British Vision Issue 84, 英监狱"供不应求"

Today has been declared Women’s No-pay Day. Equality Campaign Unison¹ unions are highlighting the fact that the average woman working fulltime is paid only 80% of what her male counterpart earned per hour. It means that when you compare pay packets the average woman effectively works for nothing from today until the end of the year. Our Money reporter Bridget \ has been out in the bout² with campaigners.
It’s the height of rush-hour in centre London. And as commuters head for the office, campaigners are out in the bout handing out leaflets to highlight the gender³ gap which persists despite the fact that the Equal Pay Act was introduced 30 years ago. Now the Fawcett Society which campaigns for equal policy and the union Unison and joint⁴ forces to demand strong actions from government. 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-time⁵ working woman owns 17% less per hour than her male equivalent. That means those women are losing out massively, earning 4,000 pounds less per year than men, effectively working for nothing from today until the end of the year. People I’ve been talking to are not impressed.
I think it really is just a pant which ah, industry ... oh, yeah, I think it’s disgusting. Thinks about time it needs to be changed.
Well, personally I believe performer does the same job as men should be paid equally. (But, it’s not.) No, I’m… It should be.
Outrages⁶, yeah, but then we will all know women always beyond men, meant they always have to prove themselves that a little bit more.
Well, joining me now are Bronwyn McKenna from Unison and Katherine Rake from the Fawcett Society.
Katherine, can I start with you first? Isn’t it a problem that many women that do different kinds of works, male don’t work part time?
Well, that’s part of the problem that women are concentrate into different kinds of professions. But we’ve undervalued those professions for a very very long time. It’s main ritually that we pay car mechanists more than those look after our children. So we need to begin to address that comical valuation of women’s work.
And where women do do the same jobs as men, why don’t they just demand equal pay? The law is there, to make sure that happens.
No, the law is there, but one thing is that they don’t necessary know that it’s there. They’ve been paid unequally, because we’ve got very a pay systems. It’s very difficult for women to find out whether they’ve been paid equally. Secondary adress is that they know that those cases have enormous emotional penalty, can take many many years. And they know that decorates are often more long if they do take those cases. (OK.) The penalty is too big.
OK. Bronwyn, given what we’ve heard here what do you think the government needs to do, because this situation hasn’t really improved. Did not? Has it?
It hasn’t. The … has to be put on the employers. It’s employers’ legal responsibility to pay the staff. Employers should be required …the pay system, so we can be sure that the payments are followed.
And Katherine said that these cases often take long time. That’s the case, isn’t it?
That is the case. Unison has an experience about 40 years ago. We started to bring claims for women who were denied … pensions because they worked part time. Many of those cases happen to be resulted in women had literally⁷ died waiting for the cases to be concluded.
OK. Thank you very much for talking to us. Well, late today campaigners will be meeting the Minister for Women Harriet Harman. And they will be pressurizing her on to revise and to strengthen the equality legislation in the next parliament.

 

1 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。

2 bout   

n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛

参考例句：

• I was suffering with a bout of nerves.我感到一阵紧张。
• That bout of pneumonia enfeebled her.那次肺炎的发作使她虚弱了。

3 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。

4 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

5 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。

6 outrages   

引起…的义愤，激怒( outrage的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• People are seeking retribution for the latest terrorist outrages. 人们在设法对恐怖分子最近的暴行进行严惩。
• He [She] is not allowed to commit any outrages. 不能任其胡作非为。

7 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。