Women pay for austerity

While almost every group outside those on the top end of the income distribution have suffered immeasurably under nearly a decade of austerity, it is women who are footing the largest bill.

According to new research commissioned by Labour’s shadow secretary for women and equalities Sarah Champion, 86 per cent of net savings to the Treasury through tax and benefit measures since 2010 have come from women.

This figure is an increase from the last Autumn Statement in 2015, when the figure was 81 per cent and the same as the Budget earlier this year.

These shock figures prompted an opposition day debate yesterday (December 15), in which Labour called on the government to adopt measures that would support women after losing out under austerity.

Labour urged the government to conduct an urgent assessment of the cumulative impact of its policies on women since 2010, to take the necessary remedial steps to mitigate any disproportionate burden of tax and benefits changes on women, to publish a full equality impact analysis with the 2017 Budget and to develop and publish a gender equality strategy to improve the position of women over the remainder of this Parliament.

During the debate, Labour MP Gloria de Piero highlighted that when policies hurt women, in practice they end up disproportionately affecting children too.

Champion noted that women are often disproportionately hit by government cuts because, for example, they have greater caring responsibilities and so use public services more. They are also more likely to be employed in the public sector.

Tory MPs interjected saying that, for example, the higher minimum wage, rebranded by the government as the ‘National Living Wage’ has helped many women.

But Champion responded by saying, “The problem with the National Living Wage is that it is a misnomer. It is welcome that it has been increased, but we are seeking a real living wage that brings people out of poverty, and we have not seen that.”

In the end, Labour’s resolution to conduct gender impact assessments on economic policies and to introduce measures to mitigate any negative impact on women, was not passed, with all Tory MP voting against.

Before the debate, Champion slammed the government on its terrible track record in supporting women.

“Theresa May and Philip Hammond have talked the talk on equality but the figures speak for themselves,” she said. “Warm words and half-hearted promises on improving the economy for women are not enough.

“The government’s attitude to the impact of their policies on women has now shifted from a blithering dismissiveness to wilful and deliberate evasion,” she added. “Their contempt stretches further than the Autumn Statement – you only have to look at the terrible way the WASPI women have been treated, the rise in levels of maternity discrimination and the impact of unprecedented cuts to public services to see that women are bearing the brunt of this government’s failed austerity agenda.

“The Tories have repeatedly refused – even after being pressured by the Women and Equalities Select Committee – to gender audit their own economic policies. With these figures, it’s not difficult to work out why.

“Under a Labour government, all economic policies will be gender audited to ensure equality for all,” Champion pledged. “I hope that fellow MPs across Parliament will join me tomorrow in imploring the government to stop ignoring the voices of millions of women across the UK who need economic stability.”

Unite national officer for equalities Siobhan Endean welcomed Labour’s commitments to women’s equality.

“The latest research commissioned by Labour’s shadow secretary for women and equalities, Sarah Champion, is yet more evidence demonstrating that women are bearing the brunt of a generation of austerity,” she said. “This burden is compounded if you’re a woman and also BAEM.

“It is an outrage that on top of having to pay 86 per cent of the fiscal measures introduced by this government and its predecessor, women also face record levels of discrimination at work, including maternity and pregnancy discrimination as well as sexual and other forms of harassment,” Endean added. “The gender pay gap still remains stubbornly high – it has grown in recent years, reversing steady progress we’d previously made.

“This has all happened under this and the previous Tory-led government’s watch. That not one Tory MP voted in favour of the resolution in last night’s debate further demonstrates that when it comes to equality for women, they’d rather look the other way.

“We at Unite strongly support Labour’s pledge to gender-audit all economic policies.”

Endean also highlighted that the government is “stripping away the machinery to enforce the Equality Act.”

Unite members, working for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, are now taking industrial action to fight what Endean called “the Commission’s death by a thousand cuts”.

She urged members to send messages of support to EHRC workers as they defend their jobs to siobhan.endean@unitetheunion.org.

Find out more by visiting Unite’s campaign page to defend the EHRC here.