Anti-Poverty Spotlight | Equality for Women

For International Women's Day and as part of BASW’s campaign against poverty, we're raising awareness of the impact of poverty on women and calling for change.

We’ve published a factsheet that outlines the financial challenges, inequality and discrimination faced by women.

Despite equal pay legislation, there is still a gender pay gap that contributes to women’s disadvantaged position in the economy. 

Socio-economic barriers that women face can also make it more difficult for women to flee abusive relationships. This creates a cycle where poverty can force women into staying in abusive relationships, and women will struggle to escape poverty because they can’t escape an abusive relationship.  

As well as poverty impacting women on an individual level, austerity has eroded services that should be available to the victims of domestic violence: support services, helplines, advocacy and space in refuges.

What can we do?

BASW's campaign- Social Work Stands Against Poverty- is highlighting these issues to politicians and making the case for policy interventions to lift people out of poverty. Our asks include:

  1. Extend the debt breathing space scheme to 30 days,
  2. Freeze evictions during the cost-of-living crisis to prevent further homelessness,
  3. Scrap the two-child cap on benefits.

We're hosting an event in Westminster this month to lobby MPs directly on our asks.

Our 'spotlight on poverty' series aims to shine a light on the devastating and wide-ranging impact of poverty on people and provide resources for social workers to support those who might use social work services.