The Gender Equality Duty and separation
“The duty requires organisations to take action on the most important gender equality issues within their functions. The promotion of equal opportunities between women and men requires public authorities to recognise that the two groups are not starting from an equal footing and identical treatment will not always be appropriate.” From Overview of the Gender Equality Duty, EOC 2007
As organisations and practitioners we have a statutory obligation to meet the Gender Equality Duty….
But this is also an opportunity for us to improve outcomes for children:
- Half of children are male, and half are female: the gender aspect of positive self-identity is an important element of children’s resilience
- 50% of children’s potential support post separation is female, and 50% male
- Children need to understand how to make positive relationships with females and males, now, as adults and as future parents
The GED is highly relevant in separation work, because:
- Services for children and families have historically been predominantly female staffed and mother focussed
- Parents are less likely to trust and engage openly with any service in which they do not see their gender reasonably well represented
- Separation evokes strong emotions in families, and in practitioners – these can sometimes be divided along gender lines
- Men and women can have a very different perception of their separation experience, especially if non-resident. Their needs may be different
- There is an ongoing debate about gender discrimination in separation outcomes – it is important to be scrupulous in this
“Women are frequently disadvantaged by policies and practices that do not recognise their greater caring responsibilities, the different pattern of their working lives, their more limited access to resources and their greater vulnerability to domestic violence and sexual assault. Men are also disadvantaged by workplace cultures that do not support their family or childcare responsibilities, by family services that assume they have little or no role in parenting, or by health services which do not recognise their different needs. Both sexes suffer from stereotyping of their roles and needs” From GED Code of Practice For
“In order to meet its gender equality duty a public authority should consider whether it should be adopting certain positive action measures with a view to overcoming under-representation of members of one sex in its jobs and jobs carried out on its behalf by its contractors.” From “Guidance for
Useful Resources on separation and the GED:
Download materials produced for Rochdale MBC Parenting Support Team’s borough-wide multi-agency approach to the Gender Equality Duty including which includes separation-specific and father-specific content:
Overview of the approach: a PowerPoint presentation delivered at the DCSF conference for parenting commissioners in
Gender Equality Duty toolkit:
- A one page flow chart introduction to the GED (pdf) highlighting typical areas of concern
- A one page check list (pdf) to quickly identify where your organisation is up to in terms of gender equality
- A word document laying out relevant guidance and including an comprehensive editable table with prompts suggesting things for your organisation to consider (separation inclusive)
- A one page pdf of diagrams moving from a presenting parent to a whole family child-centred approach
For the official full-length guidance documents on the Gender Equality Duty on the Equal Opportunities Commission website go to: