a voice in communities. Furthermore, the achievement of gender equality might significantly change firm networks and ecosystems, with important implications for their performance and survival. Similarly, research at the nexus of (corporate) governance , career progression , compensation and female empowerment could yield useful insights–for example discussing how enterprises, institutions and countries are managed and the impact for women and other minorities. Are there specific governance structures that favor diversity and inclusion? Lastly, we foresee an emerging stream of research pertaining how the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic challenged women, especially in the workforce, by making gender biases more evident. For our analysis, we considered a set of 15,465 articles downloaded from the Scopus database (which is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature). As we were interested in reviewing business and economics related gender studies, we only considered those papers published in journals listed in the Academic Journal Guide (AJG) 2018 ranking of the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS). All the journals listed in this ranking are also indexed by Scopus. Therefore, looking at a single database (i.e., Scopus) should not be considered a limitation of our study. However, future research could consider different databases and inclusion criteria. With our literature review, we offer researchers a comprehensive map of major gender-related research trends over the past twenty-two years. This can serve as a lens to look to the future, contributing to the achievement of SDG5. Researchers may use our study as a starting point to identify key themes addressed in the literature. In addition, our methodological approach–based on the use of the Semantic Brand Score and its webapp–could support scholars interested in reviewing other areas of research. Supporting information S1 text. keywords used for paper selection.. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256474.s001 Acknowledgments The computing resources and the related technical support used for this work have been provided by CRESCO/ENEAGRID High Performance Computing infrastructure and its staff. CRESCO/ENEAGRID High Performance Computing infrastructure is funded by ENEA, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development and by Italian and European research programmes (see http://www.cresco.enea.it/english for information). View Article PubMed/NCBI Google Scholar 9. UN. Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. General Assembley 70 Session; 2015. 11. Nature. Get the Sustainable Development Goals back on track. Nature. 2020;577(January 2):7–8 37. Fronzetti Colladon A, Grippa F. Brand intelligence analytics. In: Przegalinska A, Grippa F, Gloor PA, editors. Digital Transformation of Collaboration. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland; 2020. p. 125–41. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233276 pmid:32442196 39. Griffiths TL, Steyvers M, editors. Finding scientific topics. National academy of Sciences; 2004. 40. Mimno D, Wallach H, Talley E, Leenders M, McCallum A, editors. Optimizing semantic coherence in topic models. 2011 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing; 2011. 41. Wang C, Blei DM, editors. Collaborative topic modeling for recommending scientific articles. 17th ACM SIGKDD international conference on Knowledge discovery and data mining 2011. 46. Straka M, Straková J, editors. Tokenizing, pos tagging, lemmatizing and parsing ud 2.0 with udpipe. CoNLL 2017 Shared Task: Multilingual Parsing from Raw Text to Universal Dependencies; 2017. 49. Lu Y, Li, R., Wen K, Lu Z, editors. Automatic keyword extraction for scientific literatures using references. 2014 IEEE International Conference on Innovative Design and Manufacturing (ICIDM); 2014. 55. Roelleke T, Wang J, editors. TF-IDF uncovered. 31st Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval—SIGIR ‘08; 2008. 56. Mihalcea R, Tarau P, editors. TextRank: Bringing order into text. 2004 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing; 2004. 58. Iannone F, Ambrosino F, Bracco G, De Rosa M, Funel A, Guarnieri G, et al., editors. CRESCO ENEA HPC clusters: A working example of a multifabric GPFS Spectrum Scale layout. 2019 International Conference on High Performance Computing & Simulation (HPCS); 2019. 60. Wasserman S, Faust K. Social network analysis: Methods and applications: Cambridge University Press; 1994. 141. Williams JE, Best DL. Measuring sex stereotypes: A multination study, Rev: Sage Publications, Inc; 1990. 172. Steele CM, Aronson J. Stereotype threat and the test performance of academically successful African Americans. In: Jencks C, Phillips M, editors. The Black–White test score gap. Washington, DC: Brookings; 1998. p. 401–27 Gender Inequalities in the UK’s Higher Education Essay To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block As a source of information (ensure proper referencing) As a template for you assignment Introduction Gender inequalities in the uk’s system of higher education. Gender inequality is defined as the unequal rating of women and men’s roles in any aspect of the society. However, it is sensible to acknowledge that physical differences between these two sexes exist, but the way, which society interprets these differences, is what brings about gender inequality and this arises in terms of economic, educational, legal and political aspects. Therefore, overcoming these barriers of prejudices and stereotypes can work to enable equal contribution to the society and advancing development, especially in the education sector. This study focuses on the persistence of gender inequalities in Higher Education in the UK. Gender inequality has shown the greatest shift of all the education inequalities. In the UK, gender gap closure is up to the age of sixteen and changing patterns in education achievement stands as evidence to this transformation. However, gender parity has dominated in education for several years. The gender gap in performance at 16 and 18 has closed in terms of the patterns of achievement at the national level. Since that time these gaps have opened up with girls performing better than boys do over the last 10 years (EOC, 2003, p. 3) and this shows one of the most significant transformations in the gender inequality history in the UK. However, there are several contradictions and tensions in relation to gender equality. UK academic staff statistics shows that lecturers comprise of 53% men and 47% women; 67% men and 33% women senior/principal lecturers; 83% men and 17% women professors/Heads of department (Cotterill & Letherby, 2007, p. 31). The definition of male success is defined as normal while for women is measured in terms of how they can adhere to the norm, thus making the effort towards educational