Literature Review Chapter
Theoretical background
Globally the centre of women’s lives is more at home compared to their men counterparts that make them to be excluded more from the larger society. This gender based exclusion can be external as in some countries that are developing or internal by the women themselves. However, the rules and norms which exist within a particular society may also exclude women from participating in certain types of paid leadership or employment positions (Anderson et al., 2005). Alternatively, the exclusion of men may be on issues concerning child care as well as the home sphere, often regarded as a woman’s territory. These differential treatments between genders are considered gender discrimination, and gender discrimination or sexism is defined as the prejudice or discrimination on basis of a person’s sex or gender (Altonji and Blank, 1999). Gender discrimination attitudes in most cases originate from traditional stereotypes of gender roles, and they usually involve the integrally held beliefs by a particular section of a society that a person of one sex is intrinsically superior to a person of the other. As a result this, discriminatory treatments ensues on various aspects of life on basis of an individual’s gender, where one gender may tend to be treated better than the other one. For instance, gender discrimination may arise in hiring practices or compensations or treatment at workplaces compared to opposite-sex peers (Arnsperger, 1999).
In the job market place, gender discrimination against women leads to a reduction of the available talent in an economy, which may negatively impact the economy. Besides that fact that gender discrimination is a universal concept, it usually takes many forms. For example, there are numerous social practices often perceived as normal from a cultural or religious point of view which irrespective of their deep historical roots may discriminate women from the economic mainstream (Correll, 2001). Therefore, it is important to note that such social practices may profoundly impact a society economically based on gender lines because they rarely give the society a chance to take advantage of the talents which are inherent among both genders. In fact, until the 20th century the system of coverture was observed by the English law, where the husband and wife were regarded as one person in law after marriage.
Gender stereotypes
Gender stereotyping is major aspect of gender discrimination mainly because it involves prejudice of a particular gender, but it particularly concerns the widely held beliefs concerning the behaviour and characteristics of men and women. Empirical studies have widely reported the presence of shared cultural beliefs that men have more social value and are considered more competent compared to their women counterparts in a number of activities. For example, according to a study carried by Fortin (2005) it was found that irrespective of age, members who were interviewed consistently rated men higher than women on a multidimensional scale of competence. Moreover, women are often considered inappropriate to execute some activities in the society both socially and professionally, which in most cases result to their preferential treatment due discriminatory approaches adopted. This has resulted to significant differences in attitudes and perceptions towards appropriate gender roles in various categories of a country’s economy. For example, according to the World Values Survey, in the case of shortage of jobs women are in most cases the ones who are significantly affected because layoffs and wage and/or salary reductions are mainly gender inclined and women are the ones who tend to be affected most (Correll, 2004).
Moreover, due to gender stereotyping there are some people who believe a stereotype threat phenomenon is likely to lower the performance of women in various tests especially those that require high quantitative skills, as a result reaffirming the stereotype that women possess inferior quantitative skills in comparison to their male counterparts. Furthermore, stereotypes also have the potential of affecting self-assessment; for instance, studies have found that specific stereotypes affect men’s and women’s perceptions concerning the considered abilities, where in most cases men consider their own ability to perform particular activities to be higher than women at the same level. These self-assessments which are gender biased have far-reaching effects, especially concerning gender discrimination regarding allocation of such activities.
Gender discrimination
Gender discrimination refers to the discrimination based on perceived or actual gender identity, where gender identity definition is that, it is the gender-related identity, mannerisms, or appearance as well as any other characteristics of an individual which are gender-related, with or without regard to the sex designated to an individual at birth. Therefore, theoretically, gender discrimination differs from sexism (Altonji and Blank, 1999). This is mainly because, considering that, sexism is prejudice on basis of biological sex, the specific discrimination addressed in gender discrimination concerns identity based orientations, including gender queer, third gender, and other persons who are non-binary identified. Prevention of gender based discrimination because of gender expression or identity has emerged the legislative system in the United Kingdom. More recently, the purpose of legislation has been stated as that of addressing the history as well as persistent, widespread discrimination on basis of gender, including unconstitutional discrimination, on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation by employers, while at the same time providing effective remedies for such gender based discriminations (Moreno et al., 2004). However, significant progress has been made so far in preventing gender based discrimination, but the myriad forms of discriminations associated with gender non-conformity are not be fully addressed by the UK’s discrimination legislations. Therefore, gender discrimination in the United Kingdom, remains a discrimination that is based on gender identity, whose codification into the United Kingdom’s legal system has remained contested, irrespective of achieving significant results on issues that are obviously gender inclined where identification is not required (Montenegro and Ricardo, 1999).
