Law student speaks up for gender pay inequality
22 Ionawr 2014
Cardiff Law School student Lauren Williams has scored top marks in an essay writing competition.
Run by the National Council of Women of Great Britain, the aim of the competition was to discover how engaged young women in their teens and twenties are with politics, and what answers a fresh generation of political thinkers have to the most pressing issues affecting women of all ages today.
Entrants were asked 'If you could influence Government to take action on one issue to improve the lives of women and girls, what would it be?’
Lauren from Knighton in Powys, and in the final year of a Law and French degree at Cardiff, was named the Wales Regional Winner for her entry that looked at the gender pay gap and how it needs to be changed.
Lauren said, “It is forty years since the first Equal Pay laws were passed and it’s hard to understand how this gender gap continues to exist. It's great to be recognised by the NCW as having written a good essay addressing such an important issue.”
The National Council of Women President, Elsie Leadley, said: “When we launched this competition we had no idea how exciting it would become – hundreds of young women from all over England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, from a variety of backgrounds and establishments, even Her Majesty’s prisons, joined in. As one of our judges said ‘This is the opportunity of a lifetime to experience being at the forefront of policy making on the world stage’. These entries provided an illuminating insight into concerns our young women have about life for women today”.
These were well argued proposals and there is no doubt that we would want to take these forward to Government. We shall also be linking the finalists with our Policy Committees so that they can be involved in NCW’s work, seeking change and improvement in our society”.