Media Round-Up: April 2020

• In The Ecologist, ‘Women fighting Covid-19 on poverty pay’   Catherine Early writes:

“Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, director of the Women’s Budget Group, which scrutinises government policy from a gender perspective, said: “We’d known that workers on the frontline at most risk of Covid 19 were often badly paid and mainly women, but these figures are still a shock.

“It can’t be right that many of those at the sharp end, providing services under pressure and at high risk of getting sick themselves, are earning so little. Many will not even qualify for sick pay,” she said.

“The government should take action to properly value the essential work they carry out”.”

• In the HuffPost, ‘Yes, Coronavirus Is A War. And Women Are On The Frontline’ Rachael Revesz writes

“The Women’s Budget Group has a neat package of recommendations, including extending furlough schemes for part-time workers, increasing sick pay as well as the carers allowance (currently a paltry £1.89 per hour), increasing child benefit to £50 a week (a maximum of £35 per week currently), scrap the heinous two-child limit (where women have to prove they’ve been raped or abused to get money for a third child), and channel the tampon tax to prevent domestic violence.”

Other Coverage:

• The Telegraph, ‘Coronavirus could change our world for the better – if we let it’, DR HELEN PANKHURST, 14th April 2020
• The Guardian,‘Universal credit’s two-child limit and the benefit cap must end now’, Joint letter, 21 April 2020
• HuffPost,‘Covid-19 Has Shown The Economy Isn’t Working. But For Women, It Never Has’,Marion Sharples, 22nd April 2020
• iNews,‘Coronavirus shows we need a revolution for working women – and it starts with trade unions.’Marisa Bate, 22nd April 2020:

“Female workers will be some of hardest hit economically by Covid-19, a report published by the Women’s Budget Group (WBG) has found, a pressing reminder of why we need an urgent overhaul of women’s pay, protection and value in the workforce”

• Belfast Live,‘Raise child benefit to £50 a child, say NI Community and Voluntary organisations in letter’,Jilly Beattie, 22nd April 2020
• LSE blog,‘Gender and Covid-19: the immediate impact the crisis is having on women’,Jenna Norman, 23rd April 2020
• The Guardian,‘Stop this retro nonsense about lockdown being a return to domestic bliss for women’,Eleanor Margolis, 23rd April 2020

“It’s women who are more likely to be made redundant (as Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson of the Women’s Budget Group told the Independent in March); women, particularly those who are BAME or disabled, who are more at risk of poverty; women who are more likely to be self-employed; women, mostly, who are at increased risk from domestic violence. The strikes against us in this crisis go on and on. Which is what makes it all the more galling to see a resurgence in the deeply retro “can women have it all?” narrative.”

• iNews, ‘I’m taking a massive step back in my life’: Three women on how they have already been impacted financially by coronavirus,’Heather Saul, 23rd April 2020
• Politics, ‘Covid-19: Where are the women?‘, Sian Norris, 30th April 2020

“But how exactly is the coronavirus affecting women’s safety and access to equality? And how should the government address the impact on women?

The crisis has led to an economic downturn, with even the most conservative estimates pointing towards a devastating rise in unemployment. According to analysis from the Women’s Budget Group, whose Commission on a Gender Equal Economy has identified pre-existing economic inequalities, the crisis will increase the economic challenges women already face.”

• Refinery29, ‘3 Ways The Domestic Abuse Bill Could Change Women’s Lives,’ Vicky Spratt, 30th April 2020

“The Women’s Budget Group is working to highlight that migrant women are not supported in Britain. In a report due to be published next week, it notes that these women are disproportionately represented in ‘key worker’ occupations, working in roles that put their own lives at risk to deliver crucial care.”