Tackling child poverty - progress report 2024-2025: annex b - focus report on gender and poverty

A gendered lens to income from employment

Work, and income from employment, can offer a sustainable route out of poverty for many families. However, it has been well documented that having a job is not enough to ensure a route out of poverty. Indeed, rates of in-work poverty have been slowly increasing in recent years. Further, some families are unable to access employment at all due to structural barriers.

In order to assess progress in supporting families to increase their income from employment, the Child Poverty Measurement Framework considers a range of indicators, including: hourly pay, no paid employment, hours worked, under-employment, under-utilisation of skill, secure work and parents’ qualifications. The data used to inform these indicators are collected at a household level and it is not possible to disaggregate it by gender. This means that it is not possible to assess quantifiable differences by gender through the framework, and neither is it possible to establish whether there has been any progress over time. This presents a data gap in understanding the differing experiences and impact of these factors by gender through the child poverty measurement framework. To overcome this data gap, evidence from Scotland’s Gender Equality Index provides analysis across similar variables by gender but this also does not present the full picture of child poverty as these indicators do not include a detailed breakdown for parents.

To fully understand the implications of gender and parenthood for employment, this chapter considers quantitative data alongside broader evidence. The vast majority of evidence focuses on women’s participation in the labour market and the divide between paid and unpaid work. This was expected as there is strong body of evidence which highlights that women tend to undertake the vast majority of the unpaid work (i.e. childcare) needed for society and the economy to function, on top of other paid employment commitments. Where available, evidence on fathers/men is included, though this is limited.

This section considers evidence and indicators from Scotland’s Gender Equality Index, while also highlighting the caring responsibilities of women and the disproportionate numbers of women in insecure and/or multiple employment, while also being mindful that women are not a homogenous group and may face unique and multiple intersecting barriers to entering, or remaining, in the labour market. Broadly the following issues are unpacked further: ability to drive income through paid work, the value of unpaid work and future prospects.

Ability to drive income through paid work

This section looks specifically at the ability to generate sufficient income from paid employment and the challenges faced by gender. Headline measures, such as employment rates and average pay, and levels of in-work poverty, are drawn upon to show differences by gender. In addition, there are differences in labour market participation by gender. This section highlights the gendered experiences in labour market participation, with differences exacerbated when children are part of the household. Societal expectations of gender roles, and household dynamics, are also considered.

Gender pay gap

The gender employment gap (that is the difference in the employment rate between men and women aged 16-64 years) has reduced over the last 20 years or so, from 10.2 percentage points in 2004 to 5.1 percentage points in 2021.^[24] Despite the narrowing of the gender employment gap over time, there continues to be a gap in pay.

Gendered differences in hourly pay demonstrate a clear gap between men and women. Since 2004, hourly pay for those in low-income households with children has remained largely static with minimal increases over time. As this indicator from the Measurement Framework quantifies pay at the household level it does not give any indication of gendered differences in the household. Instead, we can look at the Gender Equality Index which provides data on the gender pay gap, indicating that while overall median hourly earnings have increased over time the gap between men and women’s earnings remains. ^[25] The most recent data shows that, in 2022, women earned £14.10 per hour compared to £16.00 per hour for men. This does reflect an increase in hourly earnings for both men and women from the 2021 figures (£15.20 and £13.50 respectively), which means that the gap between men and women’s pay has remained static since 2004 with an average difference of £2 per hour. The Gender Equality Index does not provide a further breakdown of the pay gap for parents.

Wider evidence also highlights how low pay is gendered with women representing 72% of those trapped in persistent low pay across Scotland. ^[26] Analysis of UK-wide data has shown that mothers experience a much wider pay gap, earning 43% less than fathers in their weekly earnings.^[27] This equates to a motherhood pay penalty of £4.44 per hour, with the gap between mothers and fathers growing by 93 pence per hour since 2020.

