The Public Sector Gender Duty also known Gender Equality Duty (GED) was established by the Equality Act 2006. The GED require public authorities, when carrying out all their functions, to have due regard to the need:
- To eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment on the grounds of sex
- To promote equality of opportunity between women and men
The English specific duties require each organisation to:
- Prepare and publish a gender equality scheme, showing how it will meet its general and specific duties and setting out its gender equality objectives.
- In formulating its overall objectives, consider the need to include objectives to address the causes of any gender pay gap.
- Gather and use information on how the public authority's policies and practices affect gender equality in the workforce and in the delivery of services.
- To consult stakeholders (i.e. employees, service users and others, including trade unions) and take account of relevant information in order to determine its gender equality objectives.
- To assess the impact of its current and proposed policies and practices on gender equality.
- To implement the actions set out in its scheme within three years, unless it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so.
- To report against the scheme every year and review the scheme at least every three years.
Those public authorities in England that are subject to the specific duties must publish their gender equality schemes by 30th April 2007. There are a number of resources which assist organisations develop their gender equality Schemes.
Download the Overview of the Public Sector Gender Duty