Two gender gap stories made the news this week, writes Gemma Tumelty. The first was to do with pay and the statistics released by the Equal Opportunities Commission that suggest the proportion of women graduates in low paid jobs has trebled. The Tories have pledged to try to break the glass ceiling on women's pay through blocking the loophole on pay disclosure. The second story was to do with men falling behind women in university admissions.
The response to both was predictable and yet utterly misplaced battle of the sexes stuff that completely missed two vital questions about the gender politics of education and skills - the first being why young men are not attaining in the first place and the second about how to redress the obvious imbalance in terms of the "value'" placed on male and female graduate skills.
Why is it that there is still an air of apology about women's achievement and no embarrassment at the blatant discrimination they face once they exit the education system? For years universities were male only, then male dominated and the minute women access its benefits in greater numbers there is only "concern" at what the funding council called men's "alienation"!
Call me a paranoid feminist, but it riles me that shock is expressed when men are outnumbered in universities, but none when we learn the proportion of women graduates in top jobs has decreased from 64 to 45% since the start of the labour government.
Sex discrimination and boys' lack of attainment at school are old stories - but neither can be allowed to continue.
The NUS Women's Campaign has been working - and will keep on working - hard to get women at work equal pay and status, and while we welcome any politicians acting on the issue, it is likely that plans to make pay more transparent will only reveal the divide more acutely. Then again diagnosis comes before cure.
The reasons why this discrimination persists must be understood and acted upon to
ensure equality. All parties have strong words on the subject. Lets see more action please.
