Leading article: Bridge the pay gap - it is outdated discrimination

Yesterday was declared Equal Pay day by the Party of European Socialists. By coincidence, Wimbledon, that last bastion of conservatism on the international tennis circuit, announced that it was embracing equal prize money. Whoever wins the women's tournament at the All England Club this summer will take home the same as the winning male player. Some will find it hard to get worked up about the pay differentials of a handful of wealthy tennis players. But the gender pay gap is an issue that effects the whole of our society, from the richest to the poorest.

There is a 15 per cent pay gap between men and women across Europe. The situation is particularly bad in Britain. A report by the Women and Work Commission last year found that women in full-time work are earning 17 per cent less than men on average. It is true that there has been considerable improvement over the years. When women first began to enter the workforce, they went into jobs such as nursing and teaching and were offered no prospect of advancement. Now significant numbers of women enter professions such as the law and medicine every year. They are increasingly well represented as heads of professional bodies and national arts organisations. Overall, since 1975, the pay gap has narrowed by 12 percentage points.

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This has prompted some to argue that the remaining income disparities are a result simply of women preferring to devote themselves to family life rather than careers. The truth is more insidious. Although discrimination is less overt nowadays, it still goes on. One of the ways is through informal job segregation. "Women's jobs" such as caring, catering and cleaning tend to be poorly paid. Women are also disproportionately represented in part-time work. At the other end of the scale, women come up against the notorious glass ceiling. High-achieving professional women still find it hard to get into managerial and other senior positions. In business, the judiciary and the police, only one in ten of senior roles are held by women.

And women of all aptitudes find themselves squeezed by inflexible management attitudes. The Government has introduced more generous maternity leave arrangements. But one of the unintended consequences of this is that a pregnancy often seems to result in redundancy. Meanwhile, flexible working for young mothers is often frowned upon. It is little wonder that women often feel they are better off at home or in part-time work (where they have more flexibility) when they are treated so shabbily. A deep gender bias remains in the world of employment. And it is quite wrong to suggest that the status quo is somehow natural.

The solution does not lie in more legislation. Directives on equal pay have been part of EU law since the mid-1970s. In the UK, the Equal Pay Act made it illegal to pay women less for doing the same job. There is little more the statute book can accomplish.

The Party of European Socialists is calling for a network of national gender equality organisations to promote pre-school childcare that will enable more women to return to work. The Women and Work Commission wants better careers advice for girls and vocational training for women returning to work after having children. The trade unions in Britain are calling for compulsory pay reviews to increase transparency. There is something to be said for this. Often women simply do not realise that a male colleague doing precisely the same job is being paid more. Armed with this knowledge, they can stand up for their rights.

Such avenues deserve exploration. The pay gap is a form of discrimination that seems to be accepted by too many people. It is time to close it.