In particular, in UK there has been gender discrimination at the labour market where according to a study carried out by Lissenburgh (2001) using Human Capital Theory and National Survey Data in finding out the extent of gender discrimination at the labour market in the United Kingdom in the 1990s, the part-time female employees face numerous issues concerning their wages and/or salaries and benefits in comparison to full time female employees. Lissenburgh (2001) also notes that training, education, and experience are great influencers of the pay gap. This is attributable to human theory factors which continue to perpetuate gender based discriminations in pay gaps among employees, which can only be addressed by the government through formulation and enactment of policies which promote equal treatment between men and women in terms of pay, promotion, and treatment at workplace.
UK Discrimination Legislations
In recent generations, there have been dramatic changes among the women’s lives in the United Kingdom (UK). This is attributable to the fact that women continue to play an increasingly active role in public, political and economic life. In the United Kingdom, women account for about half (46.4%) of the people in employment, which means they make an important contribution to the economy (CEDAW, 2011). Moreover, as a result of legislative advocacy in the UK women representation in all areas of public, economic and political life has continued to increase, where they act as chairs of public bodies, heads of companies, Members of Parliament (MPs), councillors, and leaders in their local communities. This implies that since gender discrimination was previously directed towards the women, the current experiences by women are a true reflection of demographic and societal changes which are entrenched in the country’s legislations (CEDAW, 2011).
In fact, in UK today one in ten women is either from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnicities (BAME) backgrounds, and there are over 17,000 women in a civil partnership after it was introduced in 2005 and it is forecasted that by 2025 there will be about 13.9 million people in civil partnership who will be over 65, of whom 54% or 7.5 million, will be women (CEDAW, 2011). However, due to the recognition of the UK’s Government that every one of these women is an individual, in possession of unique aspirations and ambitions to face their own particular challenges, there have been progressive legislative changes in order to ensure gender discrimination is prevented in the United Kingdom (CEDAW, 2011).
Legislative approach in UK to Prevent Gender Discrimination
Equality Act 2010
The UK Government has actively pursued legislative approach as the major strategy of preventing gender discrimination. For instance, the UK government has implemented the most of the provisions of the Equality Act, 2010. This act plays an essential in consolidating and bringing together previous anti-discrimination law in the country, including the Equal Pay Act 1970 and the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, both of which have been subsequently amended into a single legislation. Direct and indirect gender based discriminations are prohibited by the Equality Act; with certain exceptions that are lawfully permissible where appropriate (CEDAW, 2011). This legislation prevents discrimination of people on basis of characteristics such as age, disability, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership, gender reassignment, sex and sexual orientation, race, and religion or belief. However, in this paper emphasis will be focused on gender discrimination, and the UK Government uses the Equality Act to prevent gender discrimination in all sectors of the economy. The Equality Act has been essential in preventing gender discrimination, by ensuring that women are given equal rights to their male counterparts. The Equality Act has emphasised the rationale of legislation in preventing gender discrimination in UK through creation of a hierarchy of equality, which enables the UK Government to implement gender equality by mixing legislative and administrative measures (CEDAW, 2011).
