Money Talks: Budget 2022 highlights serious gender inequalities

Carol Brick looks at how the Budget will affect working mothers

Carol Brick: Budge 2022 highlights major gender inequalities in this country. The importance of care work and the fact that it is widely undertaken by women who are poorly paid and undervalued was brought to the fore.

Budget 2022 was going to be a critical one in the context of a global pandemic which unfortunately highlights major gender inequalities in this country. The importance of care work and the fact that it is widely undertaken by women who are poorly paid and undervalued was brought to the fore.

Working mothers shouldered most of the family caregiving responsibilities in the face of a childcare system that is wholly insufficient in a society where most parents work outside the home. Disruptions to schooling and childcare have been hard on working fathers too, but evidence shows that working mothers took on most of the childcare responsibilities and frequently had to either reduce their hours or even leave their jobs entirely. The housing and homeless crisis is also having a devastating impact on women, and we now have one of the highest rates of female homelessness in the EU.