Economic Recession and Recovery in the UK: What's Gender Got To Do With It?

Abstract

This study argues that a feminist economics perspective is essential in order to fully understand the gender consequences of the recent recession and the ongoing economic crisis in the United Kingdom. Unemployment and redundancy rates have been used to highlight the fact that male workers suffered the greatest impact in terms of job losses in the initial phases of the recession. However, this situation appears to have reversed with an associated program of spending cuts in public sector employment and welfare that will likely be borne by women. While accurate data are crucial in the analytical process, the exclusive use of statistics relating to paid work only gives a partial analysis. A more inclusive understanding of the range of impacts on both men and women is more useful in the formulation of gender-aware, as opposed to gender-blind, policy responses to recession and recovery.