News In Focus
24 July 2007
Equality still a long way off
The Equal Opportunities Commission in Scotland has warned that sex equality is still generations away and wants urgent action to close the stubborn gaps that persist in pay, family life, public services, justice, safety and power.
Its report "Completing the Revolution", published today, sets out the most comprehensive ever measure of sex equality in Scotland.
The report says that although the way we live our lives has transformed dramatically in the last 30 years, the country is "living with the consequences of an unfinished social revolution".
It states: "The roles of men and women have changed at a fast pace: new mothers and fathers expect to share the upbringing of their children and both women and men want to work more flexibly and provide more support for older relatives.
"But life around us has not caught up. We are still faced with many workplaces, institutions and services designed for an age when women stayed at home, creating barriers to equality. In other areas of modern life, inequality underpins life and death issues – with one in five women in Scotland facing domestic abuse."
"Painfully slow" progress
The report also reveals that women working part-time earn 34% less per hour than men working full time. Full time female employees earn on average 14% less per hour than men. There is bad news for men as well, as they are currently only 60% as likely to work flexibly as women, even though half of working men say they would like to work more flexibly.
Drawing on over 30 years of experience, EOC Scotland has identified 21 leading indicators that measure the state of the nation in terms of sex equality.
The indicators show gender gaps across all areas of life and the report warns that at the current rate of progress, change will be painfully slow.
For example:
- the "power gap" will take almost 200 years to close and it will take up to 45 years to have a better balance of senior judges;
- the "part-time pay gap" will take 30 years to close, and the "full time pay gap" 20 years;
- the "flexible working gap" is unlikely ever to change unless further action is taken;
- the rape conviction rate is currently at an all time low of 3.9%;
- at home, the "chores gap" – the difference in the amount of time women and men spend doing housework per day – will never close, with women still spending 78% more time than men doing housework.
The report coincides with the launch of EOC Scotland’s last public campaign, "Gender Agenda", which highlights the work left to do before the transfer to the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights on 1 October.
Priorities for action
The campaign issues a call to action to complete the unfinished social revolution and speed up the pace of change. The agenda sets out the following priority areas for action to deliver equality for all women and men within 10 years, not generations:
- closing the income gap between men and women
- giving better support to families
- modernising public services so they meet men and women’s needs
- providing equal access to justice and safety
- sharing power equally between men and women.
Rowena Arshad, EOC Scotland commissioner, said: "Scotland is still a long way from being an equal nation. Today, most women work, many men no longer define themselves as breadwinners and both sexes often struggle to find the time they need to care for others in their lives.
"Inequality is affecting every part of our lives, from women who fear for their safety at night to the many men who find it hard to get a GP's appointment, affecting their long term health. Failure to act will have consequences for the social and financial health of countless individuals – as well as the nation as a whole.
"A country that channels women into low paid work, fails to adequately support families and forces people who want to work flexibly to trade down in jobs pays a high price in terms of child poverty, family breakdown and low productivity."