<p style="text-align:justify; margin-bottom:11px"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif">According to the United Nations Women's newest report, From Insights to Action (2020), 47 million women and girls were forced into severe poverty due to&nbsp;the pandemic. Furthermore, 70% of worldwide health professionals are female, and they do not enjoy equal compensation with their male colleagues:&nbsp;pay disparity among them&nbsp;in the health sector is larger (28%) than that of the general gender pay gap (17.4%&nbsp;).</span></span></span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify; margin-bottom:11px"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif">Nevertheless, there have been some encouraging signs.</span></span></span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify; margin-bottom:11px"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif">Over the previous decade, the wage gap between men and women in the UK has narrowed slightly, falling by around a quarter for full-time workers and just over one-fifth among all workers.</span></span></span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify; margin-bottom:11px"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif">The pay gap dropped from 17.4 % in 2019 to 15.5% in 2020 among all the employees whereas among full time employees the wage disparity narrowed to 7.4% in 2020 down from 9% in 2019. The salary difference between men and women is greater for all employees than that for part-time and full-time&nbsp;employees. </span></span></span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify; margin-bottom:11px"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif">Even though, gender is a protected characteristic in the United Kingdom, as defined by the 2010 Equality Act (section 3), findings show that women are discriminated in the workplace till this date. Therefore, there is indeed a long way to go until complete gender equality is achieved in the workplace.</span></span></span></p>
