Grazia – whose Australian title was closed by Bauer Media in Australia last year – on behalf of its predominantly female readership called on British officials to support Section 78 of the 2010 Equality Act which would require companies that employ more than 250 staff to publish anonymised details of the average male and female salaries on an annual basis.

When the Equal Pay Act came to pass in 2010, companies had the option of voluntarily reporting the pay discrepancy between men and women. Only five, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, chose to do so.

"This total transparency would be the first step to closing the gender pay gap," the fashion magazine's Mind the Pay Gap campaign decreed. A petition garnered close to 10,000 signatures of public support before the bill was tabled in Parliament last week.

Labour leader Ed Milliband, who came under fire earlier this year for being out of touch with ordinary families when he failed to recall the average grocery bill during an interview, said there is no greater inequality in Britain than between male and female employees.

"Often people think that politicians can change things. That is not true. The work of equal value is a cause that is not won in the country, and that is a massive problem for our country. This is our call," he said.

Labour MP Sarah Champion read the bill to the House of Commons before 258 parliamentarians voted to implement the act. Seven conservative MPs voted against the proposal.

While political commentators in UK doubt the bill will become legislation when it is debated again in February, the campaign has been praised for raising awareness of the growing pay gap issue.

According to the Office of National Annual Survey of Hours and Incomes, men in their 20s earn 5.3 per cent more than 20-something women. Women in their 30s are paid 12 per cent less than men in the same age bracket.

Meanwhile in Australia, where the pay gap is 18 per cent according to the ACTU, Cleo magazine launched a similar campaign in 2013. More than 5990 people signed a Change.org petition which called for an end to pay discrimination but the magazine's "pay gap investigation" has since been reduced to a one paragraph, unattributed quote on its website.

Since then a number of local publications aimed at women have conducted interviews with female members of the 44^th Parliament.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was named Who magazine's Most Intriguing Person of 2014. The corresponding interview touched on females, but only females who walk the corridors of power.

"Sexism does exist in Canberra. It's how you manage it," she said.

"I wish there were more women in cabinet.

"I think women make a great contribution to discussions; they offer a different perspective."

The latest political profile to hit newsstands (and the internet) is by The Australian Women's Weekly where Senator Jacqui Lambie talks about her addiction to Botox, her admiration of Pauline Hanson and sees her lash out at Prime Minster Tony Abbott. Not for any specific issues affecting women or her constituents in Tasmania, but because he hasn't bought her a cup of coffee at Aussies yet.

"My vote's important, so if I was Tony Abbott, I'd be saying, 'Hey, Jacqui Lambie, let's have a cup of coffee'," she said of the man who she calls a "lying liar" with "no balls".

"But he can't do that, can he? Because he doesn't wear the pants. The female in his office [chief of staff] Peta Credlin, she's the one that wears the pants.

"That's another thing with those blokes from the all-boys schools: they can only deal with one powerful female at a time.

"They need that powerful female to push the other females away.

"So now the bastard is saying, 'I don't have to meet with Jacqui Lambie', but guess what? He does have to meet with me, because we are going to have to work together. Fair enough, he got elected – but I got elected, too."

Parliament, complete with one more woman on the front bench, will resume in February.