The issues are further exacerbated when other intersectional inequalities are considered. Those in the priority family groups are disproportionately facing low pay, with lone parents, people living with a disability and carers often experiencing lower pay. ^[28] Further, the size of the motherhood pay gap is associated with family size and increases with a growing number of children in a family. ^[29] While some minority ethnic women experience discrimination due to their gender and their race, this is more pronounced for migrant women not born in the UK who often experience a wider pay gap. ^[30] We know that many families often belong to more than one priority group and women who belong to one or more of these family types face multiple intersecting disadvantages in accessing equal pay.

The gender pay gap has persisted over time. Women are also more likely to be trapped in persistent low pay. Intersecting inequalities can exacerbate the likelihood of facing low pay.

In-work poverty

Overall, 75% of children in relative poverty lived in a working household in 2021-24. However, there are some types of households where the risk of in-work poverty is higher. These include: lone parent families (usually headed by women) and families with three or more children (where unpaid caring falls mostly on the mothers). Similarly, minority ethnic families experience a rate of in-work poverty that is three times higher than the rate for white workers. Households where someone is disabled, or someone is a carer, also face increased risk of in-work poverty.

The assumption is that although individuals are the recipients of earnings, those earnings go into a ‘household pot’, together with income from a range of other sources. This means that low pay does not always result in poverty. For example, if a person in low paid employment lives with a person in much higher paid employment, they are unlikely to live in poverty.

For families with children, this is important because we have seen how in Scottish society, there continues to be a split of tasks at household level with women more likely to ‘specialise’ in the care of children, and men more likely to focus on the paid work. This dynamic can work, as long as the resources are distributed evenly amongst members of the household, both in the present, and for future financial independence and retirement plans. However, this is not always the case and becomes particularly problematic when linked to domestic abuse situations. Data shows that women are significantly more likely to experience domestic abuse, including financial coercion from their (male) partners. ^[31]

While a household in working poverty may not experience low rates of pay, it is the ‘work intensity’ that seems to matter. Work intensity is the number of hours of paid work done by household members. Low pay rates are a stronger predictor of poverty than low hours, but both are important and are relevant from a gendered perspective. The Gender Equality Index sub-domain on participation^[32] includes full-time equivalent employment and labour market ‘inactivity’ due to caring. When taken together these indicators start to tell the story of gendered differences in participation in paid work:

• Women are less likely to work full-time than men (45% and 56% respectively). There has been little change in these figures over time, with the full-time employment rate averaging 59% for men and 42% for women since 2004.
• Women are substantially more likely than men to be inactive in the labour market due to their caring roles (84% and 16% respectively). There has been some slight change in these figures over the last two decades, with women’s inactivity due to caring decreasing and men’s increasing. For example, in 2004 90% of women and 9.6% of men recorded inactivity due to caring.

These indicators reflect the fact that while men do more paid work outside of the household, women tend do more unpaid work in the home, taking on a greater share of caring and domestic housework responsibilities. ^[33] This is corroborated by other studies. For example, a Joseph Rowntree Foundation report has highlighted that women are disproportionately responsible for providing unpaid care – with 97% of unpaid child-care givers and 60% of unpaid social-care givers being women. ^[34] The Gender Index also provides data on the average time spent by men and women on developmental childcare, non-developmental childcare, household management and housework, and cooking. Women devote more time than men to each of these activities – amounting to 81 additional minutes a day.

In-work poverty is gendered, with lone parent families (usually headed by women) and families with three or more children (where unpaid caring falls mostly on the mothers) more likely to experience relative poverty despite being in a working household. Due to gendered differences in the labour market, women are less likely to be able to increase their income from employment.

Insecure paid work and contractual conditions

Evidence highlights that the challenge of in-work poverty is not only about low pay, but also about the contractual conditions of employees.

