Gender inequality is the big economic question of our times

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Women at work earn less than their male counterparts, according to a high profile group of MPs (iStock)

The troubling statistics in Josie Cox's article illustrating gender inequality should serve as an impetus for transformational change in our societies.

Women are half of the population. They shoulder the colossal burden of caring for aged parents, raising children and catering for the needs of families. It is lamentable that we still have a long and arduous way to go before attaining gender parity and bridging the yawning divides between males and females. This necessitates a new mindset, a new school of thinking and novel and innovative enterprises to break these insurmountable barriers and address the social, economic and environmental priorities that define our generation.

Dr Munjed Farid al Qutob
London NW2

Modern discrimination

The heterosexual couple, Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan, who have lost their Court of Appeal battle to have a civil partnership, may be correct in suggesting the decision breaches equalities legislation. But isn’t this a fuss about nothing? Civil partnerships weren’t introduced until 2005 in the UK – the very first time same-sex relationships were recognised and protected in law, when marriage wasn’t an option. Legislation and social attitudes have changed in the past 50 years in the UK, but discrimination still exists against gay and lesbian people. And the position is worse for the transgender community, potentially with issues around mental health, financial, employment and social isolation.

Steinfeld and Keidan may be the victims of discrimination – but come on, guys, get over yourselves.

Martin Redfern
Edinburgh

What is education for?

It didn't take me long since I started Year 10 at school to understand that much of the emphasis is not actually on the content (however useful it may be for our lives after formal education) but on the structure by which we are meant to organise our answers in the exam. For instance, my history lessons suddenly stopped being about history and turned into an extra English lesson where we concentrated for hours on exam techniques and occasionally looked at context and background information. This was a saddening realisation for a young history buff.

I thought that I went to school for the past nine years to learn what I needed to learn, and that examinations were put in place to assess and measure how much I had learned. But it turns out the secondary education is much focused on simply preparing the pupils for standardised and nationwide exams.

But not everyone wins the battle. Academically bright students sometimes fail perform as well as they should, only because they didn't follow the dictated structure. Surely that’s unfair. In order to tackle the exams and to generally keep your head above the water, you need robotic qualities: a good memory instead of a mind for critical thinking.

I ask whomever it may concern, from the Education Secretary to examiners and educators, to go back to their offices and have a good think about what education is and how it can be implemented.

Ali Khosravi, Year 10 school pupil
Address withheld

Lessons for Brexit Britain

I am struck by the fact that the Portuguese government has slashed the debt-heavy country’s budget deficit to its lowest level in more than 40 years, despite warnings that its anti-austerity policies could spell financial disaster. Some other eurozone countries expressed alarm when the centre-left Socialist government, with the support of the Communist Party and Left Bloc, took power in 2015 on an anti-austerity platform.

Portugal needed a €78bn bailout in 2011, after recording a deficit of more than 11 per cent the previous year, and eurozone officials feared it could go into another debt spiral under the Socialists. However, the government’s budget last year cut taxes and restored civil servants’ salaries, eased a surtax tax on employees’ incomes and breathed new life into the welfare system.

So while we pursue a remorseless austerity agenda in the UK, what Portugal has demonstrated, despite concerns over the economic policies it is pursuing, is that there is another way. Rather than blindly following an austerity agenda, the example set by Portugal is something we in the UK would be well-advised to take note of.

Alex Orr
Edinburgh

It appears EU nationals living in the UK must take out health insurance to qualify for permanent residence. How mean-minded, how unwelcoming, how thankless. The stars themselves look on and retch. The central idea of the EU, all along, has been that of the gospel: to love one another. Clearly, it's one that doesn't appeal.

Daithí Ó Frithile
Wexford, Ireland

Listen to the views of the people

When it comes to appeasing their buddies, politicians don’t pay attention to their own people. This was the case with Tony Blair who acted as an obedient pet to President Bush in the Iraq War. The massive protests were received with deaf ears.

I really hope Theresa May will act differently in the wake of the growing concerns, protests and opposition to Donald Trump’s anticipated visit. I hope she will not act as another pet at the feet of its master. I hope she will portray true qualities of leadership by listening to the majority of concerned citizens who view the new US President as a bigot and a villain.

May has a choice to make: either act as her predecessor, Tony Blair, whom history remembers with shame, or act honourably by not ignoring her own citizens.

Abubakar N Kasim
Toronto, Canada

It may be the case that President Donald Trump is neither a polished politician nor an unblemished gentleman. However, I sincerely trust it is not the case that the women protesting against the Prime Minister's strategically pragmatic invitation to this duly elected President want the UK to turn its back on him, and thereby want America to turn its back on the UK, just to avenge a surreptitiously recorded instance of his coarse irreverence. That would surely be taking indignation too far.

A world in which the UK has the support of a strong America is a far safer place for all of us – and especially for those who feel a need to engage in protest when their sensibilities have been offended.

Mark J Dyer
Rockingham, Australia