Social scientist and adviser on equality matters to the EU and Welsh government who strove to improve the position of women Teresa Rees, professor emerita of social sciences at Cardiff University, who has died of cancer aged 74, was an enthusiastic and effective campaigner for gender equality, and played an important role in bringing about change in universities and in how public policy decisions are made in Wales and the European Union. She fervently believed in the capacity of research to improve the position of women in education, training and the labour market. As one of the “seven wise women” who advised the European Commission on its Mainstreaming Communication to the Council of Ministers (1996), Terry helped embed the “gender mainstreaming” approach into EU policy-making. The legislation of the 1970s had reduced the gender pay gap, but had little effect on the entrenched concentration of women in low-paid, often part-time work. Mainstreaming attempts to address this by ensuring that no policy decision can be taken without an assessment first being made of its impact on equal opportunities (EO). Employers are held to account through regular gender monitoring. Continue reading...