Positive thinking

Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi, University of Hertfordshire   The gender pay gap has been around for as long as woman have been in the workforce. No matter the reasons that get put forward as to why men get paid more than women, it generally comes back to the fact that women take on more child rearing and caring responsibilities than men. The gender pay gap in the UK stands at 18.4% in favour of men for full-time and part-time workers, according to the Office for National Statistics . But what the ONS fails to account for is the number of women on zero hours contracts. If it did, the gender pay gap would be even worse for women. Gender pay gap regulation, introduced in 2017 requires companies that employ 250 employees or more to publish annual gender pay levels in their organisations. But zero hours contract workers are not considered as employees under the law. This means that those on zero hours contracts – a group of which women make up a bigger share – are left out of...

   Nilufar Ahmed, Swansea University International Women’s Day 2018 has the theme “press for progress”. It is a “strong call to motivate and unite friends, colleagues and whole communities to think, act and be gender inclusive”. In the last few months alone, the world has been told loud and clear about the disparities, discrimination, and even danger women face every day. Campaigns such as #metoo and #timesup , which confront the legacy of predatory sexual behaviours which women are exposed to in workplaces, have been fronted by global stars and received worldwide responses and followers. But the widespread attention has highlighted an important facet that intersects the experiences of women: race. African-American civil rights activist Tarana Burke was the original voice behind the #metoo movement. She first used the hashtag in 2006 to stand against sexual violence against women, particularly underprivileged women whose voices were not heard. But the camp...