Overall, data shows an over-representation of women in insecure work arrangements. The Gender Equality Index offers a comparison of women and men who have contractually secure jobs (93.4% and 94.8%, respectively). Trend data on contractually secure jobs has remained flat over time since 2004, with little difference between men and women. This suggests that men and women experience similar levels of job security. However, this measure of job security is based on questions asking whether employees are employed on a permanent or temporary basis and does not ask about the types of contracts involved. The Work Foundation offer an alternative definition of insecure work which includes:

• contractual insecurity (where people are not guaranteed future hours or work)
• financial insecurity (where people have unpredictable pay), and
• lack of access to employment rights and protections ^[35]

Analysis on these characteristics along with sectoral analysis found that women were significantly more likely to experience severely insecure work. Women tend to work in some of the lowest paid sectors and in jobs where workers are more likely to be on temporary and casual contracts, resulting in them being less likely to be eligible for employment protections such as redundancy pay, sickness leave or parental leave policies.

One in six women (60%) earn below the living wage, while three-quarters of women (75%) work part-time. ^[36] Motherhood often exacerbates the insecurity gap further, with women with dependent children more likely than women without children and fathers to be in severely insecure work, in line with the Work Foundation’s definition outlined above. This is driven by mothers being more likely to work part-time, and to experience involuntary temporary work, underemployment and low pay. These inequalities are compounded further when they intersect with additional characteristics. For example, research by the Work Foundation using the definition of insecure work outlined above shows that disabled women are more likely than non-disabled women to experience severely insecure work (30% compared with 25%). Another study, based on a definition of insecure work that includes agency, casual and seasonal workers, workers whose primary job is a zero hours contract and self-employed workers paid less than the National Living Wage, also shows that minority ethnic women are more likely to experience insecure work than non-minority ethnic women (14% for minority ethnic women, compared to 10% for non-minority ethnic women). These differences are linked to additional barriers presented by exclusionary informal workplace practices for those with these characteristics. Limited access to workplace networks as well as racism and discrimination are cited as some of the most prevalent barriers for these groups of women.

Many women living on a low income manage the commitments of multiple low paid jobs with the unpaid role of carers and household managers. A comprehensive mixed-methods review of women in multiple low paid jobs was recently undertaken by the Nuffield Foundation. The research showed that women in multiple low paid jobs work across a wide variety of jobs and can have complicated employment configurations. Many (29%) of these women mix employment and self-employment, and half of them (50%) work in the public sector as their main job, showcasing the potential influence of public sector contracts on women in multiple jobs.

Women are overrepresented across insecure work arrangements, with women more likely to experience severely insecure work. Intersecting characteristics, such as living with a disability or being from a minority ethnic background, can increase the likelihood of experiencing insecure work.

The value placed on unpaid work

The ability for people to do paid work often relies on others doing unpaid work. In the context of child poverty we look mainly at unpaid care and household management required for the family to function. This is gendered because the vast majority of the unpaid work is undertaken by women. In the context of child poverty, we look at it from three angles: early decisions on parental leave, distribution of ongoing caring roles, and diverging childcare needs as the children grow.

Parental leave and pay

A significant decision parents face when welcoming a new child into the family is about parental leave, what to do, for how long and who should take it. Parental leave, when equally shared between parents, has the potential to establish ongoing future routines for the family. By allowing both mothers and fathers to share childcare and household responsibilities, parental leave can help reduce the effects of the ‘motherhood penalty’.^[37] Parental leave also has the potential to promote better work-life balance for both parents, and allow both mothers and fathers important time to develop an emotional parental-child relationship.

Support for new parents is available in the form of maternity and paternity leave, shared parental leave and associated pay. Overall, women across the UK take the vast majority of parental leave. Up until 2015, fathers of newborn babies in the UK were entitled to two weeks of paid paternity leave. Since 2015, families can, in addition, take up the offer of Shared Parental Leave and Pay. This Shared Parental Leave (SPL) allows parents to share up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay between them. SPL is attributed directly to the woman and then requires them to transfer some of this leave to their partner. Currently, (as of May 2025), Shared Parental Leave is paid at the rate of £187.18 a week or 90% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower^[38].