equality women to be at the same level as men (Smyth, 2007, p. 27). Many countries disagree with the fact that higher education for a boy is more important. Many people claim that men get more job opportunities with good salaries and adequate work conditions than women with equal qualifications and potential. Women and men should establish shared responsibilities at home, work and in the wider community. However, the initial step in achieving this should start at the education level. Jacobs (1996, p. 32) emphasizes that the rising status of women is major due to the rise of modern economic and political institutions, which have changed the priorities of these institutions concerning gender. As the power of the economy transverse into large-scale organizations dissimilar to the distinctions of gender, the model lost its cultural and social trend and the efforts women to conquer the world became increasingly successful. Total gender equality will eventually prevail; the only questions remaining are what it will look like and how and when it will arrive. Gillborn & Mirza (2000, p. 67) reported that differences in ethnicity and social class also increased with the pressure of schooling that was performance oriented in educational achievement respectively. According to Teese et al. (1995), the arouse issue occurs when girls or boys fail or succeed in the education system A significant number of policy and legislative developments also form part of the climate of change in educational access and achievement of formal gender parity, which connects indirectly with the increase in women representation in public life. Currently the contradiction of education and new job opportunities for women are increasing along with a focus on women’s unequal treatment in school, at work and at home. This stirred the Women’s Movement to give priority to gender equality in its manifesto goals (Harford & Rush, 2010, p. 43). However, it has been difficult to quantify the implications as the areas of initiatives are provided with little attention. Even with formal ‘gender parity’ dominating in educational achievement there are still gender stereotypes in the subject areas, which determine one’s qualifications. For instance, men are dominating in such the sciences like engineering and Technology, while women are dominating in Biology, Arts, especially in Humanities and Education courses (EOC, 1998, p. 1). Progress in reduction of gender parity and improvement of equity can be attained when women are considered aboard, so their status is improved. Their rights as well have to be honored and their positions are elevated. Gender equality should include identical partaking by both genders, in coming up with resolutions and encouraging women to optimally practice their rights and reduction in the gap between men and women to control resources and development benefits. Access to resources should be equitable not biased. Education is meant for everyone in the higher institutions; hence, all the citizens have a right to participate in the knowledge acquisition and in employment. Several strategies can be implemented to address gender inequality in the UK institutions, including encouraging women to apply for appointments and promotions, mentoring, role models, women’s networks. The management of the institutions, which includes the Vice Chancellor, Principal and managers, needs to change its attitude and show visible commitment in policies. Institutions need to review processes involved in promotions and recruitment and provide support during maternity as well as flexible working hours. Cotterill, P & Letherby, G 2007, Challenges and negotiations for women in higher education . London: Springer. Equal Opportunities Commission- EOC, 2003, Facts about Women and Men in Great Britain , London: Gvoove Publishers. Equal Opportunities Commission-EOC, 1998, Gender and Differential Achievement in Education and Training: a Research Review ,London: Sage. Gillborn, D & Mirza, H 2000, Educational Inequality: mapping race, class and gender , London: Ofsted. Harford, J & Rush, C 2010, Have women made a difference , London: Peter Lang. Jacobs, J 1996, Gender inequality and Higher Education, Annual Review on Social behavior , 22, 153–85. Smyth, E 2007 , Education and Equity: International Perspectives on Theory and Policy . London: Springer Press. Teese, R, et al 1995, Who wins at school? Boys and girls in Australian secondary education , Sydney: Canberra. Equal Rights for Women Gender Equality: Male Dominance Purchasing Power Parity and Brand-Related Pricing Purchasing Power Parity Theory Discussion on Why TikTok Dominating Google "Gender and Representation" by Chow Rey Gender Discrimination in the Workplace Essay Problem of the Gender Discrimination in the Workplace Gender inequality in Canada Australian Gender Pay Inequalities and Its Reasons Chicago (A-D) Chicago (N-B) IvyPanda. (2019, March 28). Gender Inequalities in the UK's Higher Education. https://ivypanda.com/essays/woman-in-management/ "Gender Inequalities in the UK's Higher Education." IvyPanda , 28 Mar. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/woman-in-management/. IvyPanda . (2019) 'Gender Inequalities in the UK's Higher Education'. 28 March. IvyPanda . 2019. "Gender Inequalities in the UK's Higher Education." March 28, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/woman-in-management/. 1. IvyPanda . "Gender Inequalities in the UK's Higher Education." March 28, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/woman-in-management/. Bibliography IvyPanda . "Gender Inequalities in the UK's Higher Education." March 28, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/woman-in-management/. Closing the equity gap Jeni Klugman Caren Grown and Odera Onyechi Why addressing gender inequality is central to tackling today’s polycrises Nonresident Senior Fellow, Africa Growth Initiative, Global Economy and Development, Brookings Institution As we enter 2023, the term “ polycrisis ” is an increasingly apt way to describe today’s challenges. 1 Major wars, high inflation, and climate events are creating hardship all around the world, which is still grappling with a pandemic death toll approaching 7 million people. Faced with such daunting challenges, one might well ask why we should be thinking about the gender dimensions of recovery and resilience for future shocks. The answer is simple: We can no longer afford to think in silos. Today’s interlocking challenges demand that sharp inequalities, including gender disparities, must be addressed as part and parcel of efforts to tackle Africa’s pressing issues and ensure the continent’s future success. “We can no longer afford to think in silos. … Gender disparities, must be addressed as part and parcel of efforts to tackle Africa’s pressing issues and ensure the continent’s future success.” The burdens of the pandemic have been unequally borne across regions and countries, and between the poor and better off. Inequalities exist around gender—which can be defined as the “socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, attributes and opportunities that any society considers appropriate for men and women, boys and girls” and people with non-binary identities. 