Thirty years ago, the case of Automotive Products Limited v Peake made history by becoming the first sex discrimination case to reach the Court of Appeal. Curiously, it was brought by a group of male employees.

Mr Peake and his colleagues worked at a factory in Leamington Spa. The workforce at the factory numbered 4,000, of which only 400 were women. At the end of the day, the women were allowed to clock off five minutes early, at 4.25pm, while the men had to stay until 4.30pm in order to protect the women from being jostled in the rush through the gates. In a memorable judgment dismissing the claim, Lord Denning reminded the parties that “it is not discrimination for mankind to treat womankind with courtesy and chivalry which we have been taught to believe is the right conduct in our society”.

Thankfully, sex discrimination law has moved on in the last 30 years and we would be unlikely now to find chivalrous conduct cited as a defence to a sex discrimination claim. However, despite legislation having been in place for a generation, women still have to fight for equal rights in the workplace. Indeed, while it may now be widely accepted that women should have equal rights at work, it does not take much scratching around to discover that discrimination on the grounds of gender persists.

Only last year, research commissioned to coincide with the inception of the Commission for Human Rights revealed that women in full-time employment earn on average 17 per cent less than their male equivalents. Those working part-time are paid a staggering 41 per cent less.

In 2005, the Equal Opportunities Commission found that 200,000 women were discriminated against in the UK each year, simply for being pregnant. Of those, 30,000 were dismissed.

Earlier this year, the Equalities Review announced that working mothers with children under 11 are 45 per cent less likely to be employed than men. This is more than just a moral shame, but an economic disaster: the underemployment of women is estimated to cost the UK £28 billion a year.

It became illegal to pay women less than men 36 years ago, yet it took until 1997 – ten years ago this month – for local councils to end pay discrimination on gender grounds. The local councils’ failure to take action has led to more than 10,000 equal pay claims being brought across the UK, slowly spreading south from the North and clogging tribunals as it does.

Last month, the Government commenced consultation on the Single Equalities Act, a piece of legislation that could justify another separate article on its own. For some time, the Government has been planning to overhaul the various discrimination legislation and consolidate it into a single act – now, after several years of research, we have the first green paper. It has been almost universally panned. At one meeting at City Hall, a representative of the Trades Union Congress described it as “a monumental waste of opportunity”, while a spokesperson from the Disability Rights Commission said it “puts a bulldozer through ten years of disability rights”. It seems very little attention has been paid to the groups the legislation is intended to benefit. In some ways, it could even reduce the protection against discrimination currently available.

Thirty years on from Automotive Products Limited v Peake, it is clear there is still a long way to go.

Samantha Mangwana is a solicitor in the employment law team at Russell Jones & Walker

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