The Gender Equality Duty in Local Government: The Prospects for Integration

Abstract

The Gender Equality Duty (GED) is a legal requirement on all Great Britain public authorities, when carrying out their functions, to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment on grounds of sex and to promote equality of opportunity between men and women. The GED came into effect in April 2007 when it was hailed as ‘The biggest change in sex equality legislation in thirty years, since the introduction of the Sex Discrimination Act itself’.1 The GED was the last of the three equality duties following the Race Equality Duty in 2001 and the Disability Equality Duty in 2006. The GED is incorporated into the public sector equality duty along with three new areas (sexuality, religious belief and age) in the Equality Act 2010 and will come into force in 2011. While there was general support for the introduction of an expanded single equality duty,...