gender inequality in uk essay

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Chelsea Phipps

November 15th, 2021, why we should still be concerned about gender inequality in the uk.

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As anyone who has tried their hand at measuring impact will know, this is no small feat. And when it comes to charitable giving, how should donors decide where their funding can have the most positive influence?

It is this question, amongst others, that I am excited to be working on as part of my mentorship for a Capstone Project team of current MPA students at LSE as we undertake a sector analysis for a client who would like to develop their funding strategy for the gender quality sector in the UK.

With a view toward understanding how to maximise impact, this team’s work will help build a foundational understanding of the sector, its main actors, the main efforts in the field, and where there are gaps. The project will have a particular focus on the role of existing movements in the sector.

Work on this issue is particularly critical now because very few British people view gender inequality as one of the most serious types of inequality in Great Britain . A 2021 survey found that only 23% of Britons consider inequality between men and women to be one of the most serious types of inequality – considerably less than the on average 33% of Europeans who view it as a serious concern in their country. [1] This is despite Great Britain being ranked only 23 rd on the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index. [2]

This is not to say we haven’t made progress. The gender pay gap has decreased, there are more women in higher-paid occupations, and gender inequality in political representation is decreasing. [3] Girls are even outperforming boys at school and women are more likely to enrol in higher education than men. [4]

But while some of the averages on metrics might be improving, progress has been uneven. For some women and girls, particularly those in poorer communities and for women and girls of colour, things have actually become worse. This has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to disproportionate burdens for women.

When people think the job is done and gender equality is a problem for elsewhere, our progress on the issue will stagnate. And the job is far from done :

• Women are less likely to be employed full-time with a rate of 45% compared to 61% of men
• 41% of women provide care for children, grandchildren, older people, or people with a disability compared to 25% of men
• Less than a third of members of parliament are women
• 85% of women cook and/or do housework every day, compared to 49% of men.
• Only 35% of board members for the largest publicly listed companies are women. [5]
• Only 35% of counsellors in England are women. At the current rate, we won’t achieve gender equality in local councils until 2077. [6]

Unsurprisingly , inequalities between genders are even more acute when they intersect with racial inequalities . According to a literature review, The Pay and Progression of Women of Colour , released in September by the Fawcett Society and the Runnymede Trust, in Britain:

• Black girls are twice as likely to be permanently excluded at school compared to white girls.
• Ethnic minority candidates had to send 60% more applications to enter the workforce to receive as many call backs as white people.
• One-third of women of colour say they’ve been unfairly passed over for or denied a promotion at work.
• Women make up only 6% of CEOs of FTSE 100 companies and 35% of civil service permanent secretaries – yet none of these are women of colour.

Achieving gender equality – particularly for those facing intersectional inequalities –isn’t just a question of justice. Increased equality leads to a multitude of positive outcomes for everyone : a stronger economy as women’s participation in work increases and the pay gap decreases, higher levels of peace and stability, better health outcomes given women (particularly women of colour) receive worse medical care than men, more productive and innovative companies, and less poverty. Empowering women also creates a multiplier effect by benefitting multiple generations as women tend to play a greater role in the health and well-being of both children and older generations.

A 2021 survey on what British people think are some of the most serious types of inequality in Great Britain showed that the highest shares of respondents selected income and wealth inequality (56%) and inequality between more and less deprived areas (51%). These forms of inequality are all interconnected: improving gender equality would also help improve wealth and spatial inequalities, the latter of which compound gender inequality.

Among the many culprits for why we haven’t yet achieved gender equality in the UK are social norms, bias, and stereotyping . Survey research has shown that boys and girls as young as the ages of 7-11 have already established gendered career aspirations; for example, boys are 20 times more likely to want to be an engineer or architect. [7] Women and girls – particularly if they are ethnic minorities – also face higher rates of harassment and violence, particularly in workplace or educational settings.

What would it take to change the harmful stereotypes in Britain that help keep inequalities entrenched? To begin to answer this question, the MPA Capstone group will explore the role of movements in achieving progress on gender equality.

We know that social movements have played a key role toward shifting behaviour, attitudes, and policy on many social issues. For example, women in Britain won equal voting rights in 1928 thanks to its famous suffragette movement led by Emmeline Pankhurst. Research has shown that movements have been associated with successful policy outcomes: data from 1975-2005 from studies on 70 countries has shown that there have been more comprehensive government responses to violence against women in countries with stronger women’s movements on the issue. [8]

Movements have the potential to build popular support, to apply political pressure on governments, but also to reframe an issue, including reframing whose issue it is. Widely supported movements can demonstrate that an issue isn’t just a concern of the few, it’s a concern of the many.

But movements are only one of many possible ways of effecting change; what works best differs based on the context. The MPA students will use their research to try to evaluate the impact of different approaches in the sector with a particular focus on determining the extent to which social movements can be a critical lever for change for progressing gender equality in the UK.

I look forward to working with these students to help their client develop a funding strategy that maximises impact on progress toward gender equality. Given what’s at stake and the benefits progress on gender equality would bring, I hope everyone can see why we should all be concerned.

[1] Duffy, B., Murkin, G., Hewlett, K., Benson, R., & Hesketh, R. (2021). Inequalities around the globe: what the world sees as most serious. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/149731100/inequalities_around_the_globe_final.pdf

[2] Cowper-Coles, M., Glennie, M., Mendes Borges, A., & Schmid, C. (Oct. 2021). Bridging the gap? An analysis of gender pay gap reporting in six countries.” https://www.kcl.ac.uk/giwl/assets/bridging-the-gap-full-report.pdf

[3] Equality and Human Rights Commission (2019). Is Britain Fairer? The state of equality and human rights in 2018. https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/is-britain-fairer-accessible.pdf

[4] Cowper-Coles, M., Glennie, M., Mendes Borges, A., & Schmid, C. (Oct. 2021). Bridging the gap? An analysis of gender pay gap reporting in six countries.” https://www.kcl.ac.uk/giwl/assets/bridging-the-gap-full-report.pdf

[5]  European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE). 28 October 2020. Gender Equality Index 2020. https://eige.europa.eu/publications/gender-equality-index-2020-united-kingdom

[6] Fawcett Society. 2021. We won’t see gender equality in local councils until 2077 – new data shows. https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/News/local-council-data-2021

[7] Equality and Human Rights Commission (2019). Is Britain Fairer? The state of equality and human rights in 2018. https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/is-britain-fairer-accessible.pdf

[8] Horn, Jessica. 2013. Gender and social movements: overview report. BRIDGE. https://www.ludenet.org/projects-files/6/resources/gender-and-social-movements-overview-report-2013-206.pdf

About the author

Chelsea Phipps is a Practitioner in Residence at the LSE Marshall Institute

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07 April 2021

We need a regional picture of gender inequality in the UK

Caitlin schmid.

