More than 15,000 women called the Women’s Aid helpline last year suffering from physical, emotional, sexual and financial abuse at the hands of a partner. And the support group warned that controlling boyfriends and husbands were making life even harder by withholding and threatening to withhold money.
Margaret Martin, Women’s Aid director, said vulnerable women were trapped amid fears of increased poverty, losing their home and the effect it would have on their children. “Domestic violence is a huge problem within Irish society,” she said. “This year we are particularly concerned about the impact of the recession on women experiencing domestic violence from their boyfriends, husbands and partners.”
This is truly truly grim but unsurprising as people in powerless positions, especially women experiencing domestic violence, will be inevitable casualties of the economic meltdown.
Neither is neoliberalism supportive of equal opportunities. The gap between rich and poor has widened under NL. On the issue of women and pay, latest research has shown that women are being pushed into traditional jobs, along with gender pay gap,widened to 22.6% from 21.9% in 2007.
What do you mean by “traditional jobs”?