Taking leave in the first year of a child’s life has significant benefits for the whole family, aiding a mother’s physical recovery, having a positive effect on children’s health, and in the case of fathers it has been shown that those who take paternity or parental leave are more likely to stay involved as the child grows up. ^[39]

So, caring in the early years can have positive impacts on the long-lasting emotional bond between the child and their mother and father. In fact, fathers have indicated that they would choose to take more leave, if it is financially supported at a level that makes financial sense for the family. However, in line with expected forecasts, take up of the UK SPL policy amongst fathers is low (5% of fathers amongst eligible couples) and it will take time to see significant increases.^[40] The reasons given for fathers not taking up SPL include economic impacts for the household as a whole and cultural norms (i.e. women taking on the primary role of caring for the child).

Cultural norms are evidently acting as a barrier for a gender balanced in taking-up parental leave. Sometimes, this cultural norms put more weight on the role of the mother as main carer. For example, by referring to breastfeeding to demonstrate the need for the mother to take the full maternity entitlement. Other times, we see narratives around the mother as the main carer, alongside concerns about the impact of leave on men’s roles as the main breadwinner. ^[41] To facilitate cultural changes, the Scottish Women’s Convention has been advocating for Government to develop policies that implement equity across maternity and paternity options in workplaces. ^[42]

Parents in insecure, multiple or low paid employment may face additional barriers to taking up leave, with one-fifth of working parents on low incomes ineligible for parental leave or statutory maternity or paternity pay. Women on insecure contracts often do not have ‘employee’ status which has a negative impact on their entitlement to maternity and parental pay and leave, time off for antenatal appointments and rights to return to work.^[43] In addition, there may be further barriers for some groups, with cultural expectations around parental roles of the mother as primary carer and the father as the financial breadwinner being more pronounced for some ethnic minority groups.

Shared parental leave is an option for families, but gender roles and stereotypes around the use of parental leave, and structural barriers across the labour market (i.e. the gender pay gap) means women still tend to use most of parental leave. Women in insecure, multiple or low paid employment may not have employee status and, therefore, may not be entitled to parental pay, leave and rights.

Women and caring responsibilities

Evidence shows that increasing family size can be a catalyst for moving into poverty, and having children requires not only resources but also time to care for them.^[44] Early childhood is also a critical period for laying healthy foundations for cognitive, social, emotional and physical development and functioning, which in turn play key roles in shaping economic, social and health trajectories later in life.^[43]

Throughout this report, we have seen that mothers play an important role in contributing to their child’s trajectory, but they need to be supported by a strong system which addresses structural inequalities.

In Scottish society, women’s caring and domestic roles can represent a barrier to their ability to undertake paid work. The need to care for others reduces the time they have available to take up paid employment, but also limits their ability to develop their skills and progress in their careers. This is true for all women, but particularly pertinent for young mothers who are at greater risk of being in poverty. Juggling childcare with paid employment while building long lasting positive economic prospects can be a challenge.^[46]

Despite evidence on the barriers to paid work resulting from unpaid caring roles largely carried out by women, this is not addressed in Universal Credit, a policy ostensibly intended to encourage the uptake of paid employment. Rather, Universal Credit is framed as a response to ‘worklessness’ indicating that only paid work is considered as ‘work’ and devaluing unpaid care, childcare and domestic work. However, efforts to minimise this are evidence, with distinct requirements for the main carer of young children. ^[47] Evidence points that this framing can still disregard gendered experiences and barriers assuming that everyone is equally able to access paid work.^[48]

To cope with the balance of paid and unpaid work, women are much more likely than men to reduce their hours or give up paid employment completely.^[49] For example, 62% of minority ethnic women said that their caring roles had affected their ability to do paid work.^{30, [50]}

The Gender Equality Index indicates that underemployment is broadly similar across men and women with 6% of women and 5.9% of men indicating that they were underemployed in 2022 (a decrease for both women at 7.8% and men at 7.1% in 2018). However, this may not reflect experiences across the board as 27% of carers have indicated they would ideally like to increase their working hours – and we know that a disproportionate number of women are carers.