We're working on an index to build our understanding of these disparities

A UK sub-national gender equality index: challenges in developing a conceptual framework

Read the briefing

Gender inequality remains a tenacious problem in the UK, affecting multiple dimensions of women and men’s lives — from the gender pay gap, the prevalence of sexual harassment and gender-based violence, to disparities in health and life expectancy. Mounting evidence shows that where people live impacts multiple socio-economic outcomes, highlighting the importance of capturing regional variations in gender inequality across the UK. Yet to date, no measure of gender inequality exists below the national level, leaving gaps in our knowledge of women and men’s differential experiences.

To address this, the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership is leading a project, funded by the King’s Together Seed Fund, to pilot an index measuring regional variation in gender inequality across the UK. Combining data from surveys, administrative resources and big data, the index will measure how differently women and men’s experiences are structured according to where they live. In turn, this will facilitate evaluation of campaigns and policy interventions addressing gender inequality as well as helping researchers investigate its relevance to other outcomes.

In the first phase of this project, a stakeholder workshop was organised in November 2020 to consult both leading experts and potential users on the conceptual framework of a sub-national gender equality index. A central aim of the workshop was to identify the key indicators relevant to the gender inequality context across the UK that should be included. The process of selecting concrete measures and assessing their usefulness further led to a fruitful discussion of the opportunities and challenges involved in the development of this index. These related to intersectionality, data availability and quality, relative vs. absolute levels of equality, the level of measurement and the aggregation of scores.

The workshop collaboration resulted in the formulation of six guiding principles for the development of a useful sub-national UK gender equality index:

• Identifying differences on the local area level could sharpen the focus on gender inequalities across the UK and strengthen the evidence base for local campaign groups and policy makers. Complex trade-offs between different definitions of “local” were revealed, however. These are dependent on data availability, spatial variation, policy relevance and scope for actionability. To identify the most appropriate and feasible level of measurement, these factors need to be examined further.
• Relevant domains to include in the index are: Power & Participation, Education & Skills, Economic Resources, Unpaid Work & Care, and Violence.
• Adopting an intersectional approach is crucial to shedding light on the multiple manifestations of gender inequality as well as its intersection with other forms of inequality across the UK.
• To guarantee conceptual adequacy and maximise index usability, the UK needs to increase efforts to collect reliable data disaggregated by protected characteristics on both the national as well as the local level.
• Alongside gender differences (i.e. relative levels), the index should aim to capture regional variation in achievement levels of both women and men (i.e. absolute levels).
• Whether the index combines the indicator values into an overall score for each local area or keeps them disaggregated, it is essential that the underlying data are easily accessible and interpretable. This will facilitate analysis of local area differences in absolute levels of achievement and increase the relevance and usefulness of the index for policy, research and activism purposes.

Benefits and opportunities

If the above principles can be fulfilled, a sub-national UK gender equality index would offer a bespoke tool to measure gender inequality while also capturing its geographical variation. This index would fill a gap by combining gender-differentiated indicators across relevant dimensions of gender equality in the UK.

The evidence it generates could help evaluate policy interventions aimed at tackling gender inequalities, as well as helping to better target limited resources. Finally, the index could help strengthen a dialogue between regions, local authorities or neighbourhoods, facilitating knowledge-sharing of effective policy strategy and gender equality campaigns which is of particular interest in the context of devolution.

Taken together, the multiple benefits signal that the development of a UK sub-national gender equality index following the above principles would offer a valuable resource to policymakers, researchers and activists across the UK.

Caitlin Schmid is a Research Assistant at the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, King’s College London, and a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Manchester.

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This study provides an overview of the current status of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in the UK in relation to the global commitments to achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

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Background 

In January 2016, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) began guiding policy and funding for the following 15 years, beginning with a historic pledge to end global poverty everywhere, permanently. 

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What does gender equality look like today?

Date: Wednesday, 6 October 2021

Progress towards gender equality is looking bleak. But it doesn’t need to.

A new global analysis of progress on gender equality and women’s rights shows women and girls remain disproportionately affected by the socioeconomic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, struggling with disproportionately high job and livelihood losses, education disruptions and increased burdens of unpaid care work. Women’s health services, poorly funded even before the pandemic, faced major disruptions, undermining women’s sexual and reproductive health. And despite women’s central role in responding to COVID-19, including as front-line health workers, they are still largely bypassed for leadership positions they deserve.

UN Women’s latest report, together with UN DESA, Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2021 presents the latest data on gender equality across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The report highlights the progress made since 2015 but also the continued alarm over the COVID-19 pandemic, its immediate effect on women’s well-being and the threat it poses to future generations.

We’re breaking down some of the findings from the report, and calling for the action needed to accelerate progress.

The pandemic is making matters worse

One and a half years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, the toll on the poorest and most vulnerable people remains devastating and disproportionate. The combined impact of conflict, extreme weather events and COVID-19 has deprived women and girls of even basic needs such as food security. Without urgent action to stem rising poverty, hunger and inequality, especially in countries affected by conflict and other acute forms of crisis, millions will continue to suffer.

A global goal by global goal reality check:

Goal 1. Poverty

In 2021, extreme poverty is on the rise and progress towards its elimination has reversed. An estimated 435 million women and girls globally are living in extreme poverty.

And yet we can change this .

Over 150 million women and girls could emerge from poverty by 2030 if governments implement a comprehensive strategy to improve access to education and family planning, achieve equal wages and extend social transfers.

Goal 2. Zero hunger

The global gender gap in food security has risen dramatically during the pandemic, with more women and girls going hungry. Women’s food insecurity levels were 10 per cent higher than men’s in 2020, compared with 6 per cent higher in 2019.

This trend can be reversed , including by supporting women small-scale producers, who typically earn far less than men, through increased funding, training and land rights reforms.

Goal 3. Good health and well-being

Disruptions in essential health services due to COVID-19 are taking a tragic toll on women and girls. In the first year of the pandemic, there were an estimated 1.4 million additional unintended pregnancies in lower and middle-income countries.

We need to do better .

Response to the pandemic must include prioritizing sexual and reproductive health services, ensuring they continue to operate safely now and after the pandemic is long over. In addition, more support is needed to ensure life-saving personal protection equipment, tests, oxygen and especially vaccines are available in rich and poor countries alike as well as to vulnerable population within countries.

