The Government has a manifesto commitment to introduce a Single Equality Bill during this parliament. It should streamline and simplify all the different areas of discrimination law which have developed in a piecemeal fashion over the last 40 years. But why do we need it and will it really mean equality for women? Golf clubs banning women from bars, the right to breastfeed in public, equal pay and the under-representation of women in positions of power are all issues which will be considered before the consultation period ends in September.
Ritula discusses the proposed bill and whether it will be radical enough with Dr Phyllis Starkey, Labour MP for Milton Keynes South West and Chair of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee and Joanne Conaghan from the AHRC Research Centre for Law, Gender and Sexuality at the University of Kent.