Due to childcare and caring responsibilities, women may be more likely to take jobs that offer flexible working hours, are less demanding, provide family-friendly environments, or involve shorter commutes. Further, interruptions to paid work due to childcare and caring responsibilities can have a negative impact on women’s ability to earn over time. This is due to periods out of the labour market, and when in the labour market they are frequently on reduced hours, have less time in the workplace to develop skills, and less capacity to continue their professional development. This is due to periods out of the labour market, and when in the labour market they are frequently on reduced hours, have less time in the workplace to develop skills, and less capacity to continue their professional development.

This can be a particular challenge for lone parents (many of whom are women) in the workplace, with evidence highlighting that many lone parents face stigma and hostility with employers. Requests for flexible working hours and emergency parental leave can be met with discrimination, which can result in lone parents feeling pushed out or that they had to leave their employment as it was not compatible with their lone parent status.^[51]

Access to paid work is gendered, with women’s caring and domestic roles a barrier to their ability to undertake paid work. This can be a particular challenge for young mothers and lone parents (many of whom are women).

Early learning and childcare support and school age childcare

Childcare can take many forms. Formal childcare through childminders, nurseries or afterschool clubs amongst others; or informal childcare through family and friends. Children will have varying needs, which will depend on many factors including their health and wellbeing, or family circumstances. Deciding on what type of childcare best suits the child and family means factoring in suitability for the child (such as additional support needs), availability of space, costs, location, timings, and work patterns. For some families the choice will be limited or they may not have a choice at all.

Care for young children continues to highly influence the life chances of men and women in general, but for women in particular. Women account for 90% of lone parents and lone parents, particularly young lone mothers, disproportionately experience poverty. Lack of affordable and wraparound childcare has been highlighted as a particular labour market barrier for this group. ^[52] This is further emphasised for migrant families. For migrant women, childcare remains a particular challenge when they lack a wider family or social support network and the gendered norms of work and family diverge from their country of origin.^[53]

Access to good quality, flexible childcare should be considered as necessary infrastructure in ensuring equity of access to employment. The Scottish Government has put in place 1,140 hours a year of funded early learning and childcare (ELC) provision for three and four year olds and eligible two year olds. Further, there are commitments to expand the early learning childcare offer and a system of school age childcare is being designed and developed in ‘early adopter’ communities across Scotland.

However, the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls (NACWG), along with a range of other stakeholders, have consistently called for ELC provision to be increased further to 50 hours per week for all children between six months and five years old. They suggested that improving the availability and affordability of childcare further is a critical anti-poverty measure that can be implemented by the Scottish Government given the limited levers available to change other aspects of employment conditions.

However, even with the current ELC arrangements there are constraints. Evidence highlights a lack of flexibility in how childcare provision is provided and a lack of wrap-around care. This results in gaps for many families, with women in the family (i.e. mother, grandmother) then taking on the role of providing unpaid care.^[54]

Grandparents do, indeed, play a significant caring role supporting many working families. This is amongst those who are lucky enough to have family who are able, available and willing to support. In Scotland, several studies show the important role that grandparents play in caring for their grandchildren.^{[55],[56],[57],[58]} But across the board, these studies show that it is grandmothers who are spending a greater amount of time in caring and helping activities for their children and grandchildren, compared to grandfathers. Activities include cooking, caring when sick, helping with homework, or collecting them from school. A further study with grandmothers across the UK describes how for grandmothers the added support they provide sometimes involves impossible choices and physical, mental and emotional loads to carry. For example, by reducing their paid working hours, and providing reliable and constant childcare support. The study also comments on how current society places greater value on paid work while undervaluing unpaid, but equally important and productive work within homes and families, and advocates for addressing inequalities in unpaid care work by recognising, reducing and redistributing this work.^[59]

Societal shifts, and other research, shows an increasing intention for fathers to be more involved in their children’s upbringing. However, the research also shows that services are not yet tuned in to support fathers to indeed take an active role as part of the home and caring.^[60] Attitudes continue to be ingrained due to generational patterns that were perpetuated through gendered services.^[61] For example, only recently were men allowed in the birthing room, or administrative systems in schools or nurseries only allowing for one parent’s email address with mothers more likely to be key contacts. There has also been a decline in support for a traditional division of labour (men doing paid work, women doing the unpaid caring), but shifting attitudes require systems and services facilitating equity to allow fathers to engage, participate and in order to achieve greater gender equity in the paid and unpaid world of work.

