Achieving pay equality

Has anyone else noticed the increasing prevalence of rather dated female role models? You know the kind of thing: "Mum's gone to Iceland." This part of the media seems intent on taking us back about 20 years in what we used to think of as unstoppable progress towards gender equality.

As a female breadwinner for 25 years, I soon became used to being regarded as an oddity but thought this would diminish over the years alongside a similar elimination of the inequality between male and female earnings. That this hasn't happened to anything like the extent people like me had anticipated should give us all pause for thought.

In the early days of equality of opportunity legislation, I remember talking to a local authority worker who had discovered that a man she supervised was being paid more than she was. She objected and took the council to court - only to lose because the legislation only covered equivalent jobs and, as hers actually carried greater responsibility than his, it didn't apply! That woman went on to become an MEP, so she turned the experience into much longer-term work for equality.

Part of my point here isn't just about pay equality, essential though that is. I'm concerned that we will never break out of the primarily cooking, cleaning and bottle-washing role for women and the mainly out-there-fighting-woolly-mammoths role for men, and allow people some degree of flexibility and choice in their roles in work and the family, until we do have pay equality. This is important for individual wellbeing and making best use of the nation's skills and talent, but it is also vital for the upbringing of children and ensuring the next generation is healthy, well-balanced and best able to learn.

Fathers and male carers play a crucial role in their children's education, learning and development. Research by Feinstein, Desforges and others¹ demonstrates that parents' interest in their children's learning is the single greatest predictor of those children's achievement at age 16: it makes more difference than the school, the child's own abilities or the level of education or financial position of the parents. This is powerful stuff. Yet, for 'parents', many will read 'mothers', and it's true that much of the research has concentrated on female caregivers. But studies that have looked specifically at fathers have found links between dads' involvement in their children's learning and improvements in cognitive abilities, peer interactions and even health².

Their greater earning power is only one of the factors that may keep men out of the home and prevent their getting as involved as they might like with their children, but it's good when firms make a positive effort to recognise their employees' family commitments. The Flexible Working Time Directive, which requires employers to consider requests for flexible working hours for employees with caring responsibilities, has been much more successful than commentators expected, with a high proportion of requests accepted and many employers marketing their flexibility as a benefit of working for the organisation.

Take Our Children to Work Day, designed to help young people get a realistic picture of the world of work and bridge the gap between their parents' working and domestic lives, continues to thrive. The National Family Learning Festival organised every October by the Campaign for Learning is bringing increasing numbers of companies on board, supporting activities that engage families in learning together in and outside of the workplace. We are currently working with companies in the Midlands, who have committed to supporting  fathers to complete a dads' programme in work time. Schools in north London have had dramatic success in raising the achievements of previously underachieving children by engaging their fathers in a dads' project.

These things may be a drop in the ocean in the field of gender inequality in our families and communities, but it's a start!

1 Desforges C, Abouchaar A The impact of parental involvement, parental support and family education on pupil achievement and adjustment: A literature review DfES (2003); Feinstein L, Symons J "Attainment in secondary school" Oxford Economic Papers 51, 300-321 (1999)  2 Clark C Why fathers matter to their children's literacy National Literacy Trust (2009)  

Tricia Hartley is chief executive of the Campaign for Learning. She can be contacted on +44 (0)20 7930 1111 or via www.campaign-for-learning.org.uk