These structural inequalities are not only unfair, they undermine the UK’s economic well-being. More gender equal economies perform better and are more resilient. The challenges that the UK faces including low productivity, lack of public investment, increased automation and an ageing population and related social challenges such low pay, in work poverty and a crisis in public services, are both a cause and consequence of gender inequality. They require policy solutions that take account of gender and actively seek to promote equality if they are to be sustainable.
What will the project try to achieve?
Women’s Budget Group (WBG) established a Commission to develop and assess the policies needed to create a gender equal and sustainable economy. The Commission worked across the four nations of the UK and to join up the impact of policies in a range of different areas, rather than consider them in isolation, uncovering potential tensions between different objectives and exploring the best way to address them.
This project also considered interaction between different types of inequalities, drawing on WBG intersectional analysis of existing policy to ensure proposed policies recognise the different needs and circumstances of different groups of women and men, particularly at the intersection of gender with poverty, race and disability.
The final outputs of the Commissions work can be found here: https://wbg.org.uk/commission/
Who might be interested in this project?
Policy makers, organisations and researchers working on the economy, equalities and social justice