Gender Budgeting:
Promoting Gender Equality
Through Economic Policy
Professor Claire Annesley
University of Manchester / Women’s Budget Group
claire.annesley@manchester.ac.uk
Presentation to International Parliamentary Conference on Gender and Politics
Portcullis House, Westminster
7 November 2012
The Problem: Gender Inequality
• Some progress towards gender in terms of
international, regional, national and local
initiatives, strategies and policies.
• But gender inequality remains in employment,
income, resources, education, health and
personal safety.
• Danger that gender equality falls off the
agenda in times of economic austerity.
Country at-risk-of-poverty rate by
gender: 2010
• http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_266844.pdf_266844.pdf
The Case for Gender Budgeting
• Gender Budgeting is a powerful tool to
promote gender equality in economic policy.
Including in times of economic austerity.
• What is Gender Budgeting?
• Why Gender Budgeting?
• How it is done? And by whom?
• A case study of the UK: recent examples of
Gender Budget analysis by MPs and UK WBG.
What is Gender Budgeting?
• It is not a separate budget for women.
• It is not about spending the same on men and
women.
• It is about whether spending is adequate to
meet men and women’s needs.
• The analysis of any form of public
expenditure or method of raising public
money from a gender perspective.
Why Gender Budgeting?
• Budgets are not ‘neutral’ (Elson 1998).
• Existing patterns of gender inequality mean
that budgets affect men and women in
distinct ways.
• Important to take into account impact of
budgets on paid and unpaid economies.
• Gender budgeting can promote equality and
efficiency in economic decision making
(Himmelweit 2002).
How to do Gender Budgeting
• Wide range of tools & methods, for example:
– Beneficiary assessments
– Public expenditure incidence analysis
– Tax incidence analysis
– Gender impact analysis
– Gender mainstreaming
• GB can be done at any point of the budget
cycle: planning  identifying objectives 
financial allocation  evaluating outcomes.
Who can do Gender Budgeting?
• Gender Budgeting can be done by actors
inside and outside government.
• Government: Ministry of Finance; Ministry for
Women / Equality; other Government
departments
• Civil Society groups: holding government to
account.
• Parliament: scrutinising budgets; questions.
Gender Budgeting in Parliament
• Cross-national variation in parliamentary roles
and capacities regarding the budgetary
process.
• Constraints in gender budgeting due to: party
discipline; legal frameworks; weak committee
system; time.
• But: trend towards growing role of
parliaments in budgetary process (IPU 2004).
Facilitating Gender Budgeting in
Parliament
• Boost the representation of women in
Parliament.
• Reform legal frameworks to give parliament a
meaningful role in budgetary process.
• Improve gender budgeting research and
know-how. In-house and through links with
non-parliamentary experts.
• Questions to ministers e.g. relating to the
gender breakdown of expenditure figures.
Facilitating Gender Budgeting in
Parliament
• Boost women’s representation on
parliamentary committees that deal with
budget scrutiny. Positive action? Quotas?
• Require parliamentary scrutiny bodies to take
evidence from women’s organisations and
women service users.
• Develop toolkits and questions for
parliamentary scrutiny bodies to consider
gender perspective.
Case Study: Gender Budgeting in
the UK
• Elections May 2010 led to change of
government from Labour Party to
Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition.
• Emergency Budget June 2010 set direction of
economic policy: to reduce public deficit
through rapid cuts in public spending rather
than by raising income through taxation.
• Gender Budget Analysis of economic policy
produced by MPs in Parliament and
organisations such as WBG.
Gender Budgeting Actors in the UK
• HM Treasury (Ministry of Finance)
– Since 2010 weak record of gender budgeting
despite legal obligation.
– Since September 2012 no female members of
government in Treasury team.
• UK Women’s Budget Group
– Since 1989 an independent organisation made up
of academics, members of NGOs and trade
unions: www.wbg.org.uk;
– Detailed analysis of budgets, spending reviews,
policy reforms.
Gender Budgeting Actors in the UK
• Parliamentarians 145/650 women = 22.3%
• Individual MPs, e.g. Yvette Cooper, Kate Green.
• Committees
– Treasury: 2/13 women (15.3%); male chair (Andrew
Tyrie)
– Public Accounts: 4/14 women (28.5%); female
chair (Margaret Hodge)
– Work and Pensions: 7/11 women (63.6%); female
chair (Anne Begg).
Gender Budgeting in the UK
• Gender Budgeting analysis by MPs and WBG
reveals that:
– Austerity policies are being paid for predominantly
by women
– Certain groups of women – lone parents and
single pensioners - are particularly harshly
affected
– Progress made towards gender equality is being
threatened.
1/ UK Budgetary Decisions
• Gender audit of Budget and Spending Reviews
commissioned by Labour MP Yvette Cooper,
carried out by House of Commons library.
• Analysis of the changes to main personal tax and
benefit measures announced in the Budget.
• For each tax or benefit change it looks at:
• the total amount cut or raised
• the number of men and women that pay it
• and works out approximately how much of the
revenue comes from men and how much from women
(or is given back to men or women).
1/ UK Budgetary Decisions
• Finding:
• In June 2010 Budget, of the £9bn net revenue
to be raised by the financial year 2014-15,
£6.4bn will be from women, in contrast with
£2.6bn from men.
