IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v32y2018i4p789-805.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Good, the Not So Good and the Ugly: Gender Equality, Equal Pay and Austerity in English Local Government

Author

Listed:
  • Hazel Conley

    (University of the West of England, UK)

  • Margaret Page

    (University of the West of England, UK)

Abstract

Drawing on theories of responsive and reflexive legislation and gender mainstreaming, this article examines the implementation of the gender equality duty and the Single Status Agreement in five English local authorities between 2008 and 2010. Both of these initiatives coincided with the global financial crisis. The data highlights how organizational restructuring following budget cuts resulted in the separation of these two important initiatives between equality and human resource management teams, preventing the duty from reaching the high expectations of the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Women and Work Commission. The reliance on equal pay legislation and the failure to use the gender equality duty missed an opportunity to move away from adversarial forms of legislation and towards more responsive forms of regulation of pay equality.

Suggested Citation

  • Hazel Conley & Margaret Page, 2018. "The Good, the Not So Good and the Ugly: Gender Equality, Equal Pay and Austerity in English Local Government," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 32(4), pages 789-805, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:32:y:2018:i:4:p:789-805
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017018768207
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017018768207
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017018768207?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sian Moore & Tessa Wright, 2012. "Shifting models of equality? Union Equality Reps in the public services," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(5), pages 433-447, September.
    2. Nicolas Bacon & Kim Hoque, 2012. "The Role and Impact of Trade Union Equality Representatives in Britain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 50(2), pages 239-262, June.
    3. Simon Deakin & Sarah Fraser Butlin & Colm McLaughlin & Aleksandra Polanska, 2015. "Are litigation and collective bargaining complements or substitutes for achieving gender equality? A study of the British Equal Pay Act," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 39(2), pages 381-403.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Deborah Foster, 2015. "Devolution and disabled workers: the experiences of union equality representatives in Wales," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(2), pages 153-168, March.
    2. Ivana Zilic & Helen LaVan, 2020. "Arbitration of accommodation in US workplaces: employee, stakeholder and human resources characteristics," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(5), pages 454-473, September.
    3. Gregor Murray & Christian Lévesque & Christian Dufour & Adelheid Hege, 2013. "Special Issue. Edited by: Gregor Murray, Christian Lévesque, Christian Dufour and Adelheid Hege," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 340-354, July.
    4. Verdin, Rachel & O'Reilly, Jacqueline, 2021. "A gender agenda for the future of work in a digital age of pandemics: Jobs, skills and contracts," WSI Studies 24, The Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), Hans Böckler Foundation.
    5. Ameri, Mason & Ali, Mohammad & Schur, Lisa & Kruse, Douglas L., 2019. "Disability and the Unionized Workplace," IZA Discussion Papers 12258, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Melanie Jones, 2024. "Disability and trade union membership in the UK," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 62(1), pages 28-49, March.
    7. Laura C. William, 2016. "The implementation of equality legislation: the case of disabled graduates and reasonable adjustments," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(4), pages 341-359, July.
    8. Anne‐marie Greene & Gill Kirton & Maria Koumenta & Amy Humphris, 2021. "The gender representation gap: implications for workplace union effectiveness," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 40-63, January.
    9. Susan Milner & Hélène Demilly & Sophie Pochic, 2019. "Bargained Equality: The Strengths and Weaknesses of Workplace Gender Equality Agreements and Plans in France," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 57(2), pages 275-301, June.
    10. Combet, Benita & Oesch, Daniel, 2019. "The Gender Wage Gap Opens Long before Motherhood. Panel Evidence on Early Careers in Switzerland," SocArXiv sazxj, Center for Open Science.
    11. Victor E Sojo & Melissa A Wheeler & Michelle K Ryan, 2023. "Accelerating gender and sexuality inclusion in organisations: Introduction to the special issue and academic agenda," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 48(4), pages 683-692, November.
    12. Deborah Foster & Mart Masso & Liina Osila, 2021. "Work accommodations and sustainable working: The role of social partners and industrial relations in the employment of disabled and older people in Estonia, Hungary and Poland," European Journal of Industrial Relations, , vol. 27(2), pages 149-165, June.
    13. Ian Gregory‐Smith, 2018. "Positive Action Towards Gender Equality: Evidence from the Athena SWAN Charter in UK Medical Schools," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(3), pages 463-483, September.
    14. Rolf, Steven & O'Reilly, Jacqueline & Meryon, Marc, 2022. "Towards privatized social and employment protections in the platform economy? Evidence from the UK courier sector," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(5).
    15. Martins, Pedro S. & Saraiva, Joana, 2020. "Assessing the legal value added of collective bargaining agreements," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    16. Mathew Johnson & Jill Rubery & Matthew Egan, 2021. "Raising the bar? The impact of the UNISON ethical care campaign in UK domiciliary care," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 27(3), pages 367-382, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:32:y:2018:i:4:p:789-805. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.