NASUWT: Women bearing the brunt of austerity
Women workers around the world are bearing the brunt of austerity measures introduced to tackle the global economic crisis. The impact could reverse the progress of women in society for decades, the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union, has warned on International Women’s Day.
Millions of women across the globe are facing financial hardship as basic services are savagely cut.
The public sector in which women, most of them on low pay, make up the majority of the workforce, is bearing the brunt of savage austerity measures. Women are seeing their pay frozen, their pensions raided and their jobs axed. The dismantling of equality rights in the workplace is making many women even more vulnerable.
In the UK, cuts to local authority funding are forcing the closure of vital organisations dedicated to providing support for women experiencing domestic violence and rape. Childcare and parenting support is disappearing.
Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said:
“International Women’s Day is a day when women can cast aside their linguistic, social or economic differences and come together to celebrate the critical contribution they make to social and political life.
“Yet, the progress we have made in tackling inequality is in danger of being reversed as women become the innocent victims of the global economic crisis.
“Whilst they bear the brunt of the savage economic policies of this government, ministers spend their time protecting the bonuses of those who caused the crisis in the first place.
“Unions are playing a vital role in holding governments to account for the damaging effects of their austerity measures on the lives and aspirations of women and ordinary families the world over.”
ENDS
Lena Davies
Press and Media Officer
Campaigns and Communications Team
NASUWT
0121 457 6250 / 07867 392 746
lena.davies@mail.nasuwt.org.uk
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