Women's poverty in the UK - an uncomfortable truth

Mary McGee(left) with Patricia Devlin and Caroline Mockford(right), spend time at the 'Tea in the Pot' womens drop-in centre, Govan, Glasgow. Photo: Andy Hall

Oxfam believes in an equal society, in which women and men have the same access to income and power.

We believe in a society where women have the confidence to demand what they're entitled to. Government, service providers, and employers truly understand their responsibilities to women, and live up to them. Neither women nor men live in poverty in the UK.

The situation

We're acting

We're calling for

In the UK, as in the rest of the world, women's inequality means they're likely to be poorer than men. Among other things:

Women have a lower income than men during work and retirement
Women have smaller, if any, savings
Women have less of a say in local and national policy-making, and suffer the consequences of this
Women are more likely to experience unmanageable debt
Black and ethnic minority women face a double discrimination, because of their race and gender

Forty years of campaigning mean that women are now legally equal. But it hasn't translated into equality in reality. Women are still poorer than men.

For example, after nearly forty years of equal pay legislation, women still earn considerably less than men.

Our shared public services - the NHS, housing, the welfare system - are not tailored to the different needs of men and women, despite legislation which says they must be.

And, while women remain poor, child poverty will never be successfully overcome.

Women in the UK are more likely than men to live in poverty. So tackling poverty means confronting the issues that make women poorer. And Oxfam's experience of working on gender equality around the world makes us uniquely equipped to do this.

What we're doing

At grass-roots level, Oxfam works with women to give them the skills and confidence to influence local, national, and international decision makers. For example, our GenderWorks project runs training courses in Scotland and England to help women hold their local services to account.

We support a number of grassroots organisations such as Southall Black Sisters to ensure that particularly vulnerable women – especially those from ethnic minority communities – have a voice standing up for their rights.

Tea in the Pot is a drop-in centre for women in Govan, Glasgow. Set up by Anne Keegan (right) after she completed an Oxfam-sponsored course, the centre (which Oxfam now helps to fund) enables women in this impoverished part of the city to meet, share their problems, learn new skills and find out about opportunities in the area. It has become a vital resource for many women.

"The more I do, the more confidence I get. It's all down to the people at Tea in the Pot encouraging me. If it wasn't for this place, I'd probably still be lying in my bed and never be out."
Caroline Mockford, 44, Chair, Tea in the Pot

We work alongside the public sector to make sure they know how to meet the needs of women and men in all their work. Much of our work has been with agencies trying to regenerate and improve deprived areas – engaging women so the schemes meet the needs of the local community.

Finally, through improving our understanding of the problems faced by women living in poverty, we can influence the UK and European governments to look at gender in everything they do, leading to better policies and services.

What we're calling for

Amanda Jones-Said works on the Rainbow Haven project, a drop-in centre for refugees and asylum seekers in Manchester. Like many specialist service providers, the project faces a constant battle for funding.
Amanda attended a GenderWorks training course that helps community groups understand how they can use the Gender Equality Duty, which compels local authorities and other public bodies to take account of the different needs of women and men when they design and deliver services.
"We learned that the authorities have to consult those of us who work with the public, and that decisions can't just be made. It's empowering to find that out."
Amanda Jones-Said, Drop-in Coordinator, Rainbow Haven project

Government should take action to end the gender pay gap
Childcare should be made more available and affordable, particularly in deprived areas
Women's caring responsibilities should be recognised and rewarded
Women's organisations should be supported in having a voice to protect women's rights
Data on women's poverty in the household should be collected and analysed
Routine gender impact assessments of all changes to public service delivery should be carried out