There is also an inclusion of the newly integrated Public Sector Equality Duty (GED) in the Equality Act which brings together the previous Race and Disability Duties as well as the previous Gender Equality Duty (GED), which for the first time results to the extension of the coverage to age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, gender reassignment as well as pregnancy and maternity in full. The Equality Act contains provisions aimed at preventing pay secrecy clauses, to allow employees to be able to openly and freely discuss their own pay for the purpose of discovering whether there is discrimination in payment in terms of gender (CEDAW, 2011). Moreover, the Equality Duty introduces the requirement for all public bodies to have due regard to exercise their functions in the elimination of unlawful discrimination because of gender, in order to advance equality of opportunities and/or chances between men and women aimed at fostering good relations between the two genders. Furthermore, the Equality Act empowers the government of United Kingdom as well as the devolved administrations towards making regulations for the introduction of specific duties in order to enable better performance of the Equality Duty towards preventing gender discrimination (CEDAW, 2011).
Sex Discrimination Act 1975
The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 was enacted by the United Kingdom Parliament in order to protect men and women from gender based discrimination. The Act concerned training, education, employment, harassment, the provision of services and goods, and the disposal of premises. The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Gender Recognition Act 2004 also aims to prevent discrimination on grounds of gender. Amendments to the former were introduced by the Employment Act 1989, Sex Discrimination Act 1986, and the Equality Act 2006 (CEDAW, 2011).
Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003
The Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 are secondary legislation in the UK, aimed at preventing employers from unreasonably discrimination against employees on basis of perceived sexual orientation, sexual orientation, belief or religion and age. However, even though this legislation is now superseded by the Equality Act 2010, it has been critical in preventing gender based discrimination in the UK (CEDAW, 2011).
The Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002
The Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002 (c.2) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The purpose of the Act was to exempt the selection of candidates in parliamentary elections from the provisions in the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Sex Discrimination (Northern Ireland) Order 1976 that outlaw sexual discrimination. The purposes of the Act allow political parties to select candidates based on gender in an effort to increase representation of women in British politics (CEDAW, 2011).
Legislative Measures to Prevent Gender-Based Discrimination Targeting Specific Groups
Disabled women
The UK Government legislatively made a commitment towards the introduction of extra support for disabled women as part of a wider initiative aimed at all disabled people who want to become MPs, councillors or other elected officials and is works closely with organisations for the disabled women and other relevant organisations for the development of the procedures of how this support might best be offered in order to considerably prevent gender discrimination (CEDAW, 2011). Moreover, the Equality Act nowadays apply the prevention against direct gender and/or disability discrimination, particularly in the areas concerning work and/or employment, as well as access to goods, services and facilities; hence introducing the principle of indirect discrimination to disability on basis of gender; thereby providing a new form of prevention from discrimination occurring due to a person’s gender and disability (CEDAW, 2011). This legislation has been vital in making sure that gender discrimination is prevented in UK, mainly because the legislation advocates for equal treatment among individuals of both genders without preferential treatment of any gender.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGB&T) equality
The UK Government pledges commitment towards promotion and protection of LGB&T rights in the United Kingdom. For instance, there was the launch of the strategic action plan termed “Working for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equality: Moving Forward”, 2009 that was given the responsibility of setting out the specific actions the United Kingdom Government will take throughout all the public policy areas and service delivery in order to prevent gender discrimination and progress LGB&T equality. The basis of this action plan built on the commitments the Equality Act. Perhaps, this initiative was the first to publish a transgender equality action plan, as a way of making sure particular person is discriminated on basis of his or her gender (CEDAW, 2011).
Moreover, the Equality Duty requires public bodies while exercising their functions to have due regard to the need for elimination of unlawful discrimination and harassment on basis of sexual orientation and gender reassignment, for the purpose of advancing equality of opportunity between people irrespective of their gender due to the need of fostering good relations between people belonging to all genders. Furthermore, as part of the UK government’s commitment to prevent gender discrimination and progress LGB&T equality, the Government has the intention of implementing section 202 of the Equality Act which is aimed at removing the ban in Wales and England on civil partnership registrations which has been held on religious premises. When this provision is implemented it allow the concerned religious organisations wishing to host civil partnership registrations on their premises to do so rightfully and in return make sure prevention of gender discrimination is ensured (CEDAW, 2011).