 71% from women
• http://www.yvettecooper.com/women-bearbrunt-of-budget-cuts
1/ UK Budgetary Decisions
• Yvette Cooper / House of Commons Library
repeated the analysis for subsequent
economic decisions to calculate combined
effect of:
• June 2010 Budget + Comprehensive Spending
Review 2010 + 2011 Budget + 2011 Autumn
Statement + 2012 Budget.
• Finding: £11.1bn will be from women in
contrast with £3.8bn from men
 74% from women
2/ Comprehensive Spending
Review 2010
• CSR in October 2010 set out cuts to public spending
across government departments.
• Public expenditure incidence analysis conducted by the
UK Women’s Budget Group with Landman Economics.
• Uses household data on service use to model the
effects of spending on several areas, most importantly:
–
–
–
–
–
Health
Education
Social Care
Social Housing
Transport
• http://wbg.org.uk/RRB_Reports_4_1653541019.pdf
Effects of spending cuts by family
type: as % of net income, all services
change in living standards
(annual)
0%
-2%
-4%
flat-rate
couples
single men
single
women
men, women and couples
other servicerelated
transport
housing
-6%
-8%
-10%
-12%
-14%
social care
education
(HE/FE/skills)
education
(schools)
Effects of spending cuts by family
type: as % of net income, all services
single, no
children
lone
parents
family type
couple
without couple with single
couple
children children pensioner pensioner
change in living standards (annual)
0%
-2%
-4%
-6%
-8%
flat-rate
other service-related
transport
housing
social care
-10%
education (HE/FE/skills)
-12%
education (schools)
-14%
-16%
-18%
-20%
3/ Indirect Taxation
• Value Added Tax (VAT) raised to 20% but tax
on fuel (petrol and diesel) kept stable.
• Analysis of the gendered impact of measures
regarding indirect taxation commissioned for
Women’s Budget Group, by Jerome De Henau
and Cristina Santos.
• http://wbg.org.uk/pdfs/Indirect_tax_Budget_
2011_final_report_June_20.pdf
Indirect Tax Increases
• VAT increased from 17.5% to 20% in the June 2010
Budget, with effect from 4 January 2011.
• Estimated to raise £12,100 million in 2011/12 fiscal year.
Who pays?
1.40%
£8.00
£7.00
£6.00
£5.00
£4.00
£3.00
£2.00
£1.00
£0.00
1.20%
1.00%
0.80%
0.60%
0.40%
0.20%
0.00%
Couple hh
Pensioner hh
Single man hh
Working-age hh w/ children
Single woman hh
Working-age hh w/o children
Couple hh
Pensioner hh
Single man hh
Working-age hh w/ children
Single woman hh
Working-age hh w/o children
Figures: Impact of rise in VAT, by household composition and type: increase in
cash amount paid by households and percentage points change incidence on
household income
• Lone mothers, pensioner couples and couples with
children pay the most as a proportion of their income.
Indirect Tax Giveaways
• In March 2011 Budget the fuel duty escalator was abolished and
main fuel duty rate was cut by 1p / litre.
• A major tax giveaway, estimated to cost the Government £1,900
million in 2011/12. Who benefits?
Couple hh
Single man hh
Single woman hh
Couple hh
£0.00
£0.00
-£0.20
-£0.20
-£0.40
-£0.40
-£0.60
-£0.60
-£0.80
-£0.80
-£1.00
-£1.00
Pensioner hh
Working-age hh w/ children
Working-age hh w/o children
Pensioner hh
Single man hh
Working-age hh w/ children
Single woman hh
Working-age hh w/o children
Figures: Impact of change in fuel duty, by household composition and type,
on weekly cash payments: gains from 1p cut in duty and combined gains from
cut in duty and abolition of fuel duty escalator.
• Single female pensioners and lone mothers benefit the least
The Importance of Gender
Budgeting
• Gender budgeting essential for establishing a
clear picture of the gendered impact of public
expenditure and raising public money.
• Gender budgeting can promote gender
equality and more efficient economic decision
making.
• Evidence that gender budgeting can lead to
more equitable policy outcomes.
The Importance of Gender
Budgeting
• UK example: what can happen when a
Government pursues austerity policies
without gender budgeting.
• Harsh impact on women, particularly lone
parents and single female pensioners.
• MPs’ and WBG analysis essential for holding
government to account and providing
evidence for other gender equality advocates.
Some References
• Bellamy (2002) ‘Gender Budgeting’ Council of Europe.
• Costa, Sawer and Sharp (2012) ‘Women Acting for Women’
International Feminist Journal of Politics
• Elson (1998) ‘Integrating Gender Issues into National Budgetary
Policies and Procedures’ Journal of International Development.
• Elson (2004) ‘Engendering Government Budgets in the Context of
Globalization’ International Feminist Journal of Politics.
• Himmelweit (2002) ‘Making Visible the Hidden Economy’ Feminist
Economics.
• IPU (2004) ‘Parliament, the Budget and Gender’
http://www.ipu.org/PDF/publications/budget_en.pdf
• WBG (2005) ‘Women’s Budget Group response to the Hansard
Society Project on Financial Scrutiny’
wbg.org.uk/documents/Hansard_financialscrutinyproject_response
09.05.pdf