Budget cuts hit women harder than men
A “gender audit” of the budget, commissioned by Yvette Cooper, the shadow welfare secretary, shows it will hit women harder than men. Women will contribute nearly 75% of a net total of £8bn raised by 2014-15 through changes to direct taxation and benefits. The attack is worse when you consider that women are already, on average, poorer than men; that they make up more of the public sector workforce and will suffer more from public sector job cuts; and that the research leaves out the impact of the VAT increase, which is likely to affect women (and the poor generally) more.