British Vision Issue 79, 女性呼吁收入平等

Today has been declared the women’s “no pay” day. Equality campaign in unions are highlighting the average women working fulltime is paid only 80 percent of what her male counterparts earns per hour. It means when you compare pay packets average women is actually work for nothing from today until the end of the year. Our Money reporter** Are asking about with campaigners.
It’s the height of rush our in central London. And as commuters head for the office, campaigners *are handing out leaflets to highlight the gender¹ pay gap which persists despite the fact that the Equal Pay Act was introduced 30 years ago. Now the Fawcett Society which campaigns the equality and the union in Unison² who join the forces demand strong actions from governments. They say that action on equal pay is so slow that it will take 80 years for women’s pay to catch up with men’s pay unless something is done. Official statistics show that the average full-time³ working women earns 17% less per hour than her male equivalent. That means those women are losing out massively earning 4000 ponds less per year than man. They * working for nothing from today to the end of the year. People we are talking to are not impressed.
“I think it really just depend on which industry you are in, oh yeah I think it’s disgusting. Things about this must be changed “
“Well, personally I believe women are as essentially⁴ as men they should be paid equally. “
“but they are not “
“no, um but should be”
“outrageous yeah but women ***prove themselves a little bit more “
Well join me now on Bronwyn McKenna from Unison and Katherine Rake from the Fawcett Society. Katherine can I start with you first?. Is it the problem that many women just do different kinds of works and man work part time?”
“That’s part of the problem that women are concentrated on different kinds of professions. But we are undervalued on professions for a very long time. It’s a *** Can’t look after our children. So we must in valuation women’s work. And when women do do the same job as men why they don’t just demand equal pay? The law is there ** happens?
“The law is there, but one thing is they don’t necessarily know that they are paid unequally. Because we have got very * pay system. It’s very difficult for women to find out whether they have been paid equally. Secondly⁵ they know those kind of cases enormous penalty can take many many years**** the penalties are too big. “
Bronwyn from what we’ve heard here what do you think the government need to do? Because this situation hasn’t really improved has it?
“It hasn’t, the owners has to been good employers It’s owner’s legal responsibility to pay their staff. Employers should be required to order their pay system to be sure their payments are fair. “
And Katherine said these cases often take a long time, that’s the case isn’t it?
“That’s the case. Unison has the experience that 15 years ago we started to bring claims for women who would deny that suspensions because they were part-time. Many of those cases have to be result women literally⁶ died waiting for their cases to be concluded.”
Ok, thank you very much for talking to us. Well later today campaigners will be meeting ministers for women Harriet Harman and they will be pressuring on her to revise and strengthen equality legislation in the next parliament.

1 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

2 unison   

n.步调一致，行动一致

参考例句：

• The governments acted in unison to combat terrorism.这些国家的政府一致行动对付恐怖主义。
• My feelings are in unison with yours.我的感情与你的感情是一致的。

3 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

4 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

5 secondly   

adv.第二，其次

参考例句：

• Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
• Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。

6 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。