2 As Raewyn Connell laid out more than two decades ago, existing systems typically distribute greater power, resources, and status to men and behaviors considered masculine . 3 As a result, gender intersects with other sources of disadvantage, most notably income, age, race, and ethnicity. This understanding is now mainstream. As recently observed by the IMF, “The gender inequalities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic follow different paths but almost always end up the same: Women have suffered disproportionate economic harm from the crisis.” 4 Among the important nuances revealed by micro-surveys is that rural women working informally continued to work through the pandemic , but with sharply reduced earnings in Nigeria and elsewhere. 5 And as the burden of child care and home schooling soared, rural households headed by women were far less likely than urban households to have children engaged in learning activities during school closures. Important insights emerge from IFPRI’s longitudinal panel study (which included Ghana, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Uganda) covering income loss, coping strategies, labor and time use, food and water insecurity, and child education outcomes. 6 Among the especially adverse impacts for women were greater food and water insecurity compared to men, including worrying about insufficient food and eating less than usual, while a large proportion of women also did not have adequately diverse diets. Moreover, many women had to add hours to their workday caring for sick family members, and their economic opportunities shrank, cutting their earnings and widening gender income gaps. While today’s problems seem daunting, there remain huge causes for optimism, especially in Africa. Over the past three decades, many African countries have achieved enormous gains in levels of education, health, and poverty reduction. Indeed, the pace of change has been staggering and commendable. As captured in the Women Peace and Security Index , which measures performance in inclusion, justice, and security, 6 of the top 10 score improvers during the period 2017-2021 were in sub-Saharan Africa. [GIWPS.2022. “Women Peace and Security Index” Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security.] The Democratic Republic of Congo was among top score improvers since 2017, as the share of women with financial accounts almost tripled, to 24 percent; and increases exceeding 5 percentage points were registered in cell phone use and parliamentary representation. In the Central African Republic, improvements were experienced in the security dimension, where organized violence fell significantly, and women’s perceptions of community safety rose 6 percentage points up to 49 percent. Looking ahead, efforts to mitigate gender inequalities must clearly be multi-pronged, and as highlighted above—we need to think outside silos. That said, two major policy fronts emerge to the fore. Ensure cash transfers that protect against poverty , are built and designed to promote women’s opportunities, with a focus on digital payments. 7 Ways to address gender inequalities as part of social protection program responses 8 include deliberate efforts to overcome gender gaps in cell phone access by distributing phones to those women who need them, as well as private sector partnerships to subsidize airtime for the poorest, and to make key information services and apps freely available . 9 Programs could also make women the default recipient of cash transfer schemes, instead of the head of household. Furthermore, capacity-building initiatives can be built into program design to give women the skills and capabilities needed to successfully manage accounts and financial decisionmaking. 10 Reducing the risk of violence against women. Women who are not safe at home are denied the freedom from violence needed to pursue opportunities that should be afforded to all. In 2018, 10 of the 15 countries with the worst rates of intimate partner violence were in sub-Saharan Africa—in descending order of average intimate partner violence these were, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Zambia, Ethiopia, Liberia, South Sudan, Djibouti, and Uganda. “As the burden of child care and home schooling soared, rural households headed by women were far less likely than urban households to have children engaged in learning activities.” Conflicts and crises multiply women’s risk of physical, emotional, and sexual violence . During the pandemic, risk factors like economic stress were compounded by service closures and stay-at-home orders, which increased exposure to potential perpetrators. 11 Several governments responded by strengthening existing help services , including police and justice, supporting hotlines, ensuring the provision of psychological support, and health sector responses. 12 Examples of good practice included an NGO in North-Eastern Nigeria, which equipped existing safe spaces with phone booths to enable survivors to contact caseworkers. However, given the high levels of prevalence and often low levels of reporting, prevention of gender-based violence is key. Targeted programs with promising results in prevention include community dialogues and efforts to change harmful norms, safe spaces, as well as possibilities to reduce the risk of violence through cash plus social protection programs. These efforts should be accompanied by more systematic monitoring and evaluation to build evidence about what works in diverse settings. Finally, but certainly not least, women should have space and voices in decisionmaking. This case was powerfully put by former President Sirleaf Johnson in her 2021 Foresight essay, which underlined that “ economic, political, institutional, and social barriers persist throughout the continent, limiting women’s abilities to reach high-level leadership positions .” 13 Persistent gender gaps in power and decision-making, not only limits innovative thinking and solutions, but also the consideration of more basic measures to avoid the worsening of gender inequalities. Overcoming these gaps in power and decision-making requires safeguarding legal protections and rights, investing in women and girls financially, and opening space for women in political parties so that women have the platforms to access high-level appointed and competitive positions across national, regional, and international institutions. 