1. 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

2. 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.

3. Country at-risk-of-poverty rate by gender: 2010 http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_266844.pdf_266844.pdf

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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).

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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).

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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;www.wbg.org.uk – Detailed analysis of budgets, spending reviews, policy reforms.

14. 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).

15. 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.

16. 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).

17. 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-bear- brunt-of-budget-cuts http://www.yvettecooper.com/women-bear- brunt-of-budget-cuts

18. 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

19. 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

20. Effects of spending cuts by family type: as % of net income, all services

22. 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 http://wbg.org.uk/pdfs/Indirect_tax_Budget_ 2011_final_report_June_20.pdf

23. 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? 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.

24. 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? 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

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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 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