THREAD: This piece is shocking, but not really surprising. My dissertation was on how austerity disproportionately impacted vulnerable women, and it’s probably worse than you think it is. (1/?)
bbc.com/news/health-51…
bbc.com/news/health-51…
When the first budget of David Cameron’s government was announced, the Fawcett Society instigated a legal challenge based on the disproportionate impact on women. The more vulnerable, the worse off they were.
The worst off were disabled women, BAME women, or women who were lone parents - all groups already more likely to be poor. They are also all more likely to be victims of domestic violence, a group which austerity hit particularly hard. Intersecting vulnerabilities = even poorer.
Public sector - 2/3 of the public sector workforce are women - in 2010 330,000 jobs were announced to be cut by 2015. Those who retained their jobs had their pay frozen, and pay rises capped at 1%.
It’s important to remember that whilst the government was making sweeping cuts, it also cut the top rate of income tax - which LOST the treasury £8.6bn. Tax breaks for the richest are naturally way more likely to benefit men.
The Bedroom Tax (might be a few on this one) - because women were more likely to receive housing benefit, they were more likely to be impacted by the bedroom tax. The poorer the woman, the more damaging the loss of housing benefit was.
Disabled women, & women who were victims of domestic violence, both won court cases against the government on the discriminatory nature of the bedroom tax. Also the government tried to force a domestic violence victim to pay it on a police installed panic room (it lost this case)
A study in Manchester found mothers had to cut back on food, heating, and clothes because of the bedroom tax. There was a situation where the child’s school had to pay for their new shoes.
Vulnerable women couldn’t avoid the tax - moving would mean leaving their support systems, and people they depend on for childcare to work. Many cases noted women cutting back on essentials because leaving their community was out of the question.
Margaret Blemman, Stephanie Bottrill, and Frances McCormack are all women who inquests found to have took their own lives after struggling with the bedroom tax - Stephanie and Frances left notes that mentioned it directly.
Sure start centres - over 1,000 sure start centres closed from 2010-2017. Of those that didn’t close, 55% reported a reduction in the services they were able to offer.
A report conducted for the government found that women who used centres where services had been ‘hollowed-out’ as part of austerity reported an increased in mental health problems - in the minority of centres where the services expanded, women showed improved mental health.
Women who were victims of violence - cuts to local authority budgets meant local councils were forced to restrict funding for refuges. On one day in 2013, 155 women were turned away from refuges. From 2013 -2014, over a third of referrals were turned away due to lack of space.
A report by the UN’s special rapporteur on Violence Against Women said: “it was made clear to me how women from BAME communities, women belonging to the LGBT+ community, and women with disabilities, are further affected by these cutbacks...it is precisely-
the specialist services catering for these women which are being mostly affected.” Cuts to legal aid made it more difficult for victims to access it, as the threshold for evidence was higher. 43% of women who experienced violence did not meet the new legal aid requirements.
The Director of Rights of Women said that without this aid, women were staying in abusive relationships, and that it was “not over dramatic to say that women will die.” as a result of them.
TW// rape: The ‘Rape’ Clause - when child benefit was restricted to 2 children, if a woman had a third child as a result of rape then she now had to “prove” it to get child benefit for that child. Organisations like Rape Crisis Scotland refused to take part in the policy.
The British Medical Council also offered it’s support for Doctors who refused to take part in the assessment. The government said that mother was not allowed the child benefit for that 3rd child if she still lived with her abuser. Most women are killed in the 1st year of leaving.
These are just a few examples, there are many more. But no government, or Tory and Lib Dem politicians, should be surprised that the life expectancy for poorest women has reduced after austerity.
Lastly, if you think the government didn’t know about the gendered impact, you’re wrong. The government continually failed to carry out gender impact assessments, and when it did, it didn’t do them properly - subjecting it to legal challenges from women’s groups.
Memos were sent by the then Minister for Women and Equalities, Theresa May, warning the government that vulnerable women would be adversely effected. The government was fully aware.
The Guardian also reported a memo from a No10 advisor: “men accept the brutal logic of the debt crisis... women have to deal with the consequences of the cuts”. And they did. Many of the policies mentioned above are still in place, or haven’t been reversed. END OF THREAD.
