Social Europe

  • EU Forward Project
  • YouTube
  • Podcast
  • Books
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

Austerity is hurting women’s health

Fran Darlington-Pollock 2nd May 2019

A close look at how the austerity practised in the UK since 2010 has affected women’s health shows a gender lens must always be applied to see the full picture.

women's health

Fran Darlington-Pollock

Where you live can kill you—and, in recent years, more quickly if you are female. While life expectancy has been stalling in the UK since 2014, it is the differences not only between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ but also between men and women that are perhaps most alarming.

Men do not live as long as women. But the relative advantage in longevity for women is irrelevant when considering falling life expectancy. Though rich men are continuing to live longer, poor men have not experienced any loss in life expectancy. There is however no such stability for poor women. According to the Office for National Statistics, women living in the most deprived areas of England have seen significant falls in life expectancy since 2013. This reverses a longstanding trend of increasing life expectancy across Europe.

The UK once pioneered the use of government policy as a means to explicitly address health inequality. Strategies targeted the social determinants of health, for example by expanding services and supporting communities. But a change in government in 2010 brought an end to this approach and heralded the start of an era of austerity.

Confidence theory

After the financial crash, bailouts by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund were contingent on the implementation of stark austerity measures. Yet such measures were not confined to the bailout recipients. In the UK, austerity was prompted by state intervention in the British banking system to avoid its collapse, manifesting itself in significant spending cuts alongside relatively modest tax increases. This was underpinned by a belief that, as the budget deficit fell, confidence in the economy would be restored, stimulating economic growth.

Whether one accepted this ‘confidence’ theory or favoured a more Keynesian approach, the realities of an austerity drive have been bleak, particularly for those unfortunate enough to live in poorer areas. Consider, for example, the closure of 1,000 Sure Start centres—designed to support children and their families, particularly in deprived areas—or the dramatic risk in food banks across the UK.

While the UK’s austerity regime did reduce its deficit, it did not prompt economic growth. It did, however, exacerbate the conditions which perpetuate disadvantage and disproportionately stack the odds against those already living in constrained circumstances. Whatever the proximate cause of changing trends in life expectancy (such as the changes in specific morbidities and in mortality), the root causes are the ones on which to focus.

Unequal burden

In 2017, research published by the shadow equalities minister suggested that 86 per cent of the burden of austerity fell on women. Attributing losses through tax and benefit changes since 2010 to the individual in a household who received the payments, women were estimated to have lost £79 billion, compared with £13 billion for men. Persisting gendered divisions in unpaid labour, disparities in earnings and hours worked, and the wider segmentation of women in the labour market, magnified the impact of austerity on women.

While male workers arguably suffered the most at the outset of the crash, fiscal austerity across Europe has begun to undermine years of progress in equality. Where the burden of care disproportionately falls on women, women will be more vulnerable to cuts in welfare and social security—particularly where they also have differential abilities to enter the labour market. Women are estimated to account for as much as 70 per cent of the public sector workforce across the EU; where austerity forces changes to working hours and imposes pay freezes or cuts across the public sector, women suffer most.

Longstanding stereotypes mean women are often the first to be considered when economic instability requires employers to restructure contracts through part-time hours or rotational shift work. In Greece women, especially pregnant women and mothers, appear to have borne the brunt of these imposed changes. Insufficient attention is paid to the need to reconcile this sort of restructuring with family obligations.

In the UK, it is suggested that changes to welfare through Universal Credit—ostensibly designed to simplify and improve the benefits system—have significantly weakened the position of those most in need. Critics contend that this system has left some claimants significantly worse off and through administrative hiccups increased the risk of hunger, debt and homelessness. The impact of these changes to welfare is compounded by such factors as the loss of Sure Start centres and heightened costs of childcare.

Single-earner households are thus incentivised, promoting an outdated model of the family. This is problematic for a number of reasons. Dependence on a partner’s income affects the power balance within a relationship, assumes that the single income is sufficient to provide for a family and increases the risk of poverty should the relationship dissolve. Moreover, it fails to recognise the many and varied family structures that exist across Europe.

The gendered impact of austerity on health manifests itself through exacerbating exposure to the social determinants of ill-health and contributing to a process which is effectively disempowering women. It is well-established that the empowerment of women is associated with improved health, for both women themselves and their children. Disempowerment may then help explain why it is the women in the poorest areas of England who have seen a reversal in their life expectancy. More research is however needed—to establish the causal mechanisms and to raise the profile of this issue.

Critical area

In the meantime, policies must be revised. These should not only support the disadvantaged but also address the structural inequalities which perpetuate that disadvantage. Given the vulnerability of women to economic crisis and changing labour markets, this is a critical area.

In the UK the availability, flexibility and affordability of childcare needs revisiting, particularly insofar as this is a mechanism by which labour productivity may be increased if women are able to enter the workplace. The economic costs of increased spending on childcare and wider social security are necessary, and recoupable once economic activity increases. Labour-market opportunities need to be rendered reconcilable with family care obligations.

Falling life expectancy restricted to one subgroup of society is unjust. Pre-existing precarity in the labour market and the shouldering of much of the unpaid domestic labour within households typify the entrenched disparities between women and men, magnified in more unequal societies. It is imperative that governments be held to account for the injustices suffered.

While the age of austerity has supposedly come to an end in the UK, severe fiscal policies have eased rather than ceased. The world is watching to see how the UK and the EU cope with the impacts of whatever form Brexit ultimately takes. We must not let women remain on the margins of social, economic and political concern.

