Discussion time: what laws protect women’s rights in the UK?

Critical thinking, reasoning and analytical skills are essential attributes for would-be lawyers. So engaging in discussions about legal issues will form an integral part of any law degree.

Rachel Collins, a tutor with The University of Law’s Online campus, hosted a talk on The Student Room for aspiring lawyers – and anyone with a healthy appetite for debate – around how well women are protected by current legislation. 

To kick things off Rachel posed the idea that, while the law has become more effective in protecting women, it needs to get better in taking the differences between men and women into account – not to mention other aspects such as race, class, disability and sexual orientation. Here’s what The Student Room members had to say.

BurstingBubbles raised the issue of maternity leave, commenting that women are often more likely to be affected by taking time out to have a baby. 

“If a woman wants to have a child, she may worry that taking maternity leave could impact negatively on her career (I know this may happen to parents of any gender, but it’s often women),” they said. 

The Student Room member 1582 agreed and suggested a possible solution to lessen the impact of maternity leave on women’s careers. “While paternity leave exists, it's significantly shorter,” they said. “This could inadvertently push women into that caregiver role. 

“Would equality for women be more benefitted by a shared parental leave that can be taken off by either one of the parents? For example, giving the birth mother the option to return to work while her partner stays home with the baby if that's what they feel is the best dynamic for their family.”

But an anonymous poster pointed out that shared parental leave is not without its own potential pitfalls. “If the mother chose to continue with work then the father's career would be impacted,” they said. “So one of the parents’ careers would have to be impacted anyway. 

“I suppose there should be the freedom to choose who [takes the leave], but better yet if people were able to alternate their leave.” 

Rachel answered that “it would depend on the parental leave being offered and, I would imagine, depend on their company’s offering. 

“A woman’s career could be impacted in many ways – for example, a woman going back to work may feel like they do not have the same opportunities due to childcare or may feel pressured into working full-time when they want to work part-time.”

Rachel concluded the discussion, commenting that “shared parental leave is certainly something that people have argued can help to bring the opportunities and treatment of men and women in the workplace in line. This is offered by some employers, but it does not have to be, legally.”

1582 questioned whether legal consideration should be given to women experiencing the menopause. 

“What kind of legal protection (if any) is in place for menopause?” they asked. “Given this is something half the population will experience and how debilitating it can potentially be, do you think more needs to be done to protect menopausal women in the workplace?”

Rachel replied that this is a “great question,” and explained that “the government decided that this would not be a protected characteristic under the Equalities Act 2010 earlier this year. 

“But if someone is treated unfairly due to menopause it could be discrimination under, for example, age or sex.”

The Student Room member juybee offered a perspective from a different country. “Some nations are far ahead of others in the way they protect, view and treat women and their rights. But…nothing is ever safe. Rights can be given or taken away.”

“In South Korea right now, the current president is trying to abolish its Ministry of Gender Equality, which provides essential protection to women. Sexism is deeply rooted in many cultures and even religions but people aren't ready for that conversation.”

Some of the trickiest inequalities to address are those that are harder to pin down, said BurstingBubbles. As an example, they pointed to the gender pay gap. Might women receive lower pay simply because “they are less likely to ask for a pay rise?” they wondered. “I’m not sure. It feels like now there are more subtle inequalities”. 

And iL1L commented that “hidden prejudice and sexism (although it’s not even that hidden)” means that “whatever the law is on paper, a lot still needs to be done before I would say that women are actually protected equally by the law.”

Rachel agreed that “unfortunately prejudice and sexism are still within our society, irrespective of whether the law states that men and women must be treated equally.”

An anonymous member went even further, stating that “women are not protected by the law, it has proven that countless times. The mere fact that misogyny and sex-based crimes against women aren’t seen as terror or a hate crime as compared to crimes against other protected groups within society goes to show that women aren’t really a protected group. Even if the equality act of 2010 may seek to show that.”

Domestic violence and sexual abuse of women are “absolutely areas where attention is needed,” Rachel agreed later in the thread.

As Rachel commented in her opening post, “many in society would argue that women have reached the goal of equality,” thanks in part to “legislation such as the Equality Act 2010 which categorises sex as a protected characteristic”. 

However, as Rachel also posited, and the debate itself revealed, there are still many persisting areas of inequality that need to be addressed – and it will perhaps take future generations of lawyers to tackle them.

Read the discussion in full and have your say.

Rachel Collins is a tutor with The University of Law’s Online campus.

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