Government and unions are aiming to achieve increased pay parity in the workplace and to encourage more companies boardrooms to appoint women.
A Government-supported commission is investigating the 'gender pay gap' and is set to report back in the summer. Trade Union Amicus has called for "compulsory pay audits" into big businesses, in an attempt to tackle the reported 18 per cent difference.
"There is a disgraceful pay gap between men and women at work in the UK which impacts on families," said Linda McCulloch, Amicus's national equality officer.
"We hope that 2005 will be the last year that women have to put up with being paid less than men for doing the same job."
The Commons' Trade and Industry Committee's has launched an investigation into why women are increasingly receiving sizeable payouts in sex discrimination cases, and claimed that one of the largest hurdles in tackling the gender pay gap is that men are prevalent in the higher echelons of businesses.
"One of the main problems in promoting equal pay between men and women is that many of the higher-paid occupations tend to be dominated by men, while women form the majority of the workforce in a number of lower-paid occupations," said committee chairman Martin O'Neill.
John Cridland, the deputy director general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) echoed these sentiments, arguing that the two issues are not simple and are often related to choice opposed to discrimination.
"Unfair discrimination should be stamped out but, so far, too much of the argument about the gender pay gap has been too simplistic," said Mr Cridland.
"Discrimination by employers is only a small part of this problem. Much more important are the career choices women make, which leave them concentrated in lower paying sectors, and women's traditional caring responsibilities, which restrict their options and interrupt their careers."
According to the latest official figures, the pay gap was smaller this year than at any other time since records began.
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