Fran Darlington-Pollock

Fran Darlington-Pollock is a lecturer in population geography at the University of Liverpool.

Harvard University Press Advertisement

Social Europe Ad - Promoting European social policies

We need your help.

Support Social Europe for less than €5 per month and help keep our content freely accessible to everyone. Your support empowers independent publishing and drives the conversations that matter. Thank you very much!

Social Europe Membership

Click here to become a member

Most Recent Articles

u421983467f bb39 37d5862ca0d5 0 Ending Britain’s “Brief Encounter” with BrexitStefan Stern
u421983485 2 The Future of American Soft PowerJoseph S. Nye
u4219834676d582029 038f 486a 8c2b fe32db91c9b0 2 Trump Can’t Kill the Boom: Why the US Economy Will Roar Despite HimNouriel Roubini
u42198346fb0de2b847 0 How the Billionaire Boom Is Fueling Inequality—and Threatening DemocracyFernanda Balata and Sebastian Mang
u421983441e313714135 0 Why Europe Needs Its Own AI InfrastructureDiane Coyle

Most Popular Articles

startupsgovernment e1744799195663 Governments Are Not StartupsMariana Mazzucato
u421986cbef 2549 4e0c b6c4 b5bb01362b52 0 American SuicideJoschka Fischer
u42198346769d6584 1580 41fe 8c7d 3b9398aa5ec5 1 Why Trump Keeps Winning: The Truth No One AdmitsBo Rothstein
u421983467 a350a084 b098 4970 9834 739dc11b73a5 1 America Is About to Become the Next BrexitJ Bradford DeLong
u4219834676ba1b3a2 b4e1 4c79 960b 6770c60533fa 1 The End of the ‘West’ and Europe’s FutureGuillaume Duval
u421983462e c2ec 4dd2 90a4 b9cfb6856465 1 The Transatlantic Alliance Is Dying—What Comes Next for Europe?Frank Hoffer
u421983467 2a24 4c75 9482 03c99ea44770 3 Trump’s Trade War Tears North America Apart – Could Canada and Mexico Turn to Europe?Malcolm Fairbrother
u4219834676e2a479 85e9 435a bf3f 59c90bfe6225 3 Why Good Business Leaders Tune Out the Trump Noise and Stay FocusedStefan Stern
u42198346 4ba7 b898 27a9d72779f7 1 Confronting the Pandemic’s Toxic Political LegacyJan-Werner Müller
u4219834676574c9 df78 4d38 939b 929d7aea0c20 2 The End of Progess? The Dire Consequences of Trump’s ReturnJoseph Stiglitz

ETUI advertisement

HESA Magazine Cover

What kind of impact is artificial intelligence (AI) having, or likely to have, on the way we work and the conditions we work under? Discover the latest issue of HesaMag, the ETUI’s health and safety magazine, which considers this question from many angles.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Ageing workforce
How are minimum wage levels changing in Europe?

In a new Eurofound Talks podcast episode, host Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound expert Carlos Vacas Soriano about recent changes to minimum wages in Europe and their implications.

Listeners can delve into the intricacies of Europe's minimum wage dynamics and the driving factors behind these shifts. The conversation also highlights the broader effects of minimum wage changes on income inequality and gender equality.

Listen to the episode for free. Also make sure to subscribe to Eurofound Talks so you don’t miss an episode!

LISTEN NOW

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Spring Issues

The Spring issue of The Progressive Post is out!


Since President Trump’s inauguration, the US – hitherto the cornerstone of Western security – is destabilising the world order it helped to build. The US security umbrella is apparently closing on Europe, Ukraine finds itself less and less protected, and the traditional defender of free trade is now shutting the door to foreign goods, sending stock markets on a rollercoaster. How will the European Union respond to this dramatic landscape change? .


Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss European defence strategies, assess how the US president's recent announcements will impact international trade and explore the risks  and opportunities that algorithms pose for workers.


READ THE MAGAZINE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI Report

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

The trend towards significant nominal minimum wage increases is continuing this year. In view of falling inflation rates, this translates into a sizeable increase in purchasing power for minimum wage earners in most European countries. The background to this is the implementation of the European Minimum Wage Directive, which has led to a reorientation of minimum wage policy in many countries and is thus boosting the dynamics of minimum wages. Most EU countries are now following the reference values for adequate minimum wages enshrined in the directive, which are 60% of the median wage or 50 % of the average wage. However, for Germany, a structural increase is still necessary to make progress towards an adequate minimum wage.

DOWNLOAD HERE

KU Leuven advertisement

The Politics of Unpaid Work

This new book published by Oxford University Press presents the findings of the multiannual ERC research project “Researching Precariousness Across the Paid/Unpaid Work Continuum”,
led by Valeria Pulignano (KU Leuven), which are very important for the prospects of a more equal Europe.

Unpaid labour is no longer limited to the home or volunteer work. It infiltrates paid jobs, eroding rights and deepening inequality. From freelancers’ extra hours to care workers’ unpaid duties, it sustains precarity and fuels inequity. This book exposes the hidden forces behind unpaid labour and calls for systemic change to confront this pressing issue.

DOWNLOAD HERE FOR FREE

Social Europe

Our Mission

Team

Article Submission

Advertisements

Membership

Social Europe Archives

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Miscellaneous

RSS Feed

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641