As part of the Year 10 Upper School Enrichment Programme a number of girls have been participating in a Model United Nations elective.  Representing China, Denmark, the Maldives, South Korea and the USA, the girls researched their country’s perspective on pay and gender.  Each country then presented the current state of the gender pay gap in their country, and what initiatives (if any) are being taken to reduce this gap.

The countries then negotiated with each other to try and gain support for their initiatives and to come up with resolutions to deal with this issue.  The USA entered into an alliance with Denmark to put forward a resolution based upon education policies aimed at ensuring equality is embedded in the curriculum.  This was supported by both South Korea and China whose proposal to encourage more women to study STEM subjects was added to the resolution.  The Maldives raised concerns that this amounted to a politicisation of education policy.  South Korea presented a resolution based upon an Equal Employment Opportunities Act where companies have to ensure that they are paying employees equally, and encourage women to return to work after maternity leave.  The USA, Denmark and China supported this policy.

Finally, China recommended a global audit aimed at monitoring progress made towards minimising the gender pay gap.

The girls had carried out extensive research into their country’s policies and worked hard to present their ideas.  There were excellent skills of debating and negotiation demonstrated too.  Well done to all who participated.