A report warns that the most vulnerable and disadvantaged women will suffer more in government cuts
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Government spending cuts that disproportionally affect women could hinder progress made in closing the gender gap in Britain, a report said.
The paper by the UK CEDAW Working Group - a coalition of women’s and human rights groups assessing the British government's progress in implementing the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) - warned that the most vulnerable and disadvantaged women will suffer more with the cuts.
"The government's policies have had a negative on many women through the loss of jobs, income and services. Additional measures announced will intensify those losses for all but the richest women and fail to understand the immediate substantive impacts on women's lives," it said.
The report comes a week after this year’s Queen’s Speech which was expected to pave the way for legislative reforms in favour of women.
But the authors of the report expected spending cuts to worsen the situation for all but the richest women in the country.
"Evidence in our report raises serious questions about the UK government's commitment to women's equality. Austerity is not an excuse for discrimination," Vivienne Hayes, chief executive of the Women's Resource Centre, which compiled the report entitled Women’s Equality in the UK – A health check, told the Guardian newspaper.
The report is to be submitted to CEDAW this summer.
Britain is a signatory of the United Nations’ treaty. The government stressed in February the UK’s tough equality laws and vowed to “tear down the barriers to social mobility and ensuring equal opportunities for women in Britain, to build a fairer society".
However, the study suggests a more decisive approach should be adopted by the government, which has been accused of lacking a coordinated approach on the issue, the Guardian reported.
"We see women's rights being lost at a greater pace in the UK," Hayes said. "Our only recourse is to shame the government on an international stage as we no longer have the voice and strength in this area that we once did."
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