UK Government must assess equality impact of every policy

Westminster’s Women and Equalities Committee has published its report on coronavirus and the gendered economic impact. The report has found that the economic impact of coronavirus has affected men and women differently. This is because of existing gendered economic inequalities, the over-representation of women in certain types of work and the actions the Government has taken.

• Read the report: Coronavirus and the gendered economic impact [HTML]
• Read the report: Coronavirus and the gendered economic impact [PDF, 628 KB]
• Inquiry: Coronavirus and the gendered economic impact
• Women and Equalities Committee

The report calls on the Government to:

• Conduct an Equality Impact Assessment of the Job Retention Scheme and the Self Employed Income Support Scheme. This should draw on existing inequalities and would better protect those already at a disadvantage in the labour market, including women. It could also inform more effective responses to future crises.
• Assess the equality impact of the Industrial Strategy and the New Deal, and analyse who has benefited from the industrial strategy. Priorities for recovery are heavily gendered in nature, with investment plans skewing towards male dominated sectors.
• Conduct an economic growth assessment of the care-led recovery proposals made by the Women’s Budget Group. (Treasury)
• Maintain increases in support, including the £20 increase to the Universal Credit standard allowance. (Department for Work and Pensions)
• Review the adequacy of and eligibility for Statutory Sick Pay. Women are over represented among those who are not eligible.
• Legislate to extend redundancy protection to pregnant women and new mothers.
• Review childcare provision to provide support for working parents and those who are job seeking or retraining.
• Reinstate gender pay gap reporting and include parental leave policies, ethnicity and disability.
• Provide better data to improve reporting and analysis on how gender, ethnicity, disability, age and socio-economic status interact to compound disadvantage.
• Ensure that the Government Equalities Office and Minister for Women are more ambitious and proactive.

Committee Chair Caroline Nokes said: “As the pandemic struck, the Government had to act quickly to protect jobs and adapt welfare benefits. “These have provided a vital safety net for millions of people. But it overlooked the labour market and caring inequalities faced by women.

“These are not a mystery, they are specific and well understood. And yet the Government has repeatedly failed to consider them.

“This passive approach to gender equality is not enough. And for many women it has made existing equality problems worse: in the support to self-employed people, to pregnant women and new mothers, to the professional childcare sector, and for women claiming benefits. And it risks doing the same in its plans for economic recovery.

“We heard evidence from a wide range of organisations, including Maternity Action, the National Hair and Beauty Federation, the TUC, the Professional Association of Childcare and Early Years, the single parents campaign group Gingerbread, the Young Women’s Trust and the Women’s Budget Group. And written evidence from many more.

“The message from our evidence is clear: Government policies have repeatedly skewed towards men—and it keeps happening.

“We need to see more than good intentions and hoping for the best. The Government must start actively analysing and assessing the equality impact of every policy, or it risks turning the clock back.

“Our report sets out a package of twenty recommendations for change and a timescale. Taken together, these will go a long way towards tackling the problems and creating the more equal future that so many women—and men—want to see.

“The Government should seize this opportunity.”

Responding to today’s report by the Woman and Equalities Committee, which sets out how women have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady (above) said:  “Women have been put in an impossible situation during the pandemic – often expected to work and look after children at the same time.  

“Too many working mums are having to cut their hours or being forced to leave their jobs because they cannot manage.  

“If ministers don’t act, women will be pushed out of the labour market. And that means women’s and children’s poverty will soar.  

“Ministers must give all parents a temporary right to be furloughed now.  

“And they must fix the UK’s lamentable support for working parents. That means giving all parents at least ten days’ paid parental leave each year, making real flexible working available to all, and funding childcare properly.    

“Unless ministers strengthen rights and support for working parents, women’s equality risks being set back decades.” 

On the committee’s recommendation to carry out and publish an equality impact assessment on how government policies have affected women, Frances O’Grady added: “The government must urgently carry out and publish equality impact assessments of all its policies during this pandemic. 

“This crisis, and the government’s response to it, is deepening inequalities for women at work.” 

A TUC survey of 52,000 working mums published earlier this month revealed that  9 in 10 had experienced higher levels of anxiety and stress levels during this latest lockdown.    

Nearly three-quarters (71%) of those who had applied for furlough following the latest school closures have had their requests turned down.    

The TUC says this situation results from the UK’s failure to help families balance paid work and childcare. 

It is calling on the government to introduce:     

• A new temporary right to furlough for groups who cannot work because of coronavirus restrictions – both parents and those who are clinically extremely vulnerable and required to shield.     
• Ten days’ paid parental leave, from day one in a job, for all parents.  Currently parents have no statutory right to paid leave to look after their children.    

• A right to flexible work for all parents. Flexible working can take lots of different forms, including having predictable or set hours, working from home, job-sharing, compressed hours and term-time working.     
• Give additional financial support to the childcare sector so that childcare providers can continue to offer support to working parents.   
• An increase in sick pay to at least the level of the real Living Wage, for everyone in work, to ensure workers can afford to self-isolate if they need to.    
• Newly self-employed parents to have access the self-employment income support scheme (SEISS).