Britain’s Sex Discrimination Act is turning 50, so how much longer until women have equal pay?

Baroness Lockwood (right), the first chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission, and Lady Howe, the deputy chair, at their office in London on 21 September 1976.
Photograph: Keystone/Getty Images

BBC News reported confidently on the passing of the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) 1975 under the headline “New laws to end battle of the sexes”. Ronald Bell QC, Conservative MP for Beaconsfield, predicted catastrophe. “The good it will do will be microscopic and the harm will be immense,” he thundered in the House of Commons. Half a century later, as the 50th anniversary approaches, has the honourable gentleman been proved right or wrong?

The Sex Discrimination Act protected women and men from direct and indirect discrimination on grounds of sex or marital status. The new law covered employment, education, training, harassment and the provision of goods and services. Almost overnight, “firemen” became “firefighters”.