This year marks a century since women were granted voting rights. A lot has happened under the banner of equality since that date, however, the recent news about pay inequality concerning former news editor Carrie Gracie shows that there is still a long way to go -; even a century later.

Ms Gracie is a Scottish journalist who was employed by the BBC in a career that spanned three decades, latterly as the China editor for BBC News. Ms Gracie recently resigned from her post citing ‘gender pay discrimination for international news editors’ on discovering the substantial gap between her pay and that of her male counterparts. An Early Day Motion on the matter of pay inequality has been proposed during the first week of this year’s Parliament by the honourable Member for Cardiff Central, Jo Stevens.

The Motion leads with the resignation of Ms Gracie serving to highlight the ‘anger and frustration’ of many women journalists that a swifter resolution has not been reached to the scourge of unequal pay. The aim of the Motion is to call upon the Government to take action so that pay inequality is addressed across not only in the media and broadcasting industries more generally, but that effective sanctions are served on all employers who seek to flout pay legislation.

MP for Reading East Matt Rodda has shown his support to the EDM by giving it his endorsement, and said:

“It is a century since women gained the vote, and in Reading and Woodley there are community groups arranging a programme of events to mark this important milestone this year.”

He added:

“It is disappointing therefore, that even today we still see instances of gender inequality, and this very public and high profile instance of pay inequality serves as testimony that more needs to be done. I’m proud to sign the Motion by the honourable Member for Cardiff Central, which highlights the fact that we still have a long way to go before issues such as pay inequality become a thing of the past.”