Across households, women tend to fill the gap in providing childcare where early learning and childcare arrangements are inflexible or do not provide wraparound care. Lack of affordable, flexible childcare can be a barrier to employment for all women, particularly those with intersecting inequalities, i.e. lone parents, young mothers. Attitudes to care are slowly shifting – but gender inequalities remain across the divide of paid and unpaid work.

Future prospects

Children grow and their needs change, with parents having to constantly adapt to family needs and changing circumstances. From a child poverty perspective, the division of roles (paid and unpaid work) taken at a household level, can then have long lasting impacts for both fathers and mothers. For the person, most often the mother, who reduces working hours or stops work completely due to caring, career prospects and paid work options could be limiting. For households with a disabled family member, the person taking the caring role (usually the woman and doing it unpaid), will have greater barriers when aiming to increase their income through paid work.

Evidence shows that future prospects for increasing income from employment can be limited due to varying factors: education not translated into pay, lack of career progression opportunities, and workplace discrimination. Taking each of those in turn.

Educational outcomes not necessarily reflected in pay

Data shows a disparity between educational outcomes and ultimate income achieved. Overall, educational outcomes are higher amongst women. Data shows that at school, girls outperform boys across all areas of literacy, with little difference by gender in numeracy. This has been consistently the case since attainment tracking began. ^[62] Further, girl school leavers are more likely to enter a positive destination compared to their boy counterparts. Later on, women are also more likely to have a degree level qualification or above.

However, there is a gender disparity in the subject matter chosen, with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects more likely to be chosen by boys and the perception that STEM subjects are ‘brainy’ and ‘for boys’ persists.^[63],^[64] Sectors more likely to be traditionally represented by women tend to have lower status and lower pay (such as education, care, retail, cleaning, and administration), despite the importance of these roles to the economy. Overall, this leads to women earning less money. The ratio of pay to attainment is lower for women than for men (though the gap has narrowed recently).^[65]

Girls tend to outperform boys at school, but due to structural inequalities, struggle to translate academic success into earning potential and equal pay.

Career progression

Decisions on career progression are very personal, with aspirations for individuals likely to evolve over time. For child poverty, we are exploring this in terms of availability of options and ability to make a choice for families, and specifically women, as data shows that options and career prospects can be somewhat limiting. This is the case for parents in general, but particularly for mothers juggling paid and unpaid work, who need to reduce their working hours, or require flexible working arrangements. Barriers to career progression will be accentuated as well for minority ethnic women who may face racism or discrimination, as well as those with disabilities.

The overall picture is that women are significantly less likely to be in leadership/senior roles. This is the case in both the private and the public sectors, though gender disparity is more acute in private sector companies. ^[66]

Even in traditional gendered sectors, that is sectors usually dominated by either men or women, women are more likely to be employed in lower paid positions. For example, in retail, women make up around 50% of the workforce but they represent 60% of the low-paid workforce. The difference is less pronounced in public sector industries such as education or healthcare – although a gender split is also evident with men more likely to advance to top leadership positions.

Other ways of progressing in one’s career can be through the creation of your own business. Starting a new business can be a different experience depending on gender. While for the first time, data shows that women are engaging with early stage entrepreneurial activity at the same rate as men,^[67] challenges for women still remain. Only one in five of Scottish entrepreneurs are women, receiving only 2% of the overall institutional investment capital.^[68] Further, women who head a small or medium sized enterprise, are less likely than their male counterparts to be involved in international trade, limiting their ability to earn higher profits and grow their business.^[69] The independent review into women entrepreneurship in Scotland has explored root causes for this significant underrepresentation, which include:

• Women are more logistically constrained to participate in entrepreneurship due to other unpaid caring responsibilities
• Women frequently have a sense of ‘not belonging’, with unclear pathways and networks underserving women
• Women receive far less investment at all stages

The report also finds that other under-represented groups experience the same barriers. These groups include recent migrant groups, rural entrepreneurs and those located within disadvantaged urban areas, and the barriers are further amplified at their intersection.

