Equal tuition fees + Equal teaching resources = Unequal Pay?

There is still at 17.1% pay gap in the workplace between men and women. Why does this matter to students? Well we are treated as equals at University; pay equal fees, work equally hard, are given the same amount of teaching, and the same about of opportunities to develop our skill set, so why then, when we graduate, are some students subjected to discrimination based on their gender? We have employers on campus continuously, looking to recruit the best graduates. The role of the University is to prepare us for the workplace, so it is so important that students are aware of the discrimination that may face them, so that they can speak out if they think it is unfair, or be savvy about it when they are working their way up a career ladder. Boys – this is all relevant to you too. Do you think it’s fair that your mother, auntie, sister, niece, daughter or future partner may be subjected to a promotion or financial disadvantage? What if the future breadwinner of your family is female? There are lots of ‘if’s’ and ‘but’s’ in this debate, but I stand firm that there should be equal pay, for equal skills (such as initiative needed, daily routine, dealing with people etc). People argue that the 17.1% gap is based purely on different jobs and therefore can’t be a true statistic, but the facts state that the biggest cause of this pay gap is out-right discrimination for the same job, even though this is illegal. There are obvious ‘traditional’ roles for men and women, some of this may be based on typical differences between the two sexes, but these, and their pay, need to be reviewed by society and not presumed. Do we respect a society that pays more to those who look after our cars than those who look after our young or elderly? I guess the answer is a matter of personal opinion. In terms of the argument of high costs if a woman leaves a company to have a baby; why does an employer have the right to decide if that woman will even decide to have a baby, never mind discard the option that the paternity rights/pay may be transferred to the father or partner. So.

Hopefully that has got you either 1) outraged and ready to sign the petition which will be on campus all week, and outside Spar (Guild) all day Friday, or 2) you want to hear more to make up your mind and have lots of questions you want answering at the Panel Discussion on 30^th October, 5pm, Guild Council Chambers. NUS Women’s Officer Olivia Bailey, POLSIS lecturer Dr Peter Kerr, and Careers Services representative Sue Welland will be on the panel, which will be chaired by Debating Society. It’s free, so come along! Read Redbrick’s article here on 'Fe-man-ism'.