The only real changes I can remember in Employment following 1997 were the -
1) Reduction in the time a worker had to be employed before taking a employer to court for unfair dismissal from 2 years to 1 year. However these time limits don't apply to sex or race discrimination cases as it is possible to take an employer to an ET if they discriminate in recruitment and/or selection..
2) Employees are expected to follow the internal greivance procedure before applying to a ET, failiure to do so will probably ensure his/her case falls.
As for the scope of ET's, there have been no substantial changes in their scope or powers.
If there are any women reading this thread who were thinking of joining the RAF, I suspect a number of them won't be, after all why join an organisation that has no commitment to obeying the law of the land in relation to their employment and then brand them as gold diggers if they have the temerity to stand up for their rights.
There is always going to be banter in any organisation, unfortunately there are too many racists and misogynists who hide behind that banter and then argue it was all meant in a "ironic postmodernist kind of way".
This is not 1850 or even 1950, women are not going to put up with this sort of cr@p anymore and more importantly the LAW says they don't have to.
One final question to WWW and co - how would you like it if your daughter (assuming you actually associate with women) had to go through this sort of cr@p to do her job?