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Before the lockdown, the UK’s women were underpaid by £126 billion. What can they expect when the world wakes up again?

In the post-pandemic world of work, might we return to something better than normal by closing the gender gaps that have prevailed over the last half century? This is the big question being asked in a new report published today by charity Pro Bono Economics.

The Pro Bono Economics report, Women’s Work: policy, pay, progress and the penalties that remain, details the gains made by women in the labour market over the last half century – with, for instance, the gap between male and female employment rates narrowing from 38 percentage points in the early 1970s to 8 percentage points at the end of 2019. But it also highlights the need to narrow the substantial gender gaps that persist in relation to job quality, pay and the burden of unpaid work.