Reporting Back: Supporting Marginalised Women

Yesterday, Minister for Women and Equalities, Penny Mordaunt, announced a £600,000 fund to help women who are especially vulnerable to return to work when they are ready, in a shift in focus to help women who are economically inactive, in low paid and low skilled jobs, on legacy benefits and those who are facing multiple barriers to being independent.

• Around 1.8 million women are currently economically inactive because they are caring for their home or family, more than 8 times the number of men in that position
• Women are disproportionately more likely to work in caring, customer service and cleaning roles, which tend to be less well paid, and three times more likely than men to work part-time
• Nine out of 10 potential returners to work in the UK are women. Nearly a third of all those women who could potentially return to work have GCSEs as their highest qualification, and 16% have no qualifications at all
• White women have an employment rate of 73.3%, and women of Bangladeshi ethnicity have an employment rate of 32.8%
• The gender pay gap increases from over 6% for those in their twenties, to around 23% for those in their forties. McKinsey estimate that bridging gender gaps in work could add £150 billion to the UK economy by 2025

 

For more information, please visit:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/penny-mordaunts-new-mission-for-government-equalities-office