International Women’s Day 2025 is a time to reflect on how we treat women. And it’s as relevant now as it’s ever been. Perhaps even more so. We see daily around the world how gender rights are being eroded, from bodily autonomy to rolling back of DEI initiatives. This campaign offers solutions to the very real fact that people are not treated equally.
It’s alarming that in countries with human rights laws that are meant to stop gender disparity, we still find them. One of the most common is gender pay gaps.
According to the World Economic Forum, it’ll take 133 years at the current rate for men and women to be economically equal. So, fittingly, this year’s campaign theme is #AccelerateAction, and is about promoting initiatives that work.
Narrowing the gender pay gap
The gender pay gap shows the difference between the average (mean or median) earnings of men and women. This is expressed as a positive number of what men earn in relation to women. For example, 10% means men earn more, whereas -10% means women earn less… It’s ironic to think that the tool used to account for gender inequality is in itself, termed as a positive for men, and a negative for women!
In the UK, the gender pay gap is still a staggering 7% for full-time workers. That means men, on average, make 7% more than women doing the same job, based on average hourly earnings. If yo ufactor in all types of jobs, this goes up to 13%.
It’s difficult to believe that in 2025 this is the reality faced by over half the population of the UK. The good news is that it’s decreasing, albeit slowly. In 2023 the pay gap was 7.5% for full-time jobs, and 14.2% for all types. These are just a few reasons why we campaign and champion International Women’s Day. We want to raise awareness that it IS possible to change inequalities.
Almost zero
We’re proud that as a charity with diverse employees, our gender pay gap is less than 1%.
In the 2023-2024 period, our pay gap is -0.21% and our median gender pay gap is -0.54%! You might notice the minus symbols there. That’s because woman are paid ever so slightly more at The YOU Trust. In fact, our CEO Hayley Connor is a woman, and exactly half our operational directors are too. If we can do it, then other organisations can too!
Of course, the gender pay gap is not the only thing that affects women disproportionally. Domestic abuse is something that affects one in four women in the UK, and we run services to help assist them.
If you’d like to help support women escaping domestic abuse, you can donate to our Paragon service.
