Fairness and Equality

  • Permalink Gallery

    Abortion and COVID-19: why we need to support women’s right to abortion in health emergencies

Abortion and COVID-19: why we need to support women’s right to abortion in health emergencies

Clare Wenham, Ernestina Coast, Katy Footman, Tiziana Leone, Rishita Nandagiri, and Joe Strong discuss the UK government’s apparent U-turn over medical abortion during the novel coronavirus outbreak. They draw on their own research and other evidence to make the case for women being able to take abortion medication at home, following a phone or video consultation.

On 23 March, the […]

  • Permalink Gallery

    Growing part-time employment among men: a UK success story or part-time penalty?

Growing part-time employment among men: a UK success story or part-time penalty?

Research on part‐time work has concentrated on the experiences of women but male part‐time employment is growing in the UK. Tracey Warren and Clare Lyonette find clear evidence of low‐quality male part‐time employment, when compared with men’s full‐time jobs. Men working part‐time also express deteriorating satisfaction with jobs overall and in several specific dimensions of their jobs. 

More and more […]

Budget 2020: is talk of the ‘safety net’ back?

This week’s budget included measures to mitigate the effects of COVID-19. Laura Richards-Gray identifies a change in rhetoric by new Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak in his announcements about this, but argues that much more substantial changes to welfare and social care policies would be required to repair the country’s depleted social safety net.

On Wednesday Rishi Sunak made […]

  • Permalink Gallery

    Why is the Commons so unreflective of society? Candidate selection processes are the cause and quotas the cure

Why is the Commons so unreflective of society? Candidate selection processes are the cause and quotas the cure

Drawing on rare party and survey data, Jeanette Ashe challenges many long-held assumptions about why some aspirant party candidate types are successful over others. She explains how quotas are key to addressing women’s and other marginalised groups’ descriptive underrepresentation.

Parliaments are becoming more diverse with each election. Still, no established democratic legislature, including the UK’s, descriptively represents the society it […]

  • Permalink Gallery

    How the law still restricts women’s economic opportunities

How the law still restricts women’s economic opportunities

All over the world, discriminatory laws continue to threaten women’s economic security, career growth, and work–life balance, writes Nisha Arekapudi. She draws on World Bank Group research to explain how barriers to employment and entrepreneurship at every stage of life limit equality of opportunity, creating a business environment that does not adequately support working women.
It was just 50 years ago […]

  • Permalink Gallery

    Towards a political economy of charging regimes: fines and fees in UK immigration control

Towards a political economy of charging regimes: fines and fees in UK immigration control

The extraction of revenue is an integral component of UK immigration control. Drawing on new data, Jon Burnett and Fidelis Chebe examine the functions of charging regimes as a distinct form of statecraft that contributes to the political economy of financial power, with significant implications for understandings of criminalisation and immigration enforcement.

In December 2019, the High Court ruled that […]

  • Permalink Gallery

    Gender diversity among Committee witnesses: the large variations in the Commons and why Holyrood is doing better

Gender diversity among Committee witnesses: the large variations in the Commons and why Holyrood is doing better

Hugh Bochel draws on 2017-19 data to discuss gender diversity among witnesses to select and public bill committees in the Commons, and compare these to figures from the Scottish Parliament.

The eventual end of the 2017-19 parliamentary session, followed by the very short 2019 session and the general election, has finally allowed for the publication of the Sessional Returns, […]

Women and gender in the 2019 party manifestos

Claire Annesley, Francesca Gains, and Anna Sanders offer an overview of manifesto pledges concerning women. They conclude that, while most parties are taking the diversity of women and their interests seriously, it is difficult to judge the value of their offer. 
Half of the electorate are women. Research has consistently shown that women are more likely to be floating voters […]