Economic crisis, austerity and gender equality: The UK case

This article examines how global economic crises impact on gender equality and what role equality legislation has in reducing disproportionate impact. An understanding of these issues can only be reached by analysing the relationship between the political response to crisis and how far it is influenced by legislation at the national level. A detailed analysis of the UK case is used to illustrate this point. The UK case offers a particularly sharp reminder of the relationship between politics and equality law, not least because of the timing of the passage of the Equality Act (EqA) 2010 in April of that year and the change of Government less than a month afterwards. The outgoing Labour administration was responsible for drafting the EqA whilst the incoming Conservative-led coalition Government had opposed much of the Act on its passage through Parliament. All of this happened as the enormity of the global economic crisis was beginning to unfold, forming the backdrop against which both economic policy and the implementation of the EqA has proceeded.It could be argued that the UK is not a good European example because its position outside the Eurozone has meant that the experience of economic crisis is somewhat different from those Member States that are members of the Eurozone. However the UK response, one that largely rests on massive cuts to public expenditure, is an exemplar of the IMF position on the response to economic crisis followed by the leading EU Member States within the Eurozone. In this respect the UK case still offers a useful indicator of the likely impact on gender equality to other EU Member States embarking upon public spending austerity measures.The article firstly examines how the UK coalition Government has positioned its response to the economic crisis in a way that has justified its contention that drastic cuts to public spending are austerity measures necessary to secure economic recovery. Secondly, the article reports on evidence that identifies how women, particularly vulnerable and low income women, have been disproportionately affected by the Government’s austerity measures. Lastly the article examines provisions in the EqA that could have offered women in the UK protection and why the Government’s treatment of the Act means that this protection is substantially weakened