Media Round-up: October 2019

LSE Blog, ‘Austerity and the gender-age gap in the 2015 and 2017 general elections’ by Anna Sanders and Rosalind Shorrocks

The Women’s Budget Group estimates that, between 2010 and 2020, 86% of austerity cuts will have come from women’s pockets. This is largely because women are more reliant on state services, welfare payments, and they are more likely to work in the public sector. Yet we know relatively little about whether and how these policies have affected women’s vote choice in recent elections.

CoventryLive, ‘How much harder is it to buy a house in Coventry now than 20 years ago?’ by Tom Davis

‘Housing affordability is greater problem for women in the city. Women need 8.5 times their annual salary – with median monthly earnings for women in Coventry standing at £1,276 – to buy a median-priced home, compared to 5.6 times men’s annual salary (men’s median monthly earnings in the city are £2,562).’

Metro, ‘Voter ID, another way the government is letting BME people down’ by Kimberly McIntosh

Research by The Women’s Budget Group and The Runnymede Trust also found that austerity measures have left ethnic minorities, particularly women, worse off than the white British population.

Refinery29, ‘I Struggled To Leave My Abusive Partner Because Of The Housing Crisis’ by Natalie Gil:

Women, in particular, are hit hard by the crisis, suffering the consequences of a gender housing gap. Not only are they less likely to be able to afford rooms of their own (nowhere in the UK has affordable housing for women to rent right now, according to the Women’s Budget Group), but the way in which domestic violence and abuse intersects with the housing crisis means that it is putting many women’s lives at risk.