Osborne’s budget: all in it together? Or are we ever more divided as cuts bite

Gavin Kelly, The Observer

There’s been much talk of the cuts hitting women harder than men. Certainly the government hasn’t been slow to hit support for families – which hits women harder. Support for childcare was targeted early on. This week’s child benefit fix at least made a bad policy a bit better. But it remains the case that families with children are bearing the brunt of the pain.
The gender pay gap persists and has a major impact on living standards. However, over the past 20 years or so, far more of the growth in the household income of low- to middle-income families has come from women’s employment than men’s. Recently, that long-term rise in female participation has faltered. And if we compare the UK’s record to the best performers in Europe, it suggests that a million women are missing from our jobs market. Closing that gap over the next 10 years represents a rare opportunity to spread prosperity.

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