Why are women the most affected by failed austerity policies?

“Women and girls pay the biggest bill for the austerity policies adopted by many countries of the world, including the majority of Arab countries.” This is a summary of the conclusions of the annual report of Oxfam, an international federation of charitable organizations that focus on alleviating poverty in the world, established in 1942.

Oxfam warned that “governments around the world are exposing women and girls to new, unprecedented levels of poverty, danger, exhaustion and premature death as a result of the ‘strenuous’ near-global efforts to recover their economies from the pandemic and control the pace of inflation.”

It came to the point that the organization considered that the austerity measures adopted by many countries in the Middle East region are “a form of gender-based violence,” according to a report it issued in late November.

‘Austerity is not inevitable’

The report, “The Brutality of Austerity: Dominant Economic Policy Choices are a Form of Gender-Based Violence”, revealed that four out of five governments around the world are adopting austerity measures that reduce public services, including health, education, and social protection, rather than relying on wealth taxes and one-off profits taxes. 

It was also found that more than half of these governments “fail their fellow citizens, women and girls, by failing to provide public and social services based on gender or by providing them completely insufficiently. Women and girls are treated as expendable resources.”

Women are affected by a two-fold reduction in services, social protection and infrastructure. The first is directly through rising prices and job losses. The second is indirectly, because they “absorb shocks” in society, as they are expected to stand firm and take care of everyone when the state is not doing its part.

Oxfam expressed its fear that austerity policies would contribute to more women and girls joining the 1.7 billion women living below the poverty line (less than $5.50 a day). It noted that more than 60% of the hungry people in the world are women.

These austerity policies also place more responsibility on women for unpaid care and deny more of them access to clean water, education, health care and even affordable food.

Another no less terrible danger is that women will face more violence, according to Oxfam. During the year 2021, at least one in ten women and girls experienced sexual and physical violence from a partner. In contrast, 85% of countries have closed emergency services for survivors of gender-based violence, according to data from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

“More than 85% of the world's population is expected to live under austerity measures in 2023... This already disastrous situation will worsen, especially with the priorities of governments elsewhere. Just 2% of government military spending is enough to end interpersonal gender-based violence in 132 countries,” the report added.

“Women bear most of the physical, emotional and psychological consequences of these cuts to vital public services because they depend on them the most,” said Amina Hersi, Oxfam's head of Gender Rights and Justice.

“The path to recovery from the pandemic is being cut at the expense of the lives, hard work and security of women and girls. Austerity is a form of gender-based violence,” she added.

Hersi denounced that “women pay the heavy price for the wrong choice between the state's provision of social and public services or paying off debts and attracting investment and growth. This should not be the case.”

“Austerity policies combine patriarchy with neoliberal ideology to increase the exploitation of the most oppressed people within society and deliberately ignore their needs,” she explained.

Hersi noted that “it is not just a gender policy but also a gender-based process in everyday life given the way in which all aspects of women’s daily lives specifically affect their income, their responsibilities of care. Their ability to access essential services such as health, water and transportation, their general safety and their freedom from physical violence at home, at work and in the street will also be affected.”

A Middle East that is more unfair to its women

As the Middle East and North Africa region plunges into a decade of sweeping austerity measures, it is not surprising that women and girls, some of the most vulnerable, marginalized and discriminated against, face more persistent economic violence.

It is noteworthy that 11 countries in the region are planning additional austerity measures for the year 2023, namely Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Mauritania, Tunisia, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Note that the first seven countries provide only the minimum level of maternity and childhood support.

In the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the Palestinian Authority reduced the salaries of women, who make up between 57 and 59 percent of workers in the public health and education sectors, respectively, due to Israel's withholding of tax returns. While the freeze on the public sector wage bill in Egypt and the loss of jobs disproportionately affected the earning opportunities of women.

In the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the Palestinian Authority reduced the salaries of women, who make up 57-59% of workers in the public health and education sectors, respectively, due to Israel's withholding of tax returns. Meanwhile, the freeze on the public sector wage bill in Egypt and the loss of jobs disproportionately affected the earning opportunities of women.

Possible solutions

Based on the above, Oxfam urged governments to “adopt feminist economic policy options that are firmly based on principles of justice in the redistribution of wealth and power,” Oxfam's advocacy advisor Dana Abed told Jusoor Post.

She also advised that “governments should focus on the people to address inequalities and support the well-being of marginalized groups of genders, races and ethnicities in all countries.”

The organization also called on all governments to “stop austerity measures altogether and seek alternatives such as a feminist budget and progressive taxation,” according to Abed. 

She added that “taxes are invested in universal social protection and public services and put the specific needs of women, girls and non-binary people at the heart of policy-making.”

“We proposed to correct the tax situation, especially on the huge wealth that could collect $1.1 trillion, enough to cover the cost of the annual cuts that governments plan for 2023,” Abed continued.

She also called for “the provision of decent work through the full implementation of ILO labor standards, including in particular for women in informal and care economies.”

Abed appealed to the International Monetary Fund to “stop imposing painful and failed austerity measures, and to suspend the austerity condition on all existing loan programs,” noting that Jordan, Egypt and Tunisia received loans from the IMF last year, and Lebanon is currently negotiating with the fund.

Oxfam also encouraged wealthy countries to “accelerate debt cancellation and debt-free financing for low-income countries,” according to Abed.

In its report, Oxfam stressed repeatedly that “austerity is not inevitable, but rather an option. Governments can either continue to cause harm by cutting public services, or they can raise taxes on those who can afford it.”

At the end of September 2022, several international organizations, including Oxfam, the European Network for Debt and Development, and the Latin American Network for Economic and Social Justice, launched the #EndAusterity campaign.