Austerity
Women have borne the brunt of the UK Government’s austerity agenda for over a decade. Insufficient social security, debt and cuts to public services influence women’s daily lives. By 2027, the most economically marginalised women in the UK are projected to have endured a 21% reduction in their living standards since 2010, with single mothers, Black and Asian, and disabled women most severely impacted.
The design of the UK’s social security system has been condemned as discriminatory towards women by the United Nations CEDAW Committee. The heavily criticised ‘two child limit’ has finally been abolished, but other aspects of austerity linked to ’welfare reform’ remain in place. These include the benefit cap, which predominantly impacts single mothers. Household payments of Universal Credit, which can leave women vulnerable to their income being managed by partners, has been described as ‘misogynistic’ by a United Nations expert on poverty. Austerity measures that disproportionately impact women continue to be introduced by the UK Government.
The legacy of Covid-19
Existing inequalities were intensified by the Covid-19 pandemic. Lockdowns and reductions in services saw women reducing paid work to take on greater caring responsibility that was no longer provided by the state.
Whilst the world ‘locked down’, women were busier than ever. Time-use data, survey data, and women’s own accounts all charted an increase in unpaid work predominantly done by women, including home-schooling, childcare, care for disabled, ill and older people, housework and household management.
The lasting impacts of this – on women’s paid employment and debts, on relationships and dynamics within households, on mental and physical health and wellbeing, and on intersectional inequality – have never been fully researched.