Goal 4. Quality education

A year and a half into the pandemic, schools remain partially or fully closed in 42 per cent of the world’s countries and territories. School closures spell lost opportunities for girls and an increased risk of violence, exploitation and early marriage .

Governments can do more to protect girls education .

Measures focused specifically on supporting girls returning to school are urgently needed, including measures focused on girls from marginalized communities who are most at risk.

Goal 5. Gender equality

The pandemic has tested and even reversed progress in expanding women’s rights and opportunities. Reports of violence against women and girls, a “shadow” pandemic to COVID-19, are increasing in many parts of the world. COVID-19 is also intensifying women’s workload at home, forcing many to leave the labour force altogether.

Building forward differently and better will hinge on placing women and girls at the centre of all aspects of response and recovery, including through gender-responsive laws, policies and budgeting.

Goal 6. Clean water and sanitation

In 2018, nearly 2.3 billion people lived in water-stressed countries. Without safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and menstrual hygiene facilities, women and girls find it harder to lead safe, productive and healthy lives.

Change is possible .

Involve those most impacted in water management processes, including women. Women’s voices are often missing in water management processes. 

Goal 7. Affordable and clean energy

Increased demand for clean energy and low-carbon solutions is driving an unprecedented transformation of the energy sector. But women are being left out. Women hold only 32 per cent of renewable energy jobs.

We can do better .

Expose girls early on to STEM education, provide training and support to women entering the energy field, close the pay gap and increase women’s leadership in the energy sector.

Goal 8. Decent work and economic growth

The number of employed women declined by 54 million in 2020 and 45 million women left the labour market altogether. Women have suffered steeper job losses than men, along with increased unpaid care burdens at home.

We must do more to support women in the workforce .

Guarantee decent work for all, introduce labour laws/reforms, removing legal barriers for married women entering the workforce, support access to affordable/quality childcare.

Goal 9. Industry, innovation and infrastructure

The COVID-19 crisis has spurred striking achievements in medical research and innovation. Women’s contribution has been profound. But still only a little over a third of graduates in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics field are female.

We can take action today.

 Quotas mandating that a proportion of research grants are awarded to women-led teams or teams that include women is one concrete way to support women researchers. 

Goal 10. Reduced inequalities

Limited progress for women is being eroded by the pandemic. Women facing multiple forms of discrimination, including women and girls with disabilities, migrant women, women discriminated against because of their race/ethnicity are especially affected.

Commit to end racism and discrimination in all its forms, invest in inclusive, universal, gender responsive social protection systems that support all women. 

Goal 11. Sustainable cities and communities

Globally, more than 1 billion people live in informal settlements and slums. Women and girls, often overrepresented in these densely populated areas, suffer from lack of access to basic water and sanitation, health care and transportation.

The needs of urban poor women must be prioritized .

Increase the provision of durable and adequate housing and equitable access to land; included women in urban planning and development processes.

Goal 12. Sustainable consumption and production; Goal 13. Climate action; Goal 14. Life below water; and Goal 15. Life on land

Women activists, scientists and researchers are working hard to solve the climate crisis but often without the same platforms as men to share their knowledge and skills. Only 29 per cent of featured speakers at international ocean science conferences are women.

 And yet we can change this .

Ensure women activists, scientists and researchers have equal voice, representation and access to forums where these issues are being discussed and debated. 

Goal 16. Peace, justice and strong institutions

The lack of women in decision-making limits the reach and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other emergency recovery efforts. In conflict-affected countries, 18.9 per cent of parliamentary seats are held by women, much lower than the global average of 25.6 per cent.

This is unacceptable .

It's time for women to have an equal share of power and decision-making at all levels.

Goal 17. Global partnerships for the goals

There are just 9 years left to achieve the Global Goals by 2030, and gender equality cuts across all 17 of them. With COVID-19 slowing progress on women's rights, the time to act is now.

Looking ahead

As it stands today, only one indicator under the global goal for gender equality (SDG5) is ‘close to target’: proportion of seats held by women in local government. In other areas critical to women’s empowerment, equality in time spent on unpaid care and domestic work and decision making regarding sexual and reproductive health the world is far from target. Without a bold commitment to accelerate progress, the global community will fail to achieve gender equality. Building forward differently and better will require placing women and girls at the centre of all aspects of response and recovery, including through gender-responsive laws, policies and budgeting.

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What do we mean by gender equality in education, and how can we measure it?

By CEID Blogger, on 18 May 2021

By  Helen Longlands

Gender equality in education is a matter of social justice, concerned with rights, opportunities and freedoms. Gender equality in education is crucial for sustainable development, for peaceful societies and for individual wellbeing. At local, national and global levels, gender equality in education remains a priority area for governments, civil society and multilateral organisations. The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and 2020-2030 Decade of Action commit the global community to achieving quality education (Goal 4) and gender equality (Goal 5) by 2030. The G7 Foreign and Development Ministers, meeting this summer in the UK, have made fresh commitments to supporting gender equality and girls’ education , which build on those they made in 2018 and 2019 . Yet fulfilling these agendas and promises not only depends on galvanising sufficient support and resourcing but also on developing sufficient means of measuring and evaluating progress.

The urgency for gender equality in education has been compounded by the profound impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has exposed, exacerbated and created new forms of intersecting inequalities and injustices associated with gender and education. School closures have resulted in millions more children out of school, many of whom may never return, particularly the poorest and most marginalised girls . While UNESCO estimates that over 11 million girls are at risk of not going back to school once the worst of the pandemic is over, the Malala Fund indicates this figure could be as high as 20 million . Cases of violence against women and children have also risen during the pandemic. A recent review by the Centre for Global Development of studies on low and middle income countries presents evidence of an increase in incidences of various forms of gender-based violence, including intimate partner violence, harassment, and violence against children. Assessment by UN Women connects this rise in violence to Covid-19 measures and consequences, including the closures of schools, suspension of community support systems, and increasing rates of unemployment and alcohol abuse. Meanwhile, heavier burdens of caregiving responsibilities during the pandemic, as well as reduced access to sexual and reproductive health knowledge and resources , limited availability of technology to support learning , and low levels of digital technology skills have gendered dimensions and risk further widening existing gender inequalities and power imbalances associated with education.

The effects of the pandemic add to the challenges of achieving gender equality in education and to the complexities involved in evaluating progress towards it. As we continue to develop and extend response, recovery and sustainability initiatives, to build back better , it is important to have explicit and honest discussions about gender and other intersecting inequalities in education. And it is vital to ensure we have robust and reliable ways of identifying, evaluating and holding people to account for these inequalities and their underlying causes in order to build more just and resilient societies. How we do this, however, is not straightforward and presents many conceptual and practical challenges around understanding, accessing and utilising the information, resources and approaches we need. What do we mean when we talk about gender equality in education, how can we measure progress towards it, and how will we know when we achieve it?

