20 years forward…20 years back?

In brief

• Reasons for departing from equality: a fair outcome?
• COVID-19: disproportionate impact on women’s employment.

It is now 20 years since the landmark White v White [2000] UKHL 54 decision which saw a move forwards for a divorcing party who was the home-maker and child-carer. White v White introduced a starting point, that ‘equality should be departed from only if, and to the extent that, there is good reason for doing so’. As Lord Nicholls summarised: ‘There should be no bias in favour of the money-earner and against the home-maker and the child-carer.’

This was a celebrated decision at the time, considered a sign that the law was catching up with society. White v White focused on the need to ensure the absence of discrimination and as Lord Cooke observed, ‘it will do much to enable English matrimonial property law to meet the requirements of contemporary society’. The intent