14 Strengthening fiscal policy for gender equality Senior Fellow, Center for Sustainable Development, Global Economy and Development, Brookings Institution Research Analyst, Center for Sustainable Development, Global Economy and Development, Brookings Institution It is often said that women act as “shock absorbers” during times of crisis; this is even more so in the current context of climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and increased geopolitical conflict. These three global crises have simultaneously stretched women’s ability to earn income and intensified their unpaid work. Well-designed fiscal policy can help cushion the effects of these shocks and enable women and their households to recover more quickly. Over 60 percent of employed women in Africa work in agriculture, including in small-scale food production; women are the primary sellers in food markets, and they work in other sectors such as informal trading. At the same time, women are an increasing share of entrepreneurs in countries such as Ghana and Uganda, even as they face financial and other constraints to start and grow their firms. [Africa Gender Innovation Lab (GIL). 2020. “Supporting Women Throughout the Coronavirus Emergency Response and Economic Recovery.” World Bank Group. ] In addition to earning income for their households, women bear the major responsibility for unpaid domestic activities such as cooking; collecting water and fuelwood; caring for children, elderly, and other dependents—so women are more time-poor than are men. African women and entrepreneurs have been impacted disproportionately more than men by the triple shocks mentioned earlier. Extreme weather events disrupt food production and agricultural employment, making it harder for women to earn income . 15 16 17 The pandemic and conflict in Ukraine further intensified women’s paid and unpaid activities . 18 19 Beyond climate change and the war in Ukraine, localized conflicts and insecurity in East and West Africa exposes women and girls to gender-based violence and other risks as they seek to support their families and develop new coping strategies. 20 21 22 “Responding to these shocks necessitates a large infusion of resources. In this context, fiscal policy can be deployed more smartly to advance gender equality and create an enabling environment for women to play a greater role in building their economies’ recovery and resilience.” Responding to these shocks necessitates a large infusion of resources. In this context, fiscal policy can be deployed more smartly to advance gender equality and create an enabling environment for women to play a greater role in building their economies’ recovery and resilience. Public expenditure supports critical sectors such as education, health, agriculture, social protection, and physical and social infrastructure, while well-designed tax policy is essential to fund the public goods, services, and infrastructure on which both women and men rely. Gender-responsive budgets, which exist in over 30 countries across the continent, can be strengthened. Rwanda provides a good model for other countries. After an early unsuccessful attempt, Rwanda invested seriously in gender budgeting beginning in 2011. 23 24 The budget is focused on closing gaps and strengthening women’s roles in key sectors—agriculture, education, health, and infrastructure—which are all critical for short- and medium-term economic growth and productivity. The process has been sustained by strong political will among parliamentarians. Led by the Ministry of Finance, the process has financed and been complemented by important institutional and policy reforms. A constitutional regulatory body monitors results, with additional accountability by civil society organizations. However, raising adequate fiscal revenue to support a gender budget is a challenge in the current macro environment of high public debt levels, increased borrowing costs, and low levels of public savings. Yet, observers note there is scope to increase revenues through taxation reforms, debt relief, cutting wasteful public expenditure, and other means. 25 26 We focus here on taxation. Many countries are reforming their tax systems to strengthen revenue collection. Overall tax collection is currently low; the average tax-to-GDP ratio in Africa in 2020 was 14.8 percent and fell sharply during the pandemic, although it may be rebounding. 27 Very few Africans pay personal income tax or other central government taxes, 28 29 and statutory corporate tax rates (which range from 25-35 percent), are higher than even the recent OECD proposal for a global minimum tax 30 so scope for raising them further is limited. Efforts should be made to close loopholes and reduce tax evasion. As countries reform their tax policies, they should be intentional about avoiding implicit and explicit gender biases. 31 32 33 34 Most African countries rely more on indirect taxes than direct taxes, given the structure of their economies, but indirect taxes can be regressive as their incidence falls primarily on the poor. Presumptive or turnover taxes, for example, which are uniform or fixed amounts of tax based on the “presumed” incomes of different occupations such as hairdressers, can hit women particularly hard, since the burden often falls heavily on sectors where women predominate. 35 36 Property taxes are also becoming an increasingly popular way to raise revenue for local governments. The impact of these efforts on male and female property owners has not been systematically evaluated, but a recent study of land use fees and agricultural income taxes in Ethiopia finds that female-headed and female adult-only households bear a larger tax burden than male-headed and dual-adult households of property taxes. This is likely a result of unequal land ownership patterns, gender norms restricting women’s engagement in agriculture, and the gender gap in agricultural productivity. 37 “Indirect taxes can be regressive as their incidence falls primarily on the poor. Presumptive or turnover taxes … can hit women particularly hard, since the burden often falls heavily on sectors where women predominate.” Going forward, two key ingredients for gender budgeting on the continent need to be strengthened. The first is having sufficient, regularly collected, sex-disaggregated administrative data related to households, the labor force, and other survey data. Investment in the robust technical capacity for ministries and academia to be able to access, analyze, and use it is also necessary. For instance, the World Bank, UN Women, and the Economic Commission for Africa are all working with National Statistical Offices across the continent to strengthen statistical capacity in the areas of asset ownership and control, work and employment, and entrepreneurship which can be used in a gender budget. The second ingredient is stronger diagnostic tools. One promising new tool, pioneered by Tulane University, is the Commitment to Equity methodology, designed to assess the impact of taxes and transfers on income inequality and poverty within countries. 