The AGEE project’s theoretical and methodological approach draws on key ideas from the capability approach, including the importance of public debate and democratic deliberation, recognition of how inequalities, opportunities and freedoms connect to the complexities of the physical, political and social environment as well as the distribution of resources, and a focus on both the interpersonal and the individual. We see these ideas as crucial components to identifying, understanding and meaningfully measuring gender inequalities and equality in education in diverse local contexts in ways that capture both unique and more general issues as well as longstanding and emerging concerns.

Thus our aim is to help refocus the policy attention beyond gender parity in education to a more substantive understanding and recognition of what gender equality in education could or should entail within and across different contexts, and provide clarity on the data needed for public policy. Gender parity comprises a simple ratio of girls to boys or women to men in a given aspect of education, such as enrolment, participation, attainment or teacher deployment. Gender parity is a clear and uncomplicated measure, which makes it appealing to policymakers and practitioners, and has led to its widespread use as a measure of gender equality in education in national and global development frameworks. This is seen in many of the targets for SDG4 on education and previously in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (2000-2015). However, gender parity is also an inadequate measure on its own because it is unable to capture more complex forms of gender inequality, the conditions and practices that underpin them, the ways in which they intersect with other forms of inequality and injustice, and the short and longer term consequences for individuals and societies. While it is important to ensure all children can access, attend and complete school, which are all issues that gender parity can monitor, it cannot measure issues such as girls’ or boys’ lived experiences of gender discrimination or violence in and around school, or gender inequalities associated with curricula, learning materials, pedagogic approaches or work practices.

Ongoing consultations and debates with stakeholders at community, national and international level are thus key components of AGEE’s research approach. Through them, we have sought to develop a deeper understanding of local, national and global forms of gender inequality and injustice in education and the ways these interconnect. We have scrutinised whether or not existing measurement techniques document this in order to enhance work on gender equality in policy and practice. Over the past few years, through workshops, interviews, technical meetings, academic papers, conference presentations, seminars and teaching, we have engaged in critical participatory dialogue with a wide range of key national and international stakeholders in education and gender, including representatives from governments, national statistics offices, civil society, international organisations, academics and students. This dialogue has explored and interrogated understandings of and debates around gender, accountability, measurement and data, and collated information on the range of factors, relationships, conditions and available data associated with gender equality in education.

Through this in-depth participatory process, we have developed, adapted and refined the AGEE Framework. The Framework is designed to be robust and comprehensive as well as flexible and adaptable, in order both to capture complex, enduring and widespread forms of inequalities, and to be responsive to local characteristics and changing conditions, including forms of crisis. The AGEE Framework comprises six interconnected domains for monitoring and evaluating gender equality in education: Resources; Values; Opportunities; Participation in Education; Knowledge, Understanding and Skills; and Outcomes. And we have identified a number of indicators and related existing or potential data sources to populate these domains.

If you would like to learn more about the AGEE project and engage with our work to support gender equality in education, please visit our website: www.gendereddata.org , where you can find more information about our research and the AGEE Framework, and join our community of practice.

Join the special event on May 27, 2021 where the AGEE Framework will be presented in detail : The politics of measuring gender equality in education: Perspectives for the G7

Acknowledgements:

Members of the AGEE project team: Elaine Unterhalter (UCL and AGEE PI), Rosie Peppin Vaughan (UCL), Relebohile Moletsane (UKZN), Esme Kadzamira (University of Malawi) and Catherine Jere (UEA).

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Despite substantial progress, gender gaps in labour market outcomes persist. Several key factors help explain remaining gaps. First, men and women continue to work in different jobs. Second, parenthood appears to be a crucial point in the life course at which gender gaps widen. Third, traditional beliefs and norms about the appropriate roles of men and women, particularly in the context of parenthood, are obstacles to closing remaining gender gaps. At the same time, advancements in automation technologies are transforming the world of work and may have genderspecific impacts. Motivated by these observations, this thesis advances understanding of several factors related to gender inequality in the labour market. These factors are gendered university major choices, attitudes towards gender roles in the context of parenthood, and effects of recent transformations in labour markets on the gender gap in pay. The thesis consists of four empirical papers. The first paper studies the role of intergenerational transmission for gendered university major choices of young adults. Using regression analysis and exploiting survey data from a recent cohort of university students in Germany, the paper investigates to what extent and why gender-typicality of mother's and father's occupation affect the gender-typicality of their child's university major. Results show signifficant intergenerational associations and indicate that parental resources and a transmission of gender roles are both relevant transmission channels, particularly for sons' major choices. The second and third paper examine how gender role attitudes are shaped in the context of parenthood. The second paper analyses effects of the 2007 paid parental leave reform (Elterngeld) in Germany on parents' gender role attitudes; specifically, attitudes towards the gender division of work, towards the roles of fathers, and towards the labour force participation of mothers. Exploiting the reform as a natural experiment, results indicate that men affected by the reform hold more traditional attitudes towards the role of fathers, whereas there is no effect on the other two iv outcomes. Focusing on the UK, the third paper explores whether parenting daughters affects attitudes towards a traditional male breadwinner model in which it is the husband's role to work and the wife's to stay at home. Using panel data and individual fixed effects models, the results indicate that fathers are less likely to hold traditional views on the gender division of work if they raise a girl. No robust effects on mothers' attitudes are found. Results from the second and third paper inform the broader literature on attitudinal change, suggesting that gender role attitudes are not stable throughout the life course and can be significantly shaped by adulthood experiences. The final paper studies whether technological change increases gender inequality. Using individual-level data from around 28 million individuals in 20 European countries and an instrumental variable strategy, the study provides the first large-scale evidence concerning the impact of industrial robots on the gender gap in earnings. Findings indicate that robot adoption increases both male and female earnings but also increases the gender pay gap. These results are driven by countries with high initial levels of gender inequality and can be explained by the fact that men in medium- and high-skilled occupations disproportionately benefit from robotization, through a productivity effect.

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Country Studies: Inequalities in Europe and North America

Inequality in the UK: 1968-2021

• Richard Blundell
• Jonathan Cribb
• Tom Wernham

Published on 29 November 2023

How have employment and earnings changed in the UK over the last 50 years? What has the effect been on average incomes and income inequality?

• Employment and income

Download the full report as a PDF here 

PDF | 857.88 KB

Executive summary

Employment, wages, hours and individual earnings.

