Gender equality in local government: what difference does legislation make?

Freya Johnson Ross examines the influence of legislation on gender equality practice in local government since the 1980s. She draws on council documents and interviews with council workers to explain that the impact has been a positive one, but argues that the law is only part of the solution

Pay transparency and a cultural shift for real gender pay equality

This paper depicts a picture of the gender pay gap in Malta, which continued to increase to 12.2% in 2017. Recent years have seen an increase in the number of women in employment, but this has mainly been in the lower-end salary scales of the labour market and in part-time work, which have both partially contributed to a widening of the gender pay gap. Maltese women’s traditional role has been as a housemaker: even for those who were in the labour market, the expectations usually were and possibly continue to be, that it is the woman who leaves her job to take up the responsibilities of the family - children, the elderly and other relatives. Although legislation in terms of equal pay has been in place since 1976, there are many issues, which continue to impede real gender pay equality, including a patriarchal culture, strong male networks, family-friendly measures mainly taken up by females, career breaks, lack of transparency in pay structures, job segregation, and societal gender biases.peer-reviewe

Gender equality in Turkey

This note reviews gender equality in Turkey with a focus on the existing legislation and programs. The issue of gender equality in Turkey is particularly important for Turkey’s adoption of EU norms and acquis. The main challenges in this respect are violence against women, equal opportunities at the work place, paid and unpaid labour, hidden forms of discrimination and access to political decision-making and representation

The Dynamic Relationship Between Freedom of Speech and Equality

This Article examines the dynamic intersection between freedom of speech and equal protection, with a particular focus on the race and LGBT equality movements. Unlike other works on expression and/or equality, the Article emphasizes the relational and bi-directional connections between freedom of speech and equal protection. Freedom of speech has played a critical role in terms of advancing constitutional equality. However, with regard to both race and LGBT equality, free speech rights also failed in important respects to facilitate equality claims and movements. Advocacy and agitation on behalf of equality rights have also left indelible positive and negative marks on free speech doctrines, principles, and rights. The free speech-equality relationship underscores several important lessons regarding reliance on speech rights to advance constitutional equality. Moreover, through a comparative analysis, the Article demonstrates that freedom of speech intersects in distinctive ways with different types of equalities. The Article’s general lessons and comparative observations carry important implications for future equality movements, including the current campaign for transgender equality

Managing and monitoring equality and diversity in UK sport: An evaluation of the sporting equals Racial Equality Standard and its impact on organizational change

Despite greater attention to racial equality in sport in recent years, the progress of national sports organizations toward creating equality of outcomes has been limited in the United Kingdom. The collaboration of the national sports agencies, equity organizations and national sports organizations (including national governing bodies of sport) has focused on Equality Standards. The authors revisit an earlier impact study of the Racial Equality Standard in sport and supplement it with another round of interview material to assess changing strategies to manage diversity in British sport. In particular, it tracks the impact on organizational commitment to diversity through the period of the establishment of the Racial Equality Standard and its replacement by an Equality Standard that deals with other diversity issues alongside race and ethnicity. As a result, the authors question whether the new, generic Equality Standard is capable of addressing racial diversity and promoting equality of outcomes. © 2006 Sage Publications

The basis of equality

It is often said that justice requires equality. Which kind of equality justice requires is, of course, a matter of dispute: it is widely held that in a just society there must be equality before the law, and equality of opportunity; many have claimed that justice requires equality of concern for the welfare of each person; and some have argued that significant inequalities in the allocation of resources must be avoided. And, of course, many believe that justice requires public affairs to be conducted through democratic institutions-for only such arrangements express an equality of political status, and seek to provide an equality of influence

Gender Equality and Human Rights

The achievement of substantive equality is understood as having four dimensions: redressing disadvantage; countering stigma, prejudice, humiliation and violence; transforming social and institutional structures; and facilitating political participation and social inclusion. The paper shows that, although not articulated in this way, these dimensions are clearly visible in the application by the various interpretive bodies of the principles of equality to the enjoyment of treaty rights. At the same time, it shows that there are important ways in which these bodies could go further, both in articulating the goals of substantive equality and in applying them when assessing compliance by States with international obligations of equality. The substantive equality approach, in its four-dimensional form, provides an evaluative tool with which to assess policy in relation to the right to gender equality. The paper elaborates on the four-dimensional approach to equality and how it can be used to evaluate the impact of social and economic policies on women to determine how to make the economy 'work for women' and advance gender equality. The paper suggests that there is a growing consensus at the international level on an understanding of substantive equality that reflects the four dimensional framework. This paper was produced for UN Women's flagship report "Progress of the World's Women 2015-2016" and is released as part of the UN Women discussion paper series