Gender Equality Duty

The Gender Equality Duty came into force in April 2007. All public authorities in England, Wales and Scotland must demonstrate that they are promoting equality for women and men and that they are eliminating sexual discrimination and harassment.

There is a legal responsibility on public authorities to show that they treat men and women fairly in their policy making, public services, and employment practices.

In addition to any specialist equality staff, it will also be necessary to build the skills and understanding of relevant staff within the public authority, for example policy and service managers, procurement staff, and human resource managers. Where an authority is subject to the specific duties, relevant staff throughout the organisation will have to have the skills to collect and analyse gender data, to ensure that stakeholders are consulted effectively and to undertake gender impact assessments. These skills will also be useful for authorities which are subject to the general duty only. In some specialist areas, such as understanding the needs of transsexual people, public authorities may wish to obtain external assistance.

It is recommended that all relevant staff in the public authority should have some understanding of the duty, its meaning for their work and the authority's priority goals in gender equality. This can be achieved by staff briefing, and where relevant, training programmes, and by building goals and targets relevant to the duty into individual personal development plans across the organisation. It can also be supported by recognising progress in achieving gender equality when rewarding individual and team performance.