Gender

The Gender Equality Duty came into force from 6 April 2007 and requires public authorities to adopt a proactive approach and to promote gender equality in employment, service delivery and community engagement. All public authorities were required to have Gender Equality Scheme in place by 30^th April 2007.

Gender Equality Duty

The Duty to promote gender equality is made up of two parts:

General Duty

The general duty requires that all public authorities in carrying out their functions should:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment
• Promote equality of opportunity between men and women

Specific Duty

In addition to the general duty, public authorities are required to comply with the specific duties, which are:

• To prepare and publish a Gender Equality Scheme (GES) setting out gender equality objectives
• To consider the need to include objectives to address the causes of any gender pay gap
• To gather and use information on how the public authority’s policies and practices affect gender equality in the workforce and in the delivery of services
• To consult stakeholders (i.e employees, service users and others including trade unions) and take account of relevant information in order to determine its gender equality objectives
• To assess the impact of its current an proposed policies and practices on gender equality

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Page updated: 27 Jan 2008