How Do You Close The Gender Pay Gap?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 22 February 2018
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Women earn less than men in every country in the world.
Women are now more educated than ever before. But, on average, they don't take home the same in their pay packets. And laws against discrimination in the workplace haven't been enough to close the gap.
This inequality in wages has proven difficult to shift. Governments, employers and unions are struggling to find solutions to this stubborn and deep-rooted problem. How do you close the gender pay gap?
Presenter: Krupa Padhy Producers: Josephine Casserly and Nicola Kelly
(image: Women from Dawson Street Child Care take part in a protest march as part of a campaign for equal pay in Melbourne, Australia. Credit: Scott Barbour/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the inquiry on the BBC World Service with me group |
| 0:04.8 | party. Each week we bring you four expert witnesses answering one |
| 0:10.0 | pressing question from the news. On the news, on almost and through. |
| 0:17.0 | On the 24th of October 1975, 90% of Iceland's women went on strike to protest against the gender pay gap. |
| 0:33.0 | The nation was paralyzed. |
| 0:36.0 | Banks, factories and schools all had to close. |
| 0:40.0 | Men were forced to take their children to work with them. |
| 0:43.6 | Offices gather sweets, colour pens and paper to keep the youngsters busy. |
| 0:48.6 | Kids could be heard playing in the background whilst the news was read on the radio. Meanwhile 25,000 women gathered |
| 0:56.9 | in the center of Reykjavik. From grandmothers in their finest to school girls in their uniforms. |
| 1:03.0 | Women from all walks of life came together to listen to speeches, debates and sing songs. |
| 1:09.0 | They were invigorated. The women's |
| 1:13.0 | women came. |
| 1:15.0 | The women's |
| 1:16.0 | and came. |
| 1:18.0 | The women's march was one of the world's most significant and recent history. |
| 1:27.0 | But Iceland's not the only country where women have taken to the streets to challenge the gender pay gap. |
| 1:34.6 | And an increasing number of companies are making the headlines as they tackle their own gender |
| 1:39.7 | pay disputes. |
| 1:41.4 | From the taxi agency Uber and the Budget Airlines EasyJet to even here at the BBC. |
| 1:47.0 | The latest predictions from the World Economic Forum find that at the current rate of change women will have to wait 217 years |
| 1:56.8 | to close the gender gap in the workplace. So why over 40 years since Iceland's first March are women around the world still |
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