Yes, there has been equal pay legislation, but there nevertheless remains a substantial pay gap. David might correct me on this. I think it's possibly a 17% or 18% gender pay gap.
However, while gender pay gap and equal pay legislation is extremely important, I suspect that from the poverty point of view the pay that one really needs to worry about is the pay of part-time workers. Most part-time workers are women workers. However, the men who do the part-time jobs are also poorly paid. It's our view that there is a real prejudice against part-time. I don't know whether this translates very well into French, but in English you almost always get the word “only” in front of part-time--it's “only” part-time.
I think a considerable amount could be done for low-paid women if we did something about the low pay of part-time workers. It has to be said that this is only to some degree caused by market forces. A lot of this is in the public sector. In Britain, for example, many of these people are employed within the public sector, so it should be possible to do something.
It's not just the workings of globalization or international competition. Part-time work, for me, is the key gendered issue in pay. There are, of course, other issues.