Women’s equality in the UK – A health check

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Article 4 (General Recommendation 5, 25) -
Temporary special measures to accelerate equality
Special measures to accelerate equality
In their 7th Periodic Report the Government (GEO) state that “the UK Government has
introduced a number of special measures to improve equality between women and men
and to facilitate gender mainstreaming during the reporting period through legislative and
other measures.”
However, we are not convinced that these include temporary special measures that result
in substantive equality for women. The CEDAW principles on temporary special measures
and General Recommendation 25 1 have not fully been utilised. Several of these measures
have officially been announced but not made compulsory and our analysis shows that the
Government is not prepared to introduce binding temporary measures. 2
For example the Government has introduced agreements with private industry to combat the
gender pay gap but these are voluntary and ineffective. 3 (See Article 11 for more information)
Temporary special measures such as women-only services and ring-fenced or special funding
for women’s rights work would be a positive step towards realising CEDAW in the UK and should
be explored.
The monitoring of special measures that have been introduced is also not adequate and there
are limited mechanisms in place to monitor their implementation or to measure their progress
in accelerating equality for women.
Recommendation:
The Government must introduce further temporary special measures to address
discrimination against women after recommendations from the UN and others, and
the success of this in other countries
Proportionate action needs to be taken to address the discrimination faced by women from
the most marginalised and minority groups such as disabled women, Gypsy, Traveller and Roma
women and migrant women, as this is where the largest impact can take place. However, very
few temporary special measures have been introduced that focus on specific groups of women
or affirmative action policies that have impacted on their rights.
Women-only shortlists
The Government has extended the ability for political parties to use women-only shortlists until
2030 4 alongside other voluntary action and encouragement. However, this does not constitute
binding temporary special measures that will lead to substantive change and does not address
1. CEDAW General Recommendation No. 25 on article 4, paragraph 1, on temporary special measures (twentieth session, 1999) http://www.
un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/recommendations/General%20recommendation%2025%20%28English%29.pdf
2. For example Fontanella-Khan, J. (2012) ‘UK fights Brussels on female board quotas’, Financial Times, 4th September 2012 http://www.
ft.com/cms/s/0/b4146a14-f6b6-11e1-827f-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2OBj6nD7B
3. Bird, A. (2012) ‘Gender pay gap is still too big’, The Guardian, 16th June 2012 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/16/
gender-pay-gap-audits
4. CEDAW 55th session (2013) List of issues and questions with regard to the consideration of periodic reports: United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland. Addendum: Replies of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the list of issues to be taken up
in connection with the consideration of its seventh periodic report, 5th February 2013 http://www2.ohchr.org/English/bodies/cedaw/docs/
CEDAW.C.GBR.Q.7.Add.1.pdf
44 Women’s equality in the UK: CEDAW shadow report 2013