UK & Ireland News: UNA Wales Wants Gender Equality Issues at the Cabinet Table

The United Nations Association of Wales (UNA Wales) has launched a petition, aimed at pressuring the Welsh Assembly Government into creating a cabinet post for a Welsh Minister of Gender Equality. With similarly populous countries, such as Denmark and New Zealand, having already developed equivalent positions within their governments, UNA Wales feels that it is high time gender issues were granted ministerial attention and resources in the form of an office dedicated solely to eroding economic, political, and social disparities between men and women.

According to UNA Wales, there are many reasons to justify such a political move: 150,000 women in Wales suffer from some form of gender based domestic violence every year; the pay gap in Wales has increased to 12.7%, up from 10.3% in 2009; desperate need to ensure that women and men are respected and treated equally in all areas of life, for example, there is not a single women's prison in the whole of Wales, meaning that mothers struggle to see their families and friends due to being locked up in distant places.

You can sign the petition here.

For more information on gender equality issues, please visit www.unwomen.org