Covid-19 & Women - The Weekly Update 👌

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Covid-19 & Women: your weekly update

Week 13: June 29-July 3 2020

Dear Subscribers,

We hope you are safe and well. This is our thirteenth weekly newsletter, bringing you the latest on gender, the economy and Covid-19. If you like what we are bringing you, forward this email to a friend or two so they can sign up here.

We want to express our continued support and solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement demanding change both here at home and across the world. We are part of a sector that has work to do to be genuinely anti-racist. We must reflect & commit to change, today & everyday.

Before we get started, we want to let you know about the digital launch of our latest report on the gendered impacts of Covid-19 on women in Coventry, next week:

'Covid-19 - the impact on women in Coventry' digital report launch
9 July 2020 | 4.00pm-5.30pm BST

The Women’s Budget Group, as part of the Coventry Women’s Partnership, invites you to join this webinar, on Thursday 9 July 4-5.30pm BST, exploring the impact of Covid-19 on women in Coventry. The Covid-19 crisis has exacerbated many of the pre-existing inequalities that women in Coventry were experiencing, including lower earnings and incomes, housing unaffordability and homelessness, expensive childcare, a social security safety net unfit for purpose, and lack of support for the most marginalised women. The women’s voluntary sector, although stronger and more cooperative than in other parts of the country, is struggling to meet the demand for support services after a decade of austerity and the impact of Covid-19. Register here.

Keep reading for more news on the gendered and economic impacts of the pandemic in the UK and beyond. Scroll down to the bottom to catch upcoming events on gender, the economy and Covid-19.

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The Women's Budget Group on Covid-19

A Care-Led Recovery from Coronavirus
Our new report shows investment in care is a better way to boost the economy after Coronavirus than investment in construction. It would create more green jobs and especially more jobs for women, who are more at risk of redundancy. Read more here.

WBG responds to the Prime Minister’s speech: Invest in care to create jobs and growth
Boris Johnson’s answer to economic crisis caused by pandemic is to ‘build, build, build’. But our analysis shows our focus needs to be on ‘care, care, care’. Investment in care would also be good for the economy. Read more here.

Briefings on Covid-19
Find everything the Women's Budget Group has done on Covid-19 here. This includes our reports on the impact that Covid-19 has on Social Security and Social Care, as well as joint letters, policy responses, and more.

Find it all here

Covid-19: the latest from home

UK Government's Lifting of Lockdown: Women and Girls are being left behind
The Fawcett Society led an urgent call to action, with over 65 organisations calling on the Government to #MakeWomenVisible as lockdown is lifted. Their asks address protecting women from a possible 2nd wave, the disproportionate impact on Black, Asian and ethnic minority mothers, improving the benefits system & more. Read more here.

Court rejects legal challenge to NHS charging
Maternity Action lost their legal challenge to the scheme of charging destitute migrant women for NHS maternity care. Following an oral hearing, the High Court denied Maternity Action permission to proceed with the judicial review. They are now deciding whether or not to appeal the decision. Read the statement from Director Ros Bragg here.

BAME workers take biggest financial hit from Coronavirus pandemic
The latest research from Turn2Us shows that 58% of BAME workers have had their employment affected since the start of the pandemic, compared to 47% of White workers. People of Bangladeshi descent are most affected with 80% reporting a change in their employment circumstances, compared to 63% of Black African or Black British workers; 58% of those of Pakistani descent; and 55% of the UK’s Indian population. Read more here.

Lockdown living: Housing quality across the generations
Resolution Foundation have published a new briefing note from their Intergenerational Centre which explores the question of housing and neighbourhood quality over time. Findings show that within age groups, income and ethnicity are strongly correlated with housing quality and that one-in-five children from a low-income household has spent lockdown in an overcrowded home, while close to 10 per cent are growing up in damp conditions. Read more here.

Covid-19 Impacts: Early Years
In the fourth report in their series of Covid-19 impact briefs, The Sutton Trust looks at how the pandemic is impacting the early years sector, particularly children, parents and providers in disadvantaged communities.
The social mobility charity is calling for a £88m package from the Government to save the early years sector. Read more here.

