If anyone's interested I have some statistics for gender inequality (taken from an article, "Break that Glass", in the FT):
7/10 working-age women in the UK are in jobs, which is above the OECD avg, yet this figure has increased little since 2000
The proportion of females in full-time jobs is one of the lowest amongst developed economies
The cost of childcare in UK = highest in Europe, bar Switzerland + Ireland, inflexible work arrangements
Govt action to reduce burden on working mothers = fams with young children could receive a tax break of up to £2,000 to contribute to cost of childcare. Thus easier to share parental leave as mothers will be able to allocate their time off to fathers just 2 wks after child born.
2013 study revealed that women comprise only 19% of senior management roles, down from 23% 2 yrs ago
Female boardroom membership is at 13%, which is above the OECD avg yet below France and the Scandinavian countries
Possible solution = quotas
For example, the UK govt aims to have 25% of seats of FTSE 100 company boards filled by women, however its potential effectiveness is weakened because it's a voluntary scheme and many companies only tend to select women for non-exec roles.
Apart from that and unrelated to the article, could we mention how the Scottish Parliament provides a crèche and has manageable working hours for women? It's just something which I remember from my SG days.
Finally, if I were writing about collectivism vs individualism could I mention the debate over whether the NHS ought to treat illnesses that are the result of lifestyle choices?