38 It was recently extended to examine the impact of government transfers and taxes on women and men by income level and other dimensions. The methodology requires standard household-level data but for maximum effect should be supplemented with time use data, which are becoming more common in several African countries. As African countries seek to expand revenue from direct taxes, lessons from higher income economies are instructive. Although there is no one size fits all approach, key principles to keep in mind for designing personal income taxes include building in strong progressivity, taxing individuals as opposed to families, ensuring that the allocation of shared income (e.g., property or non-labor income) does not penalize women, and building in allowances for care of children and dependents. 39 As noted, corporate income taxes need to eliminate the many breaks, loopholes, and exemptions that currently exist, 40 and countries might consider experimenting with wealth taxes. In terms of indirect taxes, most African countries do not have single-rate VAT systems and already have zero or reduced rates for basic necessities, including foodstuffs and other necessities. While it is important to minimize exempted sectors and products, estimates show that goods essential for women’s and children’s health (e.g., menstrual health products, diapers, cooking fuel) should be considered part of the basket of basic goods that have reduced or zero rates. 41 And while African governments are being advised to bring informal workers and entrepreneurs into the formal tax system, 42 it should be noted that this massive sector earns well below income tax thresholds and already pays multiple informal fees and levies, for instance in fees to market associations. 43 44 Lastly, leveraging data and digital technologies to improve tax administration (i.e., taxpayer registration, e-filing, and e-payment of taxes) may help minimize costs and processing time, and reduce the incidence of corruption and evasion.32 Digitalization can also be important for bringing more female taxpayers into the net, especially if digital systems are interoperable; for instance, digital taxpayer registries linked to national identification or to property registration at the local level. However, digitalization can be a double-edged sword if privacy and security concerns are not built-in from the outset. Women particularly may need targeted digital financial literacy and other measures to ensure their trust in the system. Recent shocks have worsened gender inequality in Africa. It is therefore important now, more than ever, to invest in strengthening fiscal systems to help women and men recover, withstand future shocks, and reduce gender inequalities. While fiscal policy is not the only tool, it is an important part of government action. To be effective and improve both budgeting and revenue collection, more and better data, new diagnostic tools, and digitalization will all be necessary. 1. Martin Wolf. 2022.“How to think about policy in a policy crisis”. Financial Times. 2. WTO. 2022. “Gender and Health”. World Health Organization. 3. Connell RW. 1995. “Masculinities”. Cambridge, UK. Polity Press. 4. Aoyagi, Chie.2021.“Africa’s Unequal Pandemic”. Finance and Development. International Monetary Fund. 5. WB.2022. “LSMS-Supported High-Frequency Phone Surveys”. World Bank. 6. Muzna Alvi, Shweta Gupta, Prapti Barooah, Claudia Ringler, Elizabeth Bryan and Ruth Meinzen-Dick.2022.“Gendered Impacts of COVID-19: Insights from 7 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia”. International Food Policy Research Institute. 7. Klugman, Jeni, Zimmerman, Jamie M., Maria A. May, and Elizabeth Kellison. 2020. “Digital Cash Transfers in the Time of COVID 19: Opportunities and Considerations for Women’s Inclusion and Empowerment”. World Bank Group. 8. IFPRI.2020. “Why gender-sensitive social protection is critical to the COVID-19 response in low-and middle-income countries”. International Food Policy Research Institute. 9. IDFR.2020. “Kenya: Mobile-money as a public-health tool”. International Day of Family Remittances. 10. Jaclyn Berfond Franz Gómez S. Juan Navarrete Ryan Newton Ana Pantelic. 2019. “Capacity Building for Government-to-Person Payments A Path to Women’s Economic Empowerment”. Women’s World Banking. 11. Peterman, A. et al.2020. “Pandemics and Violence Against Women and Children”.Center for Global Development Working Paper. 12. UNDP/ UN Women Tracker.2022. “United Nations Development Programme. COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker”. United Nations Development Programme. New York. 13. McKinsey Global Institute .2019. “The power of parity: Advancing women’s equality in Africa”. 14. Foresight Africa. 2022. “African Women and Girls: Leading a continent.” The Brookings Institution. 15. One recent study in West, Central Africa, East and Southern Africa found that women represented a larger share of agricultural employment in areas affected by heat waves and droughts, and a lower share in areas unaffected by extreme weather events. Nico, G. et al. 2022. “How Weather Variability and Extreme Shocks Affect Women’s Participation in African Agriculture.” Gender, Climate Change, and Nutrition Integration Initiative Policy Note 14. 16. Carleton, E. 2022. “Climate Change in Africa: What Will It Mean for Agriculture and Food Security?” International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). 17. Nebie, E.K. et al. 2021. “Food Security and Climate Shocks in Senegal: Who and Where Are the Most Vulnerable Households?” Global Food Security, 29. 18. Sen, A.K. 2022. “Russia’s War in Ukraine Is Taking a Toll on Africa.” United States Institute of Peace. 19. Thomas, A. 2020. “Power Structures over Gender Make Women More Vulnerable to Climate Change.” Climate Change News. 21. Kalbarczyk, A. et al. 2022. “COVID-19, Nutrition, and Gender: An Evidence-Informed Approach to Gender Responsive Policies and Programs.” Social Science & Medicine, 312. 22. Epstein, A. 2020. “Drought and Intimate Partner Violence Towards Women in 19 Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa During 2011-2018: A Population-Based Study.” PLoS Med, 17(3). 23. Stotsky, J. et al. 2016. “Sub-Saharan Africa: A Survey of Gender Budgeting Efforts. IMF Working Paper 2016/512. 24. Kadama, C. et al. 2018. Sub-Saharan Africa.” In Kolovich, L. (Ed.), Fiscal Policies and Gender Equality (pp. 9-32). International Monetary Fund (IMF). 25. Ortiz, I. and Cummins, M. 2021. “Abandoning Austerity: Fiscal Policies for Inclusive Development.” In Gallagher, K. and Gao, H. (Eds.), Building Back a Better Global Financial Safety Net (pp. 11-22). Global Development Policy Center. 26. Roy, R. et al. 2006. “Fiscal Space for Public Investment: Towards a Human Development Approach.” 27. ATAF, 2021. 