The argument goes that the pay gap only exists because of women's 'choices' of work type, hours, and child related career breaks, effectively making it a myth. But research shows that while those are factors, they don't account for the whole gap, suggesting that discrimination certainly plays a role as well.
Laura BatesThe fact that traditionally 'female' jobs are paid less, that women end up working part-time because they're societally pressured into caring roles, and that having children has a negative impact on women's wages but a positive impact on men's, are all problems that should deeply concern us, not 'explanations' that can be happily accepted.
Laura BatesWe can't create a shift in normalised attitudes and behaviours without everybody on board, so not being sexist isn't enough - get stuck in and start tackling sexism too.
Laura BatesAs long as 85,000 women are raped every year and 400,000 sexually assaulted in England and Wales alone, it's hard to argue that there isn't a problem. Not to mention the fact that fewer than 1/3 of our MPs are female, that women write only 1/5 front page newspaper articles, that they're less than 1/10 of engineers and that 54,000 a year lose their jobs as a result of maternity discrimination... to name but a tiny sample of issues. It's not 'going too far' to demand equality, and we're certainly not there yet.
Laura BatesA huge amount of what feminists are fighting for would have major positive impact for men as well as women. Take the male suicide rate, for example. In part, the problem arises from the idea that men are tough and manly, that 'boys don't cry' and it's embarrassing for them to talk about their feelings. So men are less likely to reach out for help and support with mental health issues. But that gender stereotype, which exists alongside the converse notion that women are over-emotional, 'hysterical', or 'hormonal', is one feminists are fighting hard to debunk.
Laura Bates