Do Men and women have equal rights?

• This topic has been in the news a lot recently. Because of equal rights more women go to work and earn a fair salary. I think Tessa Jowell is making too big a deal out of this, the majority of women are happy in their job and working environment. This is all that matters.

• Pregnant women wont exactly want to apply for a job when they know in a few months they will go on maternity leave. This is why employers tend not to employ pregnant women, not because they are women, but because they know that they will have to get in temporary staff until they come back to work, which will cost them more money in the long run, but if the women has been in the same company for a long time and she becomes pregnant, the company has to pay her full salary for around 6 months whilst on maternity leave and she will have her job to go back to when the maternity leave is up, and it has been known for men to take maternity leave so the same rules apply for him.

We have come to the conclusion that in most cases men and women do have equal rights, but the minority of people still feel that only men should be pilots and only women should be hair dresses. This minority is stopping the development in the fight for equal rights. Thank you for listening to our views.

Do Men and women have equal rights?

I feel that men and women don’t have equal rights in Britain today. But for the last 30 years women have tried to make it equal, but have never been granted a guarantee for the rights of women. There are many things that come under “equal rights”.

• Equal pay is one of the them; women want their pay to be that of the same as men. The government hope to appoint people called “champions” to try and close the gap between men and women’s pay. These people will include Margaret Prosser, deputy general secretary of the transport and general workers union, and Margaret Wall National officer of the manufacturing science and finance union. 13% of women say they have been denied access to performance related work or work bonuses.

• Women don’t have equal chances of getting some so called “manly jobs” such as management, doctors, plumbers, engineers, and the list goes on. But why shouldn’t women become engineers, and men nurses? It’s all about what people think is right, but the question is what is right? How is it that one woman who is more capable, of becoming a doctor have less chance of getting the job than a man. It is said that British men on average earn £116 more per week than their female colleagues.

• Employment minister Tessa Jowell said on BBC news “ we have more women in work than ever before. But for every pound a man earns, a women working in a broadly equivalent job gets 81 pence” She has pledged to work with businesses to improve opportunities for women.

• Women maybe discriminated because of pregnancy and maternity leave, as this is an inseparably link between them, they may be refused a job, promotion or training.

After hearing our discussion on the point of equal rights for men and women, how many of you feel that men and women do have equal rights in our community to this day. Does anyone have any questions?