28. Moore, M. et al. 2018. “Taxing Africa: Coercion, Reform and Development. Bloomsbury Publishing. 29. Rogan, M. 2019. 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Komatsu, H. et al. 2021. “Gender and Tax Incidence of Rural Land Use Fee and Agricultural In¬come Tax in Ethiopia.” Policy Research Working Papers. 38. Lustig, N. 2018. “Commitment to Equity Handbook: Estimating the Impact of Fiscal Policy on Inequality and Poverty.” Brookings Institution Press. 39. Grown, C. and Valodia, I. 2010. “Taxation and Gender Equity: A Comparative Analysis of Direct and Indirect Taxes in Developing and Developed Countries.” Routledge. 40. Cesar, C. et al. 2022. “Africa’s Pulse: An Analysis of Issues Shaping Africa’s Economic Future.” World Bank. 41. Woolard, I. 2018. Recommendations on Zero Ratings in the Value-Added Tax System. Independent Panel of Experts for the Review of Zero Rating in South Africa. 42. It is important to distinguish between firms and individuals that are large enough to pay taxes but do not (which include icebergs, e.g., which are registered and therefore partially visible to tax authorities but do not pay their full obligations) and ghosts, e.g., those which should register to pay but do not and there invisible to tax authorities) and firms and individuals that are small and potentially but not necessarily taxable such as street vendors and waste pickers. Rogan, M. (2019). “Tax Justice and the Informal Economy: A Review of the Debates.” Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing Working Paper 14. 44. Ligomeka, W. 2019. “Expensive to be a Female Trader: The Reality of Taxation of Flea Market Trad¬ers in Zimbabwe.” International Center for Tax and Development Working Paper 93. By Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi explores the role of gender equality in Africa’s economic development. By Cina Lawson Cina Lawson describes Togolese initiatives to expand the reach of social protection. By Malado Kaba Malado Kaba identifies four priorities for governments to transform the informal sector and economic prospects for African women. By J. Jarpa Duwuni J. Jarpa Dawuni identifies priority areas to expand access to justice for women and girls in Africa. Next Chapter 06 | Climate Change Adapting to a new normal Foresight Africa: Top Priorities for the Continent in 2023 On January 30, AGI hosted a Foresight Africa launch featuring a high-level panel of leading Africa experts to offer insights on regional trends along with recommendations for national governments, regional organizations, multilateral institutions, the private sector, and civil society actors as they forge ahead in 2022. Africa in Focus What should be the top priority for Africa in 2023? BY ALOYSIUS UCHE ORDU Aloysius Uche Ordu introduces Foresight Africa 2023, which outlines top priorities for the year ahead and offers recommendations for supporting Africa at a time of heightened global turbulence. Foresight Africa Podcast The Foresight Africa podcast celebrates Africa’s dynamism and explores strategies for broadening the benefits of growth to all people of Africa. Media Relations Terms and Conditions Privacy Policy Let’s seize the opportunity to further gender equity in Bangladesh Published on 27 August 2024 BRAC Institute of Governance and Development The Bangladesh national elections in January 2024 had dashed any hopes for political reform as the Awami League party’s power remained unchallenged and civic space, including the space to seek greater gender equality, was shrinking daily. Now that the Awami League and its leader Sheikh Hasina has been overthrown , is this an opportunity to bring about greater gender justice in Bangladesh? Our research in Bangladesh with IDS under the Sustaining Power (SUPWR) and Countering Backlash programmes shows that various gender justice struggles seeking to bring about gender-equal changes in policies, laws or the enforcement of existing laws and policies in women’s favour, found the previous government policy makers deprioritised the gender justice agenda. This lack of engagement came out strongly in our new research on the reform of the Hindu family law that disadvantages Hindu women, and on online gender base violence and safety of feminist activists on-line (publications forthcoming). The student-led Anti-Discrimination Movement , which has led to a new interim government in Bangladesh may have created new opportunities for furthering gender justice, both in the way it is unfolding and as part of its goal to ensure state reform that addresses the structural causes of authoritarianism, centralisation of power, corruption and injustice. Women’s participation in the Anti-Discrimination Movement Female high school and university students had a visible and significant presence in the anti-discrimination movement. Without their participation and involvement, the struggle might have failed. In July 2024, during critical points of the movement, the female students in the residential halls of the public universities found it easy to organise and came out en masse to show support for change. For example, after the brutal attacks on protesting students on 15 July by the ruling party cadres and the police, the female students from Ruqayyah Hall, at Dhaka University led the counter protests, coming out of the dormitory at midnight armed with steel plates, spoons, and ladles making noise and chanting slogans. They were quickly joined students from other female dormitories and then the male students. Women students were united in their protests across social divides- whether they wore hijabs, traditional Bengali (sari or shalwar kameez) or western attire, were from the capital city or more remote areas. The protests were as safe, or as dangerous, for a young woman to come out as for a young man. Women were seen marching against the police and the armed student cadres, being beaten, carrying sticks, protecting their male and female companions from attacks the police, physically trying to stop police vans and painting graffiti on walls. There were images of women protesters wounded and killed. It is an established tactic of student politics to put women at the front of marches, feeling that they are less likely to be physically attacked. However, the brutal attacks on female students in 2024 breaks the stereotypes of the ‘delicate frail females’ who would not be beaten and who are too frail to fight back. Legacy of previous struggles and family support What increased female participation? At the university level there are almost equal numbers of women and men among students. The frustrations and demands which mobilised the students were felt keenly by both women and men. Women also has support from their peers, family and from society. The legacy of earlier movements also influenced female participation. Earlier protests have has women participating in visible and large numbers at all stages of movements from the Shahbagh movement for punishment for liberation war criminals to the more recent protests for road safety (2018) or movements such as Rage Against Rape (2020 ). But in July–August 2024 the numbers of women present in the protests seems to have beaten all previous records. The women involved in the movement were not only students. It included parents, both fathers and mothers of the students who rallied after the violence perpetrated against them. Older women of all backgrounds, many of whom had never protested on the streets before, came out, persuaded to do so by young family members. Female artists , performers, civil society actors , lawyers , teachers were vocal in showing their support for change. Gender justice in political transitions While women were fully involved in the movement, once things settle down, would they hold leadership roles?  Nusrat Tabassum, one of the female student Coordinators of the movement said in a CPD discussion on  August 14 2024 that when one type of discrimination would be addressed, other types would automatically be addressed too. Unfortunately, we know from history that gender discrimination often gets the least priority in political transitions. In the period between when the former Prime Minister fled and the Interim Government was formed, the male student coordinators appeared to play a leadership role. Many women’s groups and others questioned if the female leadership was overlooked. On 8 August 2024 I attended a protest organised by “Khubdo Nari Samaj” (Angry Women) with the question “what about female representation?”. The interim government has been formed through negotiations with political parties and the student movement, mediated by the army. The interim government includes four women civil society leaders but no female student representative s. A different future for women of Bangladesh? The Anti-Discrimination Student Movement has not yet articulated any objectives directly related to gender justice. But the female coordinator’s have articulated demands for ending gender based violence and harassment free campus and society. The initial demand for quota reform wanted removal of 30 percent quota reserved for freedom fighters and their descendants, so government jobs were available based on merit. This led to abolishing the quota for recruitment of women as well, as the female students felt that they can compete based on merit and did not need preferential treatment. This reading of the situation is yet to be backed by any kind of review of employment statistics. A greater concern is that while women are recruited, retention of women in the service has been difficult; this is where gender biases tend to come in. The Anti-Discrimination Movement envisages state reform to set in place legal frameworks, structures and processes based on principles of antidiscrimination, accountability to citizens and representation of all interest groups, to be safeguarded. There are discussions on constitutional reforms. The women’s movement has long advocated for the removal of the 8 th Amendment which made Islam the State religion. The argument forwarded by the women’s movement was that religion itself is discriminatory towards women, particularly the religious family laws that govern women’s private lives. Further gender equity needed Article 28 (2) of the Bangladesh constitution states that “Women shall have equal rights with men in all spheres of the State and of public life”, but therefore by implication, not equality in private life. Women’s groups have long demanded changes in the electoral system for fair representation. Discussion on changes to the electoral system stressed that the first-past-the-post system should be replaced by proportional representation. This could also mean mandatory inclusion of women in the electoral lists for positions where there is a fair chance of their being elected. These are just few examples of what changes are needed to further gender equity in Bangladesh. Unless women of all generations can make their voices heard and have a seat at the table there is a risk that the opportunities offered by the present critical juncture will be lost. The gender dimension of every single reform needs to be identified, debated and addressed. There is an urgent need to bring together women’s rights activists’ past experience of analysis and advocacy in each of these areas with the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement’s energy and determination, so that we can bring about systemic and sustainable change. Maheen Sultan is a Senior Fellow of Practice and Head of the Gender and Social Development cluster, BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD).  About this opinion Programmes and centres, related content, gen z are ready to help build a new future for bangladesh. 15 August 2024 Changing citizen-state relations in Bangladesh 20 August 2024 Countering Backlash: Reclaiming Gender Justice Sustaining power: women’s struggles against contemporary backlash in south asia. 319 IMAGES Sample essay on examples of gender inequality in the uk Gender Inequality Essay 2 Gender Inequality: Causes and Impacts Free Essay Example Essay on Gender Inequality Gender Inequality Essay Based on "The Story of an Hour" and "Boys and Essay on Gender Inequality VIDEO Essay on Gender Discrimination in english// Few Sentences about Gender Discrimination Gender Inequality in European Parliaments #gender #inequality #politics #europe #datascience #italy Evaluated essay on Gender inequality UK teacher ‘loses her control’ over gender identity debate Gender inequality and issue MCQs Revision Classes by Satish sir || Female Supervisor Revision class Gender Identity & Sexual Orientation COMMENTS Gender Inequality: Causes and Impacts Gender Inequality: Causes and Impacts. Research Paper: Gender Inequality. For many centuries, men have been the dominant gender and women have been the minority. Men were the "breadwinners" and women just stayed home and took care of the housework and children. Women barely had any rights. Their husbands could abuse them and get away with ... Why we should still be concerned about gender inequality in the UK A 2021 survey found that only 23% of Britons consider inequality between men and women to be one of the most serious types of inequality - considerably less than the on average 33% of Europeans who view it as a serious concern in their country. [1] This is despite Great Britain being ranked only 23 rd on the World Economic Forum's Gender ... Gender inequality in the UK Gender inequality in the UK - Statistics & Facts. Choose a region: United Kingdom. The United Kingdom ranked 15th on the global gender gap index, in 2023 placing it behind other European countries ... Women, Power and Politics in the UK: What's changed in 100 years? A The report presents an opportunity to build upon findings and recommendations of the British Council's recent report on Gender equality and empowerment of women & girls in the UK: Meeting the Challenge of the Sustainable Development Goals and forms a basis for developing international discussion and dialogue about these vital issues and ... Status of women and girls in the UK since 2010 Additionally, the latest ONS data on suicides in England and Wales found that between 2010 and 2021, suicide rates had increased amongst females in the following age groups: 10 to 24 years: 2.1 to 2.5 per 100,000 females. 