Recession is not an equal opportunities recession and neither is cuts in public services as this article proves it hits disproportionately the poor and women.
Some of the fear being felt by women who work in the public sector can be seen in Newcastle. It is there that Natasha Nicholson, an outreach worker for Sure Start, jokes that next year she will be able to afford only beans on toast for her young family. “The reality is we might not even be able to pay for the bread,” says Nicholson, 25, through a choked laugh.
And in Yorkshire, in Hebden Bridge, Lisa Ansell, a former civil servant and social worker, remembers settling down with a calculator after watching the chancellor, George Osborne, deliver his emergency budget. “I suddenly realised just how much I rely on public services: on subsidised public transport… on Sure Start.”
Travel 290 miles south to Worthing, West Sussex, and there is Dee Luxford, 40, with her husband and three children. She and her colleagues in low management and administration roles at HM Revenue & Customs (mainly women) fear for the service they are providing. “If we tighten the belt any more, we are going to suffocate,” she says.
Furthermore
It is research by the House of Commons library, commissioned by shadow minister Yvette Cooper, that claims women will suffer 72% of the tax and benefit cuts. After all, four in 10 working women are in public sector jobs – which will be hit by a pay freeze and projected net losses of 600,000 posts. The fact that women make up 85.4% of part-time jobs in the civil service also makes them feel vulnerable.
It is women, too, who are most likely to be dependent on a long list of benefits targeted in the budget.
TUC published a report in March this year, Women and Recession: One year on, before the election and the Con/Dem’s savage emergency budget consisting of public sector cuts galore! This specific report’s introduction states even though more men have lost their jobs due to the recession however in finance, hotels, restaurants, distribution and manufacturing sectors men and women have “experienced proportional falls in jobs”
The key reason fewer women haven’t been made unemployed is due to working in the public sector (40% of women employees nationally and many work part-time).
But….should large scale public sector cuts occur in the future signficant numbers of working families could face extreme financial hardship (particularly in regions that already have high unemployment).
And since the emergency Con/Dem budget of pay freezes, savage and brutal cuts in the public sector, attacks on welfare benefits and so on will lead to utter misery for countless women. A grim reality.
The attacks on the public sector will affect women greatly than men (4 in 10 women in public sector occupations, compared to less than two in ten men) with other knock-on effects such as attacks on pensions will create female pensioner poverty, pressure on women workers particularly to work unpaid overtime (it is estimated that unpaid overtime for women is worth five and a quarter billion pounds!) and once the savage cuts bite women will be expected to work longer unpaid hours which will have the inevitable consequences of more stress, pressure and negative impacts on personal lives such as childcare.
Geographically, Wales (46.6 per cent), the North East (45.9 per cent) and Scotland (43.1 per cent) are the areas where the highest proportion of women work in the public sector. Therefore women working in these areas are most vulnerable to job losses resulting from public spending cuts. Inevitably with cuts in services and loss of jobs this will impact on pensions and increased poverty for women pensioners. Another consequence of these attacks will be a double-dip recession. A bitter, cruel barbarous and austere future await us creating a climate of powerlessness….Or resistance?
Nine out of 10 lone parents are women; 30,000 women lose their job each year because they fall pregnant; we know that women are paid lower amounts for the same work. These inequalities are likely to be exacerbated by these cuts. Fears also surround the impact on the poor, the disabled, the young and ethnic minorities.
One approach being undertaken is the Fawcett Society is taking the Con/Dems to court over this Budget claiming it is unlawful because the government didn’t carry out an equality impact assessment.
But there has to be a political fightback where people and organisations come together and fight this pernicious and ideological attack on the working class, public sector and the welfare state.
There’s the Coalition of Resistance: Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay…slogan reminiscent of the Anti-Poll Tax campaign… And integral to this resistance is fighting to defend the welfare state and public services.
The fightback and resistance starts now!
I’ve noticed that the rich tend to consolidate their wealth and power during economic downturns.