From the education to the workplace, politics and crime, Britons say equality for women and girls is yet to be achieved
Despite generations of women and their male allies battling to achieve equality of the sexes, Britons generally still think there’s work to be done in the UK.
The large majority of the public maintain equality for women and girls has not yet been achieved across several key areas, from home and family life to work, education, media representation, crime and politics.
Education is where the largest proportion of Britons believe equality has already been won – but even then, just 20% say so.
Half (52%) say the UK is “very” or “fairly” close to achieving equality in education, but 17% say it is not yet close to being achieved.
One in ten Britons (10%) think there’s equality for women and girls in the workplace, while 41% say the country is close to achieving equality and 38% say it’s not close.
The area where work is most needed, according to most Britons, is around crime.
Just 7% of the public say women and girls’ experience of crime is on a par with men’s, while 52% say equality in this area is not close to being achieved – 20%, however, believe equality is close.
Across every measure asked, men are notably more likely than women to suggest equality for women and girls has already been achieved.
The most significant gender gaps are around media representation (24% of men believe equality is achieved compared to 8% of women), education (28% to 13%) and politics (19% to 7%).
Half of Britons believe the UK still needs feminism
The efforts of feminists are still needed in the UK, according to half of Britons (50%), including 20% who say there’s a great deal of need for feminism in the UK at the moment.
However, three in ten Britons believe there’s not very much need (22%) or no need at all (8%) for feminism in this country.
At 59% to 41%, women are more likely than men to believe feminism is still needed, with young women most likely to say so – 69% of 18 to 29-year-old women say feminism is needed, compared to 47% of women aged 65 and over.
Those who are 65 and older are generally least likely to think the UK needs feminism, with just 32% of men in that age group saying so compared to between 42% and 45% of men of other ages.
Picture: Getty