Career prospects and opportunities have a gender divide, with women underrepresented across leadership and senior roles, and less likely to be represented across Scottish entrepreneurs. This gender disparity is attributable to the structural inequalities facing women in wider society.

Discrimination

Discrimination is not solely a woman’s issue. It can affect anyone based on various factors, such as race, sexual orientation, disability or religion. Barriers and issues are then exacerbated when characteristics intersect. For the purpose of this report, we are focusing on discrimination faced by women – as we have seen throughout that women’s poverty and child poverty are intrinsically linked due mostly to the fact that women do most of the unpaid caring.

Racism. Women from minority ethnic backgrounds often face both gendered and racist discrimination in the workplace. Almost three in four minority ethnic women (70%) have experienced racism, discrimination and/or racial prejudice or bias in the workplace in Scotland. This discrimination occurs across the employment cycle, with two in five (41%) experiencing racial discrimination during the interview process, and half (49%) reporting being overlooked for a development opportunity in the workplace due to racial discrimination.

Ethnicity is also associated with insecure job roles, with black women more likely than white women to experience severely insecure work (30.3% and 25.5%, respectively).^[70]

While we know that motherhood can negatively impact on all women’s experiences in the labour market, we know this can be compounding for women from minority ethnic backgrounds. For example, women of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage are the least likely to receive supplementary maternity pay from their employers, while women from Black African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage find it more difficult to re-enter the job market.²⁹ For example, women of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage are the least likely to receive supplementary maternity pay from their employers, while women from Black African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage find it more difficult to re-enter the job market.²⁹

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is any gender-based violence which results in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering. The abuse covered by this definition can also be experienced by men and boys. Statistics show that domestic abuse is disproportionately perpetrated by men, with women and girls more likely to be the victims. We know that gender inequality is a root cause of VAWG, and at the same time women and girls who experience violence, abuse or exploitation are at increased risk of experiencing inequality of outcomes throughout their lives. This can impact upon mental and physical health, homelessness, drug and alcohol support needs, and reduced educational and employment opportunities.^[71]

Domestic abuse is the most prevalent form of VAWG. In 2023-24, just over four in five (81%) incidences of domestic abuse involved a female victim and a male suspected perpetrator. Women victims/survivors of domestic abuse can face a number of barriers in sustaining employment. Experiencing domestic abuse can impact on job stability, with women sometimes being prevented by their abusive partner from remaining in education or employment with a detrimental impact on future educational and employment opportunities.^[72] When women are able to leave an abusive partner, they may continue to struggle with the consequences of lifelong trauma arising from the abuse they experienced. This can make sustaining employment challenging.^[73],[74]

Evidence highlights that young women, lone parents, disabled women and women living in social housing are more likely to experience domestic abuse.^[75] Previous sub-sections highlight that these groups are overrepresented in low-paid and insecure work, and experiencing domestic abuse is likely to exacerbate their already precarious employment situations.

Living with a disability. There are a range of specific barriers faced by women living with a disability in accessing the workplace. Disabled women have highlighted stigma and a lack of understanding of disabilities as a key barrier in the workplace, with disabled women reporting that many people see disabled people as an inconvenience. ^[76] This can result in a lack of reasonable work adjustments for disabled women, in the form of a lack of physical adjustments to a space and inability to access flexible working patterns (i.e. part-time hours, job-shares).

Disabled women also report the additional work they take on in the workplace around educating others around needs and disability.^[77] However, some disabled women report that workplace cultures are based in ableism, with disabled women experiencing mocking and discrimination from colleagues.

Intersectional evidence on gender highlights that women can face compounding barriers, including racism, racial prejudice, or disability discrimination in the workplace. Evidence also shows that victims/survivors of domestic abuse can face lifelong challenges arising from the trauma of the abuse they experienced, which makes sustaining employment challenging.