The Evolution of the Gender Pay Gap: A Comparative Perspective

Through interdisciplinary research, this book explores the continued cause of the significant gender pay gap that still exists in many countries today. This gap persists despite a wide range of measures having been introduced to protect women at work. Internationally varied approaches which have been attempted include prohibiting discrimination, maternity leave, maternity pay, health and safety protections for pregnant workers, tax breaks, childcare vouchers, shared parental leave, and gender pay gap reporting. This volume makes a significant and original contribution by tackling the topic through fresh historical and activist approaches, specific consideration of certain professions, and topical issues, such as the gig economy, treatment of carers post-coronavirus, and developing approaches to prosecuting pay equity claims. Our comparative approach interrogates how countries studied in this volume have had varying approaches and differing success in tackling this pervasive issue of the gender pay gap. Lessons to learn regarding policy reform are included in chapters from authors based not only in the UK but also in the United States, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland and fully developed in the conclusion.

Dr Frances Hamilton is an associate professor at the University of Reading and holds a PhD from Northumbria University, MA from the University of Cambridge, together with an LLM from Trinity College Dublin, and she is also a qualified solicitor (non-practising). Her research interests focus on gender and the law. She has been published internationally in Florida, California, Italy, as well as in the UK, including well-known journals, such as The Journal of Legal History and European Human Rights Law Review. She is the lead editor for an edited collection, Same-Sex Relationships, Law and Social Change, Routledge, 2020 ISBN 978-0-367-07609, including contributions from 14 different international authors. Her teaching interests include being a module leader on the law and society first-year optional module and the core second-year European Union law module, which includes focusing on equality and non-discrimination law in a European Union law context.

Dr Elisabeth Griffiths is an associate professor, Northumbria Law School, Northumbria University, and an employment law specialist and expert in equality and diversity law and disability legal studies. She is also a qualified solicitor (non-practising). Her research interests focus on equality, fairness, disability, legal education, and phenomenological approaches to legal research. She is a module leader for employment law and law and society modules. She has been published in The Law Teacher, The International Journal of Discrimination and the Law, and the Journal of International and Comparative Law. She has also written about ableism in academia. In 2017, she was nominated to the newly formed Society of Legal Scholars Equality and Diversity Committee, and in January 2020, she took over as the chair. She also sits on the board of the Socio-Legal Scholars Association and is a trustee and social media editor. In September 2021, she was awarded a professional doctorate in law (DLaw) by Northumbria University on the lived experience of disability in law school.