The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) today warned that gender equality is still generations away and called for urgent action across all aspects of life to close the stubborn gaps within ten years. 'Completing the Revolution', the EOC’s final report before it is absorbed into the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights on 1 October, sets out the most comprehensive ever measure of gender equality in Britain. It looks for the first time, not just at pay and power, but also support for families and access to public services, justice and safety.

Drawing upon more than thirty years of experience, the EOC has identified 22 leading indicators that measure the state of the nation in terms of gender equality and highlights where we need to focus our efforts in the years to come if we’re serious about change. Despite some advances, the indicators show worrying gender gaps across all areas of life, and at the current rate of progress change will be painfully slow. For example:

• The "power gap" for women in Parliament will take almost 200 years to close and it will take up to 65 years to have a more equitable balance of women at the top of FTSE 100 companies.
  
• The "pensions gap" will take 45 years to equalise: retired women’s income is currently 40% less than men's.
  
• The "part-time pay gap" will take 25 years to close and the "full time pay gap" 20 years. Women working part-time earn 38% less per hour than men working full time. Full time female employees earn 17% less per hour than men.
  
• The "flexible working gap" is unlikely ever to change unless further action is taken. Even though half of working men say they would like to work more flexibly, currently women are much more likely than men (63% more likely) to work flexibly.
  
• The “health gap” is also likely never to close, with men aged 16-44 almost half (47%) as likely as women to consult their GP, which can result in later diagnosis.
  
• The "safety gap" for women is actually getting worse. They’re five times as likely as men to feel unsafe walking alone in their area after dark. Meanwhile, young men are almost twice as likely as young women (80% more likely) to be victims of violent crime, and it could take up to 20 years for rates to drop to levels comparable with women's.
  
• At home, the "chores gap" – the difference in the amount of time women and men spend doing housework per day – will likewise also never close, with women still spending 78% more time than men doing housework.
  

The way we live our lives has transformed dramatically in the last 30 years. The roles of men and women have changed at a fast pace; new parents expect to share the upbringing of their children and both women and men want to work more flexibly and provide more support for older relatives.

But life around us has not caught up and we are living with the consequences of an unfinished social revolution. We are still faced with many workplaces, institutions and services designed for an age when women stayed at home, which creates barriers to equality. In other areas of modern life, inequality underpins life and death issues – every month seven women are killed by their partner or ex-partner.

The publication of today’s report coincides with the launch of the EOC's 'Gender Agenda' campaign, which highlights the work left to do on the eve of the transfer to the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights.

The EOC is urging action to complete the unfinished social revolution and to speed up the pace of change. The Agenda sets out the following priority areas for action to deliver equality for all women and men within ten years, not generations :

• Closing the income gap between men and women
• Giving better support to families
• Modernising public services so they meet men and women’s needs
• Providing equal access to justice and safety
• Sharing power equally between men and women

The EOC has developed an interactive Gender Agenda website where members of the public can measure whether sex inequality affects their quality of life. The “Quality of Life MOT” includes a series of short questions, which give each user a personal quality of life score, together with recommendations for change.

Jenny Watson, Chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission, said: “These startling indicators suggest that the reality of far too many men’s and women’s lives is out of step with their aspirations. We're living in the midst of an unfinished social revolution. Today, most women work, many men no longer define themselves as breadwinners and both sexes often struggle to find the time they need to care for others in their lives.

"Despite the many advances over recent years, Britain's institutions have not caught up with these changes. Inequality is affecting every part of our lives, from women who fear for their safety at night to the many men who find it hard to get a GP's appointment, affecting their long term health.

Failure to act will have consequences for the social and financial health of countless individuals, as well as the nation as a whole. A country that channels women into low paid work, fails to adequately support families and forces people who want to work flexibly to trade down in jobs pays a high price in terms of child poverty, family breakdown and low productivity. This is a challenge that Gordon Brown’s new government urgently needs to address.

"At the current pace of change, it will take generations for the unfinished revolution to be completed and for equality for women and men to be achieved. Britain can not wait this long. That's why the EOC is today launching a campaign for concrete change in five key areas for women and men over the next ten years, transforming our workplaces, services and communities.”

To read more about the campaign visit www.gender-agenda.co.uk