The UK has seen a sustained rise in employment rates among prime working-age (25–60-year-old) women over the last four decades, from 54% in 1968 to 78% in 2019. The employment rate for men, which fell over the 1970s and 1980s as the economy deindustrialised, has also been on the rise over the past decade, approaching 90% in 2019, but is still slightly below the levels seen in the early 1970s. Increases in the compulsory school leaving age and the expansion of higher education have led to a large rise in educational attainment for both men and women. In 2021, 39% of prime working-aged people had high levels of education (ISCED 6–8), and just 4% had low levels of education (ISCED 0–2).

Median real hourly wages for employees rose by around 2.3% a year on average between 1968 and 2007 but stagnated after the Great Recession. This stagnation is seen across all education groups, and cannot be explained by rising employment rates and selection into employment (Blundell et al. 2018). Median wages exceeded pre-2008 levels for the first time in 2020.

Inequality in hourly wages increased substantially in the 1980s. Since then, wage inequality across most of the distribution has stabilised, as measured by the 90:10 ratio (the Gini coefficient continued to rise due to rising wages at the top, albeit at a much slower rate than in the 1980s). The relative stability of overall wage inequality masks a sustained rise in male wage inequality up until the Great Recession: the 90:10 ratio of male wages rose from 2.8 in 1980 to 3.6 in 1994 and 3.8 in 2007. This was offset by women’s wages catching up with men’s wages on average, as well as some fall in wage inequality among women. Since the Great Recession, and in particular since 2016, wage inequality has fallen for both men and women in part as a result of large increases in the minimum wage. Average hours worked among employees have increased for women, and fallen gradually for men, since the mid-1990s. The increase in hours worked for women was seen across the wage distribution. For men, the fall in hours worked was concentrated among low-wage, low-educated men, up until the Great Recession.

Combining trends in hourly wages and hours worked, inequality in individual earnings has been relatively stable over the last 25 years. But inequality in male earnings rose between 1980 and the Great Recession, driven by rising wage inequality at the top and rising hours inequality at the bottom. This trend appears to have stopped in the last decade, as growth in the minimum wage outstripped wage growth further up the distribution, and hours worked stopped falling disproportionately for low-wage men. Further, the rise in employment rates means that earnings inequality across all prime working-aged people, including those out of work (with zero earnings), has fallen over the past decade.

Labour market institutions

There has been a dramatic decline in collective bargaining in the UK, with union density falling from its peak of 52% in 1980 to 24% in 2019. A minimum wage was introduced in 1999 and its bite has increased over time, especially since 2016. The minimum wage does not cover self-employed workers, and self-employment has become much more prevalent over the last four decades, especially among those on low hourly wages. The share of prime working-aged people who are self-employed rose from 6% in 1980 to 9% in 1990 and 10% in 2019. In recent years (when data are available), there has been a rise in ‘solo self-employment’ and a fall in the share of people who are self-employed with employees. The UK social security system is unusual by European standards in having virtually no contributory component. Instead, entitlement to most benefits is means-tested and depends on financial need (e.g., due to having a combination of low income, high housing costs, and a number of children) rather than previous earnings. As such, replacement rates vary widely depending on previous pay and circumstances, and there is no distinction between short-term and long-term replacement rates. There have been large changes to the welfare system in the UK, including a large expansion of state benefits in the late 1990s and early 2000s and retrenchment in their generosity after 2011.

Household incomes

Two key factors affect the way in which inequality in individual earnings translates into inequality in household incomes: household structures and the tax and benefit system. There has been a rise in assortative matching in marriage and partnership in the UK over the past four decades. First, the relationship between individual earnings and the likelihood of being in a couple is now more strongly positive than before. The share of prime working-aged people who are single has increased much more in lower-educated groups. Second, high-earning individuals are now more likely to have a partner who works than before. In 1968, men around the 95th percentile of earnings were 10 percentage points less likely to have a working partner than those in the 15th percentile of earnings (though they were more likely to have a partner at all), while in 2019 they were 8 percentage points more likely. Third, for couples in which both partners are in paid work, the positive correlation between partners’ earnings is now stronger than before. The rise in assortative matching means that the catch-up of women with men over the last four decades has largely reduced earnings inequality within, rather than across, households. Coupled with the rise in male earnings inequality, which remains the largest source of household earnings, the result is that inequality in earnings among working households rose up until the Great Recession, especially in the 1980s.

The tax and benefit system somewhat dampened the rise in household earnings inequality in the 1980s, but the effect was far from complete: between 1980 and 1994, disposable household incomes among working households rose by an average of 3.7% a year at the 95th percentile of household incomes, compared to just 0.9% at the 5th percentile (the corresponding figures for household earnings were –1.7% and 4.2%, respectively). Further, the fall in male employment rates over this period meant that more people lived in workless households, pushing up household earnings inequality across all households (including workless households). As result, inequality in disposable household incomes rose sharply in the 1980s: the Gini coefficient rose from 0.26 in 1980 to 0.33 in 1994, and the 90:10 ratio rose from 3.2 to 4.1. In contrast, the expansion of state benefits in the late 1990s and early 2000s entirely offset the rise in earnings inequality among working households in the decade before the Great Recession. State transfers propped up incomes at the bottom, so that the growth in disposable household incomes between 1994 and 2007 was similar across the income distribution (around 2.3% a year on average). Further, the rise in employment rates from the mid-1990s meant that more households had someone in work, reducing earnings inequality across all households. Taken together, inequality in disposable household incomes across all households was relatively stable between the mid-1990s and the Great Recession.

Inequality in disposable household incomes has also been stable since the Great Recession (since 2007), offsetting slightly increasing household earnings inequality, but the underlying drivers have been very different. Household earnings growth has been broadly progressive, especially since 2016, as wage inequality fell and trends in male hours also worked to reduce earnings inequality. However, a series of cuts to working-age benefits after 2011 meant that growth in disposable household incomes at the bottom of the distribution was lower than growth in household earnings. While the tax and benefit system offset rising earnings inequality in the decade leading up to the Great Recession, fiscal austerity pushed in the opposite direction in the last decade, offsetting declines in household earnings inequality.

Immigration has changed the composition of the UK population in recent decades. The fraction of the working-age population that was born abroad rose from 9% in 1993 to 15% in 2008 to 21% in 2021. Immigrants in 2008 were particularly clustered towards the bottom, and top, of the income distribution, but by 2019 this had changed and they were much more evenly spread across the population. On average, immigrants have very high education levels and similar labour market outcomes to UK born people, with the exception of lower levels of female employment.   

Research Economist

Tom is a Research Economist in the Income, Work and Welfare sector, having joined the IFS in 2020.