Economic safety needs of current victim-survivors of economic abuse in the context of coronavirus
Surviving Economic Abuse have launched an important survey to establish the needs of victim-survivors experiencing economic abuse from a current or ex-partner during the Covid-19 outbreak to support their call for tailored support. If you are experiencing abuse & are safe to input please see here.

If Boris Johnson is really interested in ‘levelling up', he should start with nurseries
Writing for the Guardian, Polly Toynbee echoes the demands of a number of organisations arguing that investment in jobs in education, rather than roads, would mean improving people’s life chances for decades to come. Read more here.

How Coronavirus Has Exposed Class Inequality In The UK
In this Refinery29 article, Vicky Spratt discusses how Britain’s class divide is nothing new but Covid-19 has made it impossible to ignore how it is shaped by gender and race. Read more here.

Just Fair statement in response to Covid-19
Our partner Just Fair are inviting individuals and organisations to endorse their COVID-19 statement emphasising the impact that the pandemic is having on human rights and in particular economic, social and cultural rights. Just Fair believes that greater recognition and protection of economic, social and cultural rights, alongside civil and political rights, will strengthen the foundations of our society and help us achieve genuine change. If you share this view then please endorse the statement and invite others to do so too.

#BuildBackBetter Statement
Along with more than 350 organisations, we came together to call for a new settlement that protects vital public services, repairs inequalities, creates good jobs and prepares us for the climate emergency. Join the call to #BuildBackBetter. Read more here.

Essays on Equality: Covid-19 edition
The Global Institute for Women's Leadership (GIWL) at King's College London have published their latest essay collection exploring the gendered impacts of the coronavirus crisis and featuring contributions from GIWL researchers, leading academics, campaigners and more. Read the essay collection here.

Covid-19: the global pandemic

The U.S. and U.K. Were the Two Best Prepared Nations to Tackle a Pandemic—What Went Wrong?
Gavin Yamey and Clare Wenham have written an article for TIME about how the two countries that on paper were the best prepared to deal with a pandemic turned out by June 2020 to be two of the world’s biggest failures in tackling COVID-19. Read more here.

Covid-19: Gender Inequalities in the Labour Market
In an interview for Institut Montaigne, Monika Queisser discusses how different sectors of the labor market are experiencing varying degrees of impact in the Covid-19 and that some of these differences can be observed along gender lines, with women occupying major parts of the tourism and service industry. R ead more here.

Events for isolation

'Covid-19 - the impact on women in Coventry' digital report launch
9 July 2020 | 4.00pm-5.30pm BST

The Women’s Budget Group, as part of the Coventry Women’s Partnership, invites you to join this webinar, on Thursday 9 July 4-5.30pm BST, exploring the impact of Covid-19 on women in Coventry. The Covid-19 crisis has exacerbated many of the pre-existing inequalities that women in Coventry were experiencing, including lower earnings and incomes, housing unaffordability and homelessness, expensive childcare, a social security safety net unfit for purpose, and lack of support for the most marginalised women. The women’s voluntary sector, although stronger and more cooperative than in other parts of the country, is struggling to meet the demand for support services after a decade of austerity and the impact of Covid-19. Register here.

Private Debt and the Pandemic: Online Strategy Lab
9 July 2020 | 2.00pm-4.00pm BST

The UK faces a brewing private debt crisis. Poverty and problem debt was already a major issue before the pandemic, and many more people are now being plunged further into the debt trap. This workshop is funded by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung and is linked to a project led by John McDonnell MP to develop a ‘progressive exit strategy’ from the pandemic. Your views will help to shape John’s work including feeding into a publication scheduled for the autumn. Please RSVP and register online here to ensure you receive the Zoom joining details.

Calls for papers: Gender and Covid-19
Feminist Studies Journal. Submit by July 15, 2020. Find out more here.

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The Women’s Budget Group scrutinises government policy from a gender perspective. We are a network of leading feminist economists, researchers, policy experts and campaigners committed to achieving a more gender equal future. We have worked towards this since 1989.