'They may, contrary to government policy, prefer to rear their own children, rather than farming them out to someone else.'

There lies the key to a better society
The 'me first' age has delivered material wealth but a poorer society

John, N Yorks,

What would happen if everybody gave up children?

Pat, Marlborough,

Finally a bit of common sense in looking at the like-for-like figures for a change - not comparing bread with cheese.
Strange how when the figures favour women it's never a case of worrying about discrimination anymore but simply leaving it at that - says a lot about how lop-sided our society is!

PF, London,

Talk about equality? How about a Minister for Men? How about an English Parliament?

Who speaks for the average Englishman? No-one, and yet he is the one who stumps up most of what the revenue the Government fritters away. Harriet, you are the Tories secret weapon.

Tony Pegg, Leicester, England

The lawyers will have a field day when the one legged ethnic minority male pensioner is turned down for promotion because the company want to promote the 30 year old white female.

Ha ha ha. You've got to laugh!

Tony Pegg, Leicester, England

Given a free market in labour those firms that discriminate unfairly will lose out and either be taken over or go bust.

The utilitarian approach of banning wage secrecy clauses, privatising most of the state sector repealing most equality laws and waiting would cut costs and might just work.

edward green, Upminster,

I'm a white heterosexual male and I am currently looking for a job.

Tell me Harriet, do I stand a chance or should I get on the NHS waiting list for gender re-assignment?

So called positive discrimination is still discrimination, however you choose to label it.

Mike, Hackney,

Here's a key to current UK families: "(Women) may, contrary to government policy, prefer to rear their own children, rather than farming them out to someone else. " But think of all the ZaNu Lab apparatchiks who have now have childcare jobs!
PS T Welsh - as a working man, I'd say all of the above.

Jake, London, UK

She wants equality? How about ploughing billions into mens' health to close the life expectancy gap?

i.e., Norwich, England

As a recently retired male teacher, I would like to know what justice lies in the fact that my female colleagues of the same age can now claim state pension, while I have to wait five years.
Surely this extraordinary unfairness should receive SOME publicity? Imagine it the other way round!!

James, Leeds, Leeds, UK

Have you looked at the gender split on poverty? We need to move beyond thinking it is "just natural" and therefore morally quite OK that so many women are poor all their lives. Our system rewards dozing at an office desk far above tasks such as getting children to the school gates ready to learn.

Janey, Norwich,

Harriet Harman wants to equalise private sector pay by levelling upwards.

Meanwhile the Chancellor is telling the private sector to impose severe pay restraints.

Even after eleven years in power the concept of joined-up government still eludes Labour.

Sean, Surrey, UK

But if women turn out to earn more than men, we''ll certainly be told it's because women are more intelligent; or have better "people skills"; or work harder; or all of the above.

Tom Welsh, Basingstoke,

Part time worker are less productive on average than full time workers. It takes the same amount of time to train them, communicate with them and manage them, leaving less time for productive work. That makes them less valuable, all else being equal, to f/t workers and therefore they are paid less.

Helen, Rugby,

You get a few women like Ann Widdicombe who choose to remain single to pursue careers.
However only a handful of careers, like politics, or academia, or the Church, are worth the sacrifice.

Malcolm McLean, Bradford, UK

If a woman gets married and does the corporate wife thing on top of having her own career, she'll boost her husband's earnings exponentially, making a much higher combined average. Marrying wisely is a man's best career boost. The key is for both halves of the married team to work in tandem.

Lizzie, London,

Maybe it is not so much attitudes toward women that need to change, but attitudes toward family and work/life balance. Men who refuse to put in the long hours so they can be home with their families in the evening and on weekends are equally closed out of promotions and fat bonuses.

Rebecca McKinney, Lasswade, Scotland

From the naturalistic point of view, people are equal. There are only two exceptions to this rule of naturalistic equality: geniuses and idiots, and we pay the geniuses more, lets face facts, lets not distort the truth, men and women are considered equal, and in allot of ways, women have more rights

Dane Arries, newcastle, northumberland

Re Any Takers? I believe stats show there are many takers for the option you suggest. More and more young women are choosing to remain single & childless in order to pursue a career. I'm older, I married 7 had 2 sons, but now, divorced & childfree, I've gone back to a career and will remain single.

Donna Walker, Effingham, England

Different does not mean unequal. America is looking aghast at your government's proposal -- it is inane, naive or most likely disingenuous to assert that the gender pay gap is the product of discrimination. If there's discrimination, you deal with it; you don't fight it with more discrimination.

Tim Murray, Pittsburgh PA , USA

And that's only for 10p!
You're just taking the Mickey.

Jane, Colchester, GB

Harman compares full-time men with part-time women but does she take into a/c job spec?. Some jobs cannot be part time. For equality, given that there is a Minister for women shouldn't there also be a Minister for Men whereby the post should only be taken by a man (or is that discrimination?)

John Goode, Welwyn Garden City, UK

Any takers? Er, just the odd 10 million (20%) who won't reproduce.

And most of us know fine well that there's no innate pay gap, thanks. It's the coupled, childed, mothers that can't get their heads round this obvious concept.

Vicky, Germany,

Gross 'median weekly rates' are simply irrelevant. The only figures that mean anything are experience-corrected figures for the same job. The further entrenchment of pro-female bigotry in our judicial system continues apace...

Nick, Rotherham, UK