CPP Co-Director

Richard is Co-Director of the Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy (CPP) and Senior Research Fellow at IFS.

Associate Director

Jonathan is an Associate Director and Head of Retirement, Savings and Ageing sector, focusing on pensions, savings and later-life economic activity.

Senior Research Economist

Xiaowei joined the IFS in 2018 and works in the Income, Work and Welfare sector.

Report details

Suggested citation.

Blundell, R et al. (2023). Inequality in the UK: 1968-2021 . London: Institute for Fiscal Studies. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/inequality-uk-1968-2021 (accessed: 13 April 2024).

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Gender Inequality in the Labour Market in the UK

Professor of Economics of Public Policy

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The book addresses one of the most topical and pressing areas of inequality experienced by women in the UK: inequality in the labour market. Despite the changed and changing position of women in society there remain substantial gender differences in the labour market. The book offers a coherent account of gender inequality in the labour market. Includes an introduction with the wider context, the basic facts on various relevant labour market outcomes, international comparisons, and the legislative framework. Chapters focus on the key issues, offering analysis of the way inequality in the labour market is related to the wider macroeconomic dynamics, factors that explain the gender pay gap, the transition from education to the labour market, the dimensions of occupational segregation and the division of labour within the household.

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• The Cass review: an...

The Cass review: an opportunity to unite behind evidence informed care in gender medicine

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• Kamran Abbasi , editor in chief
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At the heart of Hilary Cass’s review of gender identity services in the NHS is a concern for the welfare of “children and young people” (doi: 10.1136/bmj.q820 ). 1 Her stated ambition is to ensure that those experiencing gender dysphoria receive a high standard of care. This will be disputed, of course, by people and lobbying groups angered by her recommendations, but it is a theme running through the review. Cass, a past president of the UK’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, seeks to provide better care for children and adolescents on one of the defining issues of our age. Her conclusion is alarming for anybody who genuinely cares for child welfare: gender medicine is “built on shaky foundations” (doi: 10.1136/bmj.q814 ). 2

That verdict is supported by a series of review papers published in Archives of Disease in Childhood , a journal published by BMJ and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2023-326669 doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2023-326670 doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2023-326499 doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2023-326500 ). 3 4 5 6 The evidence base for interventions in gender medicine is threadbare, whichever research question you wish to consider—from social transition to hormone treatment.

For example, of more than 100 studies examining the role of puberty blockers and hormone treatment for gender transition only two were of passable quality. To be clear, intervention studies—particularly of drug and surgical interventions—should include an appropriate control group, ideally be randomised, ensure concealment of treatment allocation (although open label studies are sometimes acceptable), and be designed to evaluate relevant outcomes with adequate follow-up.

One emerging criticism of the Cass review is that it set the methodological bar too high for research to be included in its analysis and discarded too many studies on the basis of quality. In fact, the reality is different: studies in gender medicine fall woefully short in terms of methodological rigour; the methodological bar for gender medicine studies was set too low, generating research findings that are therefore hard to interpret. The methodological quality of research matters because a drug efficacy study in humans with an inappropriate or no control group is a potential breach of research ethics. Offering treatments without an adequate understanding of benefits and harms is unethical. All of this matters even more when the treatments are not trivial; puberty blockers and hormone therapies are major, life altering interventions. Yet this inconclusive and unacceptable evidence base was used to inform influential clinical guidelines, such as those of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), which themselves were cascaded into the development of subsequent guidelines internationally (doi: 10.1136/bmj.q794 ). 7

The Cass review attempted to work with the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) and the NHS adult gender services to “fill some of the gaps in follow-up data for the approximately 9000 young people who have been through GIDS to develop a stronger evidence base.” However, despite encouragement from NHS England, “the necessary cooperation was not forthcoming.” Professionals withholding data from a national inquiry seems hard to imagine, but it is what happened.

A spiralling interventionist approach, in the context of an evidence void, amounted to overmedicalising care for vulnerable young people. A too narrow focus on gender dysphoria, says Cass, neglected other presenting features and failed to provide a holistic model of care. Gender care became superspecialised when a more general, multidisciplinary approach was required. In a broader sense, this failure is indicative of a societal failure in child and adolescent health (doi: 10.1136/bmj.q802 doi: 10.1136/bmj-2022-073448 ). 8 9 The review’s recommendations, which include confining prescription of puberty blockers and hormonal treatments to a research setting (doi: 10.1136/bmj.q660 ), now place the NHS firmly in line with emerging practice internationally, such as in Scandinavia (doi: 10.1136/bmj.p553 ). 10 11

Cass proposes a future model of regional multidisciplinary centres that provide better access and, importantly, standardised care for gender dysphoria, including a smoother transition between adolescent and adult services. Staff will need training. All children and young people embarking on a care pathway will be included in research to begin to rectify the problems with the evidence base, with long term outcomes being an important area of focus. An already stretched workforce will need to extend itself further (doi: 10.1136/bmj.q795 doi: 10.1136/bmj-2024-079474 ). 12 13 In the meantime, some children and young people will turn to the private sector or online providers to meet their needs. The dangers in this moment of service transition are apparent.

But it’s also a moment of opportunity. Families, carers, advocates, and clinicians—acting in the best interests of children and adolescents—face a clear choice whether to allow the Cass review to deepen division or use it as a driver of better care. The message from the evidence reviews in Archives of Disease in Childhood is as unequivocal as it could be. Cass’s review is independent and listened to people with lived experience. Without doubt, the advocacy and clinical practice for medical treatment of gender dysphoria had moved ahead of the evidence—a recipe for harm.

People who are gender non-conforming experience stigmatisation, marginalisation, and harassment in every society. They are vulnerable, particularly during childhood and adolescence. The best way to support them, however, is not with advocacy and activism based on substandard evidence. The Cass review is an opportunity to pause, recalibrate, and place evidence informed care at the heart of gender medicine. It is an opportunity not to be missed for the sake of the health of children and young people. It is an opportunity for unity.

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Gender Inequality Essay

500+ words essay on gender inequality.

For many years, the dominant gender has been men while women were the minority. It was mostly because men earned the money and women looked after the house and children. Similarly, they didn’t have any rights as well. However, as time passed by, things started changing slowly. Nonetheless, they are far from perfect. Gender inequality remains a serious issue in today’s time. Thus, this gender inequality essay will highlight its impact and how we can fight against it.

  About Gender Inequality Essay

Gender inequality refers to the unequal and biased treatment of individuals on the basis of their gender. This inequality happens because of socially constructed gender roles. It happens when an individual of a specific gender is given different or disadvantageous treatment in comparison to a person of the other gender in the same circumstance.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Impact of Gender Inequality

The biggest problem we’re facing is that a lot of people still see gender inequality as a women’s issue. However, by gender, we refer to all genders including male, female, transgender and others.

