Using equality to challenge austerity: new actors, old problems

Conley, Hazel

doi:10.1177/0950017011432906

Cited by 22 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…There is a growing literature on 'new actors' and new forms of activism on gender equality. Conley (2012) highlighted the efforts of the Fawcett Society, a British campaigning charity on women's rights, in launching a legal challenge to a government budget in 2010 on the grounds that it had a disproportionately negative effect on women. This particular intervention was unsuccessful.…”

Section: Reorganizing the Disaffectedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Running with ‘wolves’ or waiting for a happy release? Evaluating routes to gender equality

Beirne

Wilson

2015

Work, Employment and Society

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This article examines contemporary thinking about viable ways forward for gender equality at work. It questions both the lingering attachment to feminization in popular commentary and the renewed interest in positive discrimination within academic circles. Focusing on pay disparities in the public sector, it argues that greater attention should be given to the frontline agency of disadvantaged women and the material conditions that affect equality activism. Tensions in equality bargaining are highlighted, along with contradictory pressures on trade union intervention. 'Nowin-no-fee' lawyers are considered to be neglected third party agents with greater relevance for representation and mobilization than the literature typically acknowledges, some proving to be highly effective in politicizing pay inequality.

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Section: Reorganizing the Disaffectedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Running with ‘wolves’ or waiting for a happy release? Evaluating routes to gender equality

Beirne

Wilson

2015

Work, Employment and Society

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“…However, Jones et al (forthcoming) also conclude that the improvement in women's human capital has reached the limit of its capacity in enhancing women's pay as, despite higher qualifications, gender pay gaps cannot be further diminished while women remain clustered in lower paying occupations. They also identify a narrowing pay gap for public organizations, relative to private, although this ceases from 2010 onwards, raising queries over whether this represents a ‘historical shift’ or a transient phase linked to austerity (Conley, ; Conley & Page, ; Jones et al, forthcoming, p. 19).…”

Section: Pay Disparities In the Public Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

From evidence to action: Applying gender mainstreaming to pay gaps in the Welsh public sector

Parken

Ashworth

2018

Gender Work & Organization

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Progress on reducing gender disparities remains painfully slow, despite efforts to identify the determinants of gender pay gaps and specify size and shape. Recent studies highlight the need for a more nuanced account of the way that public policy shapes organizational responses and insights into the types of organizational practices that diminish pay disparities. In response, this research reports on an action research intervention in three large Welsh public organizations, subject to a unique statutory equality duty. | INTRODUCTIONGovernments around the world have identified the gender pay gap as a grand social and economic challenge, yet progress in reducing gender disparities has been limited, even in proactive equality contexts (Koskinen Sandberg, 2017;O'Reilly, Smith, Deakin, & Burchell, 2015;Rubery & Grimshaw, 2014;Saari, 2013). Academic perspectives on the gender pay debate have been vital in providing evidence on the size and nature of the pay gap (Rubery, 1978),This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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“…The public sector equality duties, a duty on public authorities to promote equality and address discrimination in the exercise of public functions, have, however, been seen as an important adjunct to individual rightsbased legislation for addressing discrimination (Squires, 2008(Squires, , 2009Fredman, 2011). Conley (2012) particularly notes the use that trade unions could make of the equality duties. Conley and Page (2010) have highlighted the importance of the specific duty to produce equality impact assessments in achieving the objectives of the equality duties.…”

Section: Equality Dutiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The changing face of employment relations: equality and diversity

Moore

Tailby

2015

Employee Relations

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore what has happened to the notion and reality of equal pay over the past 50 years, a period in which women have become the majority of trade union members in the UK. It does so in the context of record employment levels based upon women's increased labour market participation albeit reflecting their continued over-representation in parttime employment, locating the narrowed but persistent overall gender pay gap in the broader picture of pay inequality in the UK. Design/methodology/approach -The paper considers voluntary and legal responses to inequality and the move away from voluntary solutions in the changed environment for unions. Following others it discusses the potential for collective bargaining to be harnessed to equality in work, a potential only partially realised by unions in a period in which their capacity to sustain collective bargaining was weakened. It looks at the introduction of a statutory route to collective bargaining in 2000, the National Minimum Wage from 1999 and at the Equality Act 2010 as legislative solutions to inequality and in terms of radical and liberal models of equality. Findings -The paper suggests that fuller employment based upon women's increased labour market activity have not delivered an upward pressure on wages and has underpinned rather than closed pay gaps and social divisions. Legal measures have been limited in the extent to which they have secured equal pay and wider social equality, whilst state support for collective solutions to equality has waned. Its replacement by a statutory minimum wage initially closed pay gaps, but appears to have run out of steam as employers accommodate minimum hourly rates through the reorganisation of working time. Social implications -The paper suggests that statutory minima or even voluntary campaigns to lift hourly wage rates may cut across and even supersede wider existing collective bargaining agreements and as such they can reinforce the attack on collective bargaining structures, supporting arguments that this can reduce representation over pay, but also over a range of other issues at work (Ewing and Hendy, 2013), including equality. Originality/value -There are then limitations on a liberal model which is confined to promoting equality at an organisational level in a public sector subject to wider market forces. The fragmentation of bargaining and representation that has resulted will continue if the proposed dismantling of public services goes ahead and its impact upon equality is already suggested in the widening of the gender pay gap in the public sector in 2015.

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Using equality to challenge austerity: new actors, old problems

Cited by 22 publications

References 12 publications

Running with ‘wolves’ or waiting for a happy release? Evaluating routes to gender equality

Running with ‘wolves’ or waiting for a happy release? Evaluating routes to gender equality

From evidence to action: Applying gender mainstreaming to pay gaps in the Welsh public sector

The changing face of employment relations: equality and diversity

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