25 to 44 years: 4.7 to 5.7 per 100,000 females. 45 to 64 years: 5.9 to 6.4 per 100,000 females. Unequal Britain: equalities in Britain since 1945 In 2000 ECHR ruled that transsexuals' self-designated gender should have legal status and in 2002 that the British government was in breach of the human rights of trans people to marry and enjoy respect for their private lives. In 2004 the UK Gender Recognition Act gave people the legal right to live in their acquired gender, including to marry. Measuring Gender Inequality in Great Britain: Proposal for a Abstract. Tackling gender inequality is a key focus for both civil society and government policy in Great Britain (GB). Yet, there is currently no consensus on how to conceptualize or operationalize gender inequalities, nor any detailed measurement of gender inequalities at the subnational level, despite high levels of regional inequality. Gender equality in the UK: The next stage of the journey The British government, in an effort to promote gender parity, recently commissioned a report outlining a series of best practices to help women advance in their careers. It called on companies to set voluntary targets to double the number of women on FTSE 100 boards over five years, from 12.5% in 2010 to 25% by 2015. Essays on gender inequality in the labour market The final paper studies whether technological change increases gender inequality. Using individual-level data from around 28 million individuals in 20 European countries and an instrumental variable strategy, the study provides the first large-scale evidence concerning the impact of industrial robots on the gender gap in earnings. We need a regional picture of gender inequality in the UK Background. Gender inequality remains a tenacious problem in the UK, affecting multiple dimensions of women and men's lives — from the gender pay gap, the prevalence of sexual harassment and gender-based violence, to disparities in health and life expectancy. Mounting evidence shows that where people live impacts multiple socio-economic ... Gender Conference - Inequalities in the 21st Century Read more Explainer 29 March 2022. Gender inequalities in work and pay Read more Press release 4 March 2022. Barely any change to gender earnings gap in last 25 years once you account for increases in women's education Read more Events, Seminars & Conferences 6 December 2021 5 Powerful Essays Advocating for Gender Equality Activists are charting unfamiliar territory, which this essay explores. "Men built this system. No wonder gender equality remains as far off as ever.". - Ellie Mae O'Hagan. Freelance journalist Ellie Mae O'Hagan (whose book The New Normal is scheduled for a May 2020 release) is discouraged that gender equality is so many years away. Gender Inequality Essay for Students Answer 2: The gender inequality essay tells us that gender inequality impacts us badly. It takes away opportunities from deserving people. Moreover, it results in discriminatory behaviour towards people of a certain gender. Finally, it also puts people of a certain gender in dangerous situations. Share with friends. Women, equality and the UK's EU referendum: locating the gender 2. A feminist state-theoretical approach. The invisibility of gender issues and the largely strategic deployment of women in the Stay and Leave campaigns antecedent to the EU referendum have been augmented by the prominence of discourses about an alienated working class, nationalism and a 'whitelash' (Kellner, Citation 2017) in the immediate aftermath. What is Gender Inequality Introduction. Gender inequality, or in other words, gender discrimination refers to unfair rights between male and female based on different gender roles which leads to unequal treatment in life. The concept: gender inequality has been widely known in human history but not until the beginning the 20th century has the transformation of gender ... Twenty years of gender equality research: A scoping review based on a Introduction. The persistent gender inequalities that currently exist across the developed and developing world are receiving increasing attention from economists, policymakers, and the general public [e.g., 1-3].Economic studies have indicated that women's education and entry into the workforce contributes to social and economic well-being [e.g., 4, 5], while their exclusion from the ... Gender Inequalities in the UK's Higher Education Essay 3) and this shows one of the most significant transformations in the gender inequality history in the UK. However, there are several contradictions and tensions in relation to gender equality. UK academic staff statistics shows that lecturers comprise of 53% men and 47% women; 67% men and 33% women senior/principal lecturers; 83% men and 17% ... Full article: Gender equality in higher education and research In tackling gender inequalities in higher education, one mechanism that is being increasingly promoted is the implementation of Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) (European Commission, Citation 2021b). GEPs cover a wide range of thematic areas, depending on contextual/institutional factors and assessment of need, such as recruitment, selection and ... Gender Inequality in Education Gender Inequality in Education. "Gender Inequality in Education". For thousands of years, women have been deprecated for fighting their fundamental right to education. It wasn't until the 19th century that most female students were permitted to pursue higher education. Unfortunately, even when the doors to earn a college degree first ... An issue on gender inequality Gender inequality is an issue that has existed and plagued women around the world for generations. In modern times, gender inequality is more widely recognized as unacceptable than in the past. To achieve this effect, efforts have been made throughout history women and men around the world. to draw attention to these inequalities and to change ... Gender: Closing the equity gap After an early unsuccessful attempt, Rwanda invested seriously in gender budgeting beginning in 2011. 23 24 The budget is focused on closing gaps and strengthening women's roles in key sectors ... Let's seize the opportunity to further gender equity in Bangladesh The gender dimension of every single reform needs to be identified, debated and addressed. 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