When we empower all genders especially the marginalized ones, they can lead their lives freely. Moreover, gender inequality results in not letting people speak their minds. Ultimately, it hampers their future and compromises it.

History is proof that fighting gender inequality has resulted in stable and safe societies. Due to gender inequality, we have a gender pay gap. Similarly, it also exposes certain genders to violence and discrimination.

In addition, they also get objectified and receive socioeconomic inequality. All of this ultimately results in severe anxiety, depression and even low self-esteem. Therefore, we must all recognize that gender inequality harms genders of all kinds. We must work collectively to stop these long-lasting consequences and this gender inequality essay will tell you how.

How to Fight Gender Inequality

Gender inequality is an old-age issue that won’t resolve within a few days. Similarly, achieving the goal of equality is also not going to be an easy one. We must start by breaking it down and allow it time to go away.

Firstly, we must focus on eradicating this problem through education. In other words, we must teach our young ones to counter gender stereotypes from their childhood.

Similarly, it is essential to ensure that they hold on to the very same beliefs till they turn old. We must show them how sports are not gender-biased.

Further, we must promote equality in the fields of labour. For instance, some people believe that women cannot do certain jobs like men. However, that is not the case. We can also get celebrities on board to promote and implant the idea of equality in people’s brains.

All in all, humanity needs men and women to continue. Thus, inequality will get us nowhere. To conclude the gender inequality essay, we need to get rid of the old-age traditions and mentality. We must teach everyone, especially the boys all about equality and respect. It requires quite a lot of work but it is possible. We can work together and achieve equal respect and opportunities for all genders alike.

FAQ of Gender Inequality Essay

Question 1: What is gender inequality?

Answer 1: Gender inequality refers to the unequal and biased treatment of individuals on the basis of their gender. This inequality happens because of socially constructed gender roles. It happens when an individual of a specific gender is given different or disadvantageous treatment in comparison to a person of the other gender in the same circumstance.

Question 2: How does gender inequality impact us?

Answer 2:  The gender inequality essay tells us that gender inequality impacts us badly. It takes away opportunities from deserving people. Moreover, it results in discriminatory behaviour towards people of a certain gender. Finally, it also puts people of a certain gender in dangerous situations.

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Gender Inequalities in the UK’s Higher Education Essay

Introduction, gender inequalities in the uk’s system of higher education.

Gender inequality is defined as the unequal rating of women and men’s roles in any aspect of the society. However, it is sensible to acknowledge that physical differences between these two sexes exist, but the way, which society interprets these differences, is what brings about gender inequality and this arises in terms of economic, educational, legal and political aspects.

Therefore, overcoming these barriers of prejudices and stereotypes can work to enable equal contribution to the society and advancing development, especially in the education sector. This study focuses on the persistence of gender inequalities in Higher Education in the UK.

Gender inequality has shown the greatest shift of all the education inequalities. In the UK, gender gap closure is up to the age of sixteen and changing patterns in education achievement stands as evidence to this transformation. However, gender parity has dominated in education for several years.

The gender gap in performance at 16 and 18 has closed in terms of the patterns of achievement at the national level. Since that time these gaps have opened up with girls performing better than boys do over the last 10 years (EOC, 2003, p. 3) and this shows one of the most significant transformations in the gender inequality history in the UK.

However, there are several contradictions and tensions in relation to gender equality. UK academic staff statistics shows that lecturers comprise of 53% men and 47% women; 67% men and 33% women senior/principal lecturers; 83% men and 17% women professors/Heads of department (Cotterill & Letherby, 2007, p. 31).

The definition of male success is defined as normal while for women is measured in terms of how they can adhere to the norm, thus making the effort towards educational equality women to be at the same level as men (Smyth, 2007, p. 27).

Many countries disagree with the fact that higher education for a boy is more important. Many people claim that men get more job opportunities with good salaries and adequate work conditions than women with equal qualifications and potential.

Women and men should establish shared responsibilities at home, work and in the wider community. However, the initial step in achieving this should start at the education level. Jacobs (1996, p. 32) emphasizes that the rising status of women is major due to the rise of modern economic and political institutions, which have changed the priorities of these institutions concerning gender.

As the power of the economy transverse into large-scale organizations dissimilar to the distinctions of gender, the model lost its cultural and social trend and the efforts women to conquer the world became increasingly successful.

Total gender equality will eventually prevail; the only questions remaining are what it will look like and how and when it will arrive. Gillborn & Mirza (2000, p. 67) reported that differences in ethnicity and social class also increased with the pressure of schooling that was performance oriented in educational achievement respectively.

According to Teese et al. (1995), the arouse issue occurs when girls or boys fail or succeed in the education system A significant number of policy and legislative developments also form part of the climate of change in educational access and achievement of formal gender parity, which connects indirectly with the increase in women representation in public life.

Currently the contradiction of education and new job opportunities for women are increasing along with a focus on women’s unequal treatment in school, at work and at home. This stirred the Women’s Movement to give priority to gender equality in its manifesto goals (Harford & Rush, 2010, p. 43).

However, it has been difficult to quantify the implications as the areas of initiatives are provided with little attention. Even with formal ‘gender parity’ dominating in educational achievement there are still gender stereotypes in the subject areas, which determine one’s qualifications. For instance, men are dominating in such the sciences like engineering and Technology, while women are dominating in Biology, Arts, especially in Humanities and Education courses (EOC, 1998, p. 1).

Progress in reduction of gender parity and improvement of equity can be attained when women are considered aboard, so their status is improved. Their rights as well have to be honored and their positions are elevated. Gender equality should include identical partaking by both genders, in coming up with resolutions and encouraging women to optimally practice their rights and reduction in the gap between men and women to control resources and development benefits.

Access to resources should be equitable not biased. Education is meant for everyone in the higher institutions; hence, all the citizens have a right to participate in the knowledge acquisition and in employment.

Several strategies can be implemented to address gender inequality in the UK institutions, including encouraging women to apply for appointments and promotions, mentoring, role models, women’s networks. The management of the institutions, which includes the Vice Chancellor, Principal and managers, needs to change its attitude and show visible commitment in policies. Institutions need to review processes involved in promotions and recruitment and provide support during maternity as well as flexible working hours.

Cotterill, P & Letherby, G 2007, Challenges and negotiations for women in higher education . London: Springer.

Equal Opportunities Commission- EOC, 2003, Facts about Women and Men in Great Britain , London: Gvoove Publishers.

