Research shows that the world has a long way to go to achieve gender equality. Despite decades of progress, millions of women and girls still deal with violence and discrimination. 

Watch the Ted Talk by Michael Kimmel above.

You are welcome to leave your comments below.

 While most believe that gender equality is a worthy goal, why is it good for everyone?

Why should it be such a high priority? Is gender equality or equity important?

Education may be the key to solving broader American inequality, but we have to solve educational inequality first. Harvard’s Ronald Ferguson, director of The Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University, says there is progress being made, there are encouraging examples to emulate, that an early start is critical, and that a lot of hard work lies ahead. But he also says, “There’s nothing more important we can do."

Do you think that education could be the silver bullet to solve socio-economic inequality? Is education alone sufficient to reduce the inequality gap?

In the video above, Dr Sridhar Venkatapuram, Senior Lecturer and Acting Deputy Director of King’s Global Health Institute, discusses the vulnerabilities and interconnectedness made visible by the pandemic, and the ethical necessity to centre human welfare and wellbeing in policymaking practice.

In what ways do you think Covid-19 and inequality may be linked?

We feel instinctively that societies with huge income gaps are somehow going wrong.

In the Ted Talk above, Richard Wilkinson charts the hard data on economic inequality, and shows what gets worse when rich and poor are too far apart: real effects on health, lifespan, even such basic values as trust.

How would the world or a country be different if income gaps were reduced or eradicated?

The United States is one of the world's wealthiest countries, but also has one of the worst inequality problems. Matthew Desmond, a sociology professor at Princeton University, speaks to CBSN in the video report above to discuss what's contributed to this nationwide issue.

Housing inequality has far reaching impacts. One of these is the impact on mental health and wellbeing.

A 2019 report entitled, Creating a Wellbeing Society, has found that people with mental health problems are more likely to be in housing need – finding themselves in rented accommodation, social housing, and in overcrowded or poor housing. This is partly linked to their lower socioeconomic life chances brought about by wider inequalities.

Professor Pickett, the co-author of international bestsellers The Spirit Level, and The Inner Level, has revealed how people living in societies with large income gaps are more likely to suffer from a wide range of health and social problems compared to those living in more equal societies. This includes the psychological effects of social stress and more prevalent mental health problems. 

Precarious private tenancies, forced frequent moves, the threat of eviction, and the location of rented housing in deprived locations, all exacerbate mental health problems and reduce wellbeing.

Homelessness is both a cause of, and a symptom of, poor mental health and low wellbeing.

Half of homeless people have been diagnosed with a mental health problem, compared to one quarter of the general population.

A third of homeless people have reported suicidal thoughts and two thirds have panic attacks.

Over two thirds of homeless people have felt depressed.

1 in 10 homeless people have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.

Two fifths of homeless people have had drug or alcohol problems.

Status anxiety, often stemming from inequalities in social class, is stoked by negative portrayals in the media and the stereotyping of social housing as a ‘tenure of last resort’. 

Social stigma remains a problem for many social tenants, and can compound things if a tenant is experiencing difficult financial circumstances. This includes debt, which is strongly associated with poor mental health.

How do you think individual countries and their governments could tackle housing inequality?

Racial discrimination is when you are treated differently because of your race in one of the situations covered by the Equality Act.

There are four main types of race discrimination.

Direct discrimination

This happens when someone treats you worse than another person in a similar situation because of your race. For example: if a letting agency would not let a flat to you because of your race, this would be direct race discrimination

Indirect discrimination

This happens when an organisation has a particular policy or way of working that puts people of your racial group at a disadvantage. For example: a hairdresser refuses to employ stylists that cover their own hair, this would put any Muslim women or Sikh men who cover their hair at a disadvantage when applying for a position as a stylist

Sometimes indirect race discrimination can be permitted if the organisation or employer is able to show to show that there is a good reason for the discrimination. This is known as objective justification. For example: a Somalian asylum seeker tries to open a bank account but the bank states that in order to be eligible you need to have been resident in the UK for 12 months and have a permanent address. The Somalian man is not able to open a bank account. The bank would need to prove that its policy was necessary for business reasons (such as to prevent fraud) and that there was no practical alternative

Harassment

Harassment occurs when someone makes you feel humiliated, offended or degraded. For example: a young British Asian man at work keeps being called a racist name by colleagues. His colleagues say it is just banter, but the employee is insulted and offended by it.

Harassment can never be justified. However, if an organisation or employer can show it did everything it could to prevent people who work for it from behaving like that, you will not be able to make a claim for harassment against it, although you could make a claim against the harasser.

Victimisation

This is when you are treated badly because you have made a complaint of race related discrimination under the Equality Act. It can also occur if you are supporting someone who has made a complaint of race related discrimination. For example: the young man in the example above wants to make a formal complaint about his treatment. His manager threatens to sack him unless he drops the complaint

In the Equality Act, race can mean your colour, or your nationality (including your citizenship). It can also mean your ethnic or national origins, which may not be the same as your current nationality. For example, you may have Chinese national origins and be living in Britain with a British passport.

Race also covers ethnic and racial groups. This means a group of people who all share the same protected characteristic of ethnicity or race. 

A racial group can be made up of two or more distinct racial groups, for example black Britons, British Asians, British Sikhs, British Jews, Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers.

You may be discriminated against because of one or more aspects of your race, for example people born in Britain to Jamaican parents could be discriminated against because they are British citizens, or because of their Jamaican national origins.

These are the facts of racial discrimination.

What do you think the impact of racial discrimination in any country could be for individuals, communities and governments?