United Kingdom

Preston Women's Refuge has won a grant which will allow it to help female immigrants trapped in violent marriages.
The refuge is already supporting two such women and has had 30 phone calls from other immigrants in just four weeks.

The free and confidential service, offered in English, Gujarati, Punjabi and Urdu, is thought to be the first service of its kind offered by a Women's Aid organisation.

Social networks could complement, and in some cases replace, services provided by government.

That's according to analyst house Gartner that says government organisations could benefit from social networking technology if they approach it in the right way.

Gartner analyst Andrea Di Maio told silicon.com the public sector could exploit social networking communities which improve on services already provided by the government, and could work with online communities to support or even replace certain online services government provides.

It's an argument unlikely to win many friends among gender equality campaigners, but men earn more money than women not because they are inherently favoured in the workplace but because they work longer hours, put in the overtime, go out of their way to seek higher pay and promotion and don't stop working to have families.

The Ministry of Justice wanted to test new ways to engage their staff, covering all departments and regions. It decided to set up an issue based web chat function with VIP guests. This involved two board members, including the permanent secretary of the department, Suma Chakrabarti.

During the web chat employees discussed the issue of learning within the work place. This was broadcast over the Internet rather than the internal network, to appeal to a wider audience.

The gender pay gap appears to be widening with men now earning 32% more than women, figures showed.

Age also remains a substantial factor in pay disparities, with the average 49-year-old paid nearly £10,000 more than the national average full-time wage of £27,376.