Introduction

Over the last thirty or so years, equality legislation has gradually been put in place in many Western countries. Equal treatment of men and women was a founding principle of the European Economic Community when it was founded in 1957, long before gender equality appeared in national agendas (Rees 1998, p. 1). Over this period, gender discrimination law has been enacted in the EU, with the development of extensive case law by the European Court of Justice. Taking the UK as a paradigm example, it has been illegal to discriminate on the grounds of gender since the mid 1970s (Equal Pay Act, Sex Discrimination Act). The European Commission designated 2007 as the ‘European Year of Equal Opportunities for All’. This involved an information campaign, and ‘Equality Summit’ and a framework strategy on non-discrimination and equal opportunities, which aimed to ensure that EU legislation in this field is properly implemented and where a number of EU member states were condemned for failing to apply EU equality legislation properly. Since the introduction of gender equality law, legislation addressing race and disability discrimination has followed. Age, religion and sexuality discrimination are the latest equality legislation to enter the statute books in the UK and legislation aimed at all these forms of discrimination will shortly be wrapped into a single equalities bill.