Gender Budgeting Resources

Recently, I attended a meeting to discuss the impact of budget cuts on women and the opportunities to develop gender budgeting. 

Currently, the UK Government does not complete a detailed equality impact assessment as part of the budget process. However, the UK Women's Budget Group has completed an analysis and produced a comprehensive gender assessment of the 2016 UK Budget, which is available at:
http://wbg.org.uk/wbg-publishes-comprehensive-gender-assessment-of-the-2016-budget-women-paying-for-the-chancellors-tax-cuts/

Since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, there has been progress towards gender responsive budgeting and the Scottish Women’s Budget Group is recognised as taking forward this agenda. There is a Equality and Budgets Advisory Group and Equality Budget Statement produced for the Scottish Budget. 

Reference can be made to the Fair Work Framework published in March and this shares good practice to support workers and businesses to address inequalities. Further details are provided at: http://www.fairworkconvention.scot/index.html

There is a wide range of research in to gender pay gap and the challenges that women face such as changes to pensions, in-work poverty, self-employment, childcare and age discrimination. Case studies are vital to highlight the impact of budget decisions on women by UK Government, the Scottish Government and Local Authorities. 

The work of the Scottish Women's Budget Group continues to develop with focus on linking with economic strategies and national performance frameworks.

Useful links:

New research report "Gender Equality Pays" - http://www.closethegap.org.uk/news/blog/new-close-the-gap-research-finds-womens-labour-market-equality-worth-17bn-to-the-scottish-/

Information on the Scottish Women's Budget Group available at: http://www.swbg.org.uk/