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Equality and Diversity

August 22nd, 2011

The week that was…

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Equality and Diversity

August 22nd, 2011

The week that was…

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

With the riots on the backburner, the unemployment situation in the UK has come into prominence. Why are women worse affected, how a manager won a £29,000 payout for sexual discrimination and what we have to look forward to – read to find out.

With the country still recuperating from the aftermath of the week long riots, statistics on unemployment figures have come in and they don’t look good. Unemployment has unexpectedly risen over the last three months by 38,000 making the total number of people unemployed in the UK 2.49 million. The Guardian reports that out of the additional 38,000 unemployed from the month of June, 21,000 are women. The young workforce is also badly affected with 20.2% of 16-24 year olds currently unemployed.

With the disproportionate number of women out of jobs, one does wonder about the possible reasons behind these skewed statistics. Some of these were explored by Amy Watson on the blog a few months back in her post on carers’ rights. Besides the fact that women are worse affected because of their high concentration in the public sector, there are other factors such as the cost of employing women.

Last week, a woman won a payout of £29,000 from a hotel in Scotland for sexual discrimination. She was demoted from the post of a full time manager earning £24,000 per year to that of a waitress two days a week on minimum wage after informing her boss that she was pregnant and that she intended to continue with the pregnancy. This had an adverse impact on her and she eventually terminated her pregnancy.

In spite of rioting and unemployment, there is one thing that the UK is very much looking forward to – Olympics and Paralympics 2012. Are Paralympics still assigned the ‘B final’ status? Dame Tanni-Grey Thompson discussed the importance of bringing Paralympics on par with the Olympics on BBC’s Hardtalk. Tanni-Grey has a record of winning 11 Paralympic Golds. Among other things, she talked about the controversy around allowing Oscar Pistorius, the ‘blade runner’, to compete in Olympics 2012.

Finally, as we start a new week and bring new blog posts to you, don’t forget to read Sara Yasin’s very interesting article on the role of women during Ramadan from last week.

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If you have a piece of information or news you’d like to be included here, please mail Asiya at a.islam1@lse.ac.uk

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Equality and Diversity

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