Equal Opportunities Commission-EOC, 1998, Gender and Differential Achievement in Education and Training: a Research Review ,London: Sage.

Gillborn, D & Mirza, H 2000, Educational Inequality: mapping race, class and gender , London: Ofsted.

Harford, J & Rush, C 2010, Have women made a difference , London: Peter Lang.

Jacobs, J 1996, Gender inequality and Higher Education, Annual Review on Social behavior , 22, 153–85.

Smyth, E 2007 , Education and Equity: International Perspectives on Theory and Policy . London: Springer Press.

Teese, R, et al 1995, Who wins at school? Boys and girls in Australian secondary education , Sydney: Canberra.

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IvyPanda. (2022, April 7). Gender Inequalities in the UK's Higher Education. https://ivypanda.com/essays/woman-in-management/

"Gender Inequalities in the UK's Higher Education." IvyPanda , 7 Apr. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/woman-in-management/.

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1. IvyPanda . "Gender Inequalities in the UK's Higher Education." April 7, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/woman-in-management/.

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Schools in England and Wales using ‘gender toolkit’ risk being sued by parents

Leading barrister warns that the kit – used to support gender-questioning children – is likely to be in breach of equality laws and could violate pupils’ rights

Schools in England and Wales have been warned by one of the country’s leading equality and human rights barristers that the “toolkit” many of them use to support gender-questioning children is unlawful.

The toolkit , introduced by Brighton and Hove council in 2021 and subsequently replicated by a number of other local authorities, says schools should “respect” a child’s request to change their name and pronoun as a “pivotal” part of supporting their identity, as well as other changes such as switching to wearing trousers or a skirt.

It emphasises that schools “will want to involve parents and carers in discussions”, and recommends a “watch and wait” policy when a young person first comes out to a “trusted” teacher, not pushing them in any particular direction.

But a legal opinion by Karon Monaghan of Matrix Chambers concludes that schools and councils using the toolkit are very likely to be in breach of equality and human rights legislation, and at risk of being sued by unhappy parents.

She argues that the Equality Act affords protection not only to trans-identified young people, but also to those who are gender-critical. Requiring everyone in school to use a child’s chosen pronouns would, she said, “be in direct conflict” with the beliefs of staff and children who are gender-critical, and might “violate their rights”.

The 75-page document tackles issues including toilets, sport and changing facilities. Monaghan says the toolkit is wrong to suggest that a trans pupil has a legal right to choose to use toilets designated for the opposite sex, and argues that allowing a trans girl to use a girls’ changing room could violate other pupils’ right to privacy or put them at “physical risk”.

“There is a worrying lack of appropriate guidance on safeguarding in the toolkit,” she says.

“There is an emphasis on supporting children through social transition without highlighting any of the risks that may be associated with that. As the interim report of the Cass review stated, this may not be thought of as an intervention or treatment, because it is not something that happens within health services.

“However, it is important to view it as an active intervention because it may have significant effects on the child or young person in terms of their psychological functioning.

“It anticipates that trans-identified children will access single-sex toilets, changing rooms and residential accommodation designated for children of the opposite sex. These are key milestones in social transitioning and there is no guidance on establishing the appropriateness of these steps, or any indication that external support from a clinician should be sought first.

“And nor is there any recognition or understanding of the best interests and welfare of the child who may be psychologically impacted by social transition.”

In response, Councillor Lucy Helliwell, co-chair of Brighton’s children, families and schools committee, said: “Our Trans Inclusion Schools Toolkit has been developed in order to support schools, teachers, gender-questioning young people and their parents on a case-by-case basis.

“As a local authority that works to ensure all our children and young people live happy, safe and positive lives, we’ll always be committed to providing support that protects and promotes their welfare.”

The row over legal advice comes at the end of a week in which a landmark review into the medical treatment of gender-questioning children was published. The Cass review said children and young people had been let down by a lack of research and “no good evidence” on the long-term outcomes of medical interventions to manage gender-related distress, in a debate that has become exceptionally toxic.

But while the findings of the Cass review were broadly welcomed by the main political parties, medical ­professionals and prominent transgender commentators, the debate over how to deal with children who wish to socially transition is more polarised.

The issue of how to deal with children who choose to socially transition does not involve any medical intervention, but relates to questions including whether a school should refer to a child using a different pronoun or name, what uniform they wear and access to single-sex or unisex toilets and changing facilities.

The new legal analysis by Monaghan was commissioned by a family in Brighton who are arguing that their child’s school helped their child to socially transition without their consent, because it was using the toolkit. The family wrote to the council on Friday threatening possible legal action if it does not withdraw the guidance within two weeks.

The child’s mother, who asked not to be named in order to protect the identity of her child, told the Observer : “Our child was socially ­transitioned at school by a group of teachers who are quite active in the trans rights arena, despite our child’s complex mental health needs, trauma and autism.”

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She said she and her husband “thought we had agreed a unique plan with the head” that the school should support only what she called a “pre-transition phase” until the child left secondary school. Instead, she said, they had been “shocked” to discover the school had supported their child socially transitioning. The family is now estranged from their child.

The mother said it was understandable that teachers were “looking for a safety net” and for advice to follow in navigating an increasingly fraught and contested area.

But she warned: “This toolkit is not just a little bit wrong, or only wrong in certain limited respects: it is catastrophically wrong from top to bottom.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: “It is unacceptable for parents to be excluded from decisions regarding their children.

“Our draft guidance reflects the law, which schools have a duty to follow.

“The guidance already reflects the principles from the final Cass review, making clear that social transition should be extremely rare and any steps towards social transition should be incredibly cautious, taking account of available clinical evidence and any special educational needs, and prioritising parents’ wishes.”

Meanwhile, in a sign of how fraught the issue has become in schools, teaching unions warned that the government’s own guidance on how to deal with gender-questioning children could also lead to schools facing legal action.

It states that there is “no general duty” on schools to follow pupils’ wishes to socially transition, including using different pronouns or names, and that parents must almost always be told if their child talks to a teacher about such things.

The National Association of Head Teachers union said: “We are particularly concerned that, as it is currently drafted, aspects of the guidance may leave schools at ‘high risk’ of successful legal challenges.”

Margaret Mulholland, an inclusion specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) union, said: “Schools are doing their best to navigate this complex territory in the best interests of all the children and young people in their care.” She said this was difficult “in a climate of polarised views and risks of legal challenges”.

The union said the government’s failure to mention the mental health and wellbeing support that gender-questioning children might need was a “significant oversight”.

The ASCL told the Observer this weekend that it had called on the government “to take on and represent any legal challenges against schools” which are following its guidance.

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