According to the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), ‘in 2019 the gender pay gap was 17.3% in the UK, which means that on average, women were paid approximately 83p for every £1 men were paid’. It is frequently believed that in modern day society we are reaching a solid level of equality, although this statistic suggests otherwise. On average, women carry out 60% more unpaid work than men. Women spend around twice as much time on unpaid cooking, childcare and housework than men 

In 2021, the United Kingdom ranked 23rd on the global gender gap index, placing it behind other European countries such as France, Germany, and Ireland .In the UK women are paid just 90p for every £1 earned by men. There are more men in senior positions than there are women, therefore amplifying the divide in pay between sexes. 

For example, looking at the NHS, ‘the figures show that, despite women making up over three quarters of NHS staff, they are still in the minority in senior roles’. This imbalance underlines the way in which women are still underrepresented in higher positions in the working world. 

According to Michelle J. Budwig a sociology professor from the University of Massachusetts, ‘for each child a woman has, her wage will decrease by about 4 percent, even when a variety of factors are taken into account’. Following this, she continues to say, ‘when a man has a child, however, his earnings increase by 6 percent with the same factors taken into account’. After absorbing this information, it can easily be understood that parenthood only augments the wage inequality between sexes, continuing to favour men.