A report said that the rigidities of the benefit system often discouraged women from making the transition to self-employment, due to the variable hours involved and the uncertainties of future income.
Source: Susan Marlow, Andrea Westall and Erika Watson, Who Benefits? The difficulties for women in making the transition from unemployment to self-employment, New Economics Foundation (020 7820 6300) and Prowess
Links: Report (pdf) | NEF press release
Date: 2003-Nov
The Chancellor of the Exchequer reportedly asked ministers to set out how their spending plans helped women, when they made their annual funding bids. An internal pilot was also reportedly created, aimed at analysing how much was spent on men and on women under different government programmes.
Source: Financial Times, 27 November 2003
Links: No link
Date: 2003-Nov
A report said that the government would not meet its objectives in areas such as heart disease, mental health and suicide, smoking or sexual health unless it adopted different health strategies and targets for women and men.
Source: Lesley Doyal, Sarah Payne and Ailsa Cameron, Promoting Gender Equality in Health, Equal Opportunities Commission (0161 833 9244)
Links: Report (pdf) | EOC press release
Date: 2003-Nov
Insurers criticised a proposed European Union directive banning gender discrimination in the sale of financial services and products, including pensions and motor accident insurance. (The directive was unlikely to come into full operation before 2013.)
Source: Press release 5 November 2003, Association of British Insurers (020 7600 3333)
Links: ABI press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Nov
A think-tank report suggested that the new 'civil partnerships' proposed for same-sex couples could be accorded the same tax treatment as married couples: but at the same time it urged the government to review and simplify the inconsistent assessment system currently in place for all families.
Source: Response to 'Civil Partnerships: A framework for the legal recognition of same-sex couples', Tax Law Review Committee/Institute for Fiscal Studies (020 7291 4800)
Links: IFS press release
Date: 2003-Oct
Research examined how black and minority ethnic women understood and perceived their identity in the context of access to health services, and assessed the validity of looking at equality and human rights from a multiple identity perspective.
Source: Heidi Safia Mirza and Ann-Marie Sheridan, Multiple Identity and Access to Health: Experience of black and minority ethnic women, Equal Opportunities Commission (0161 833 9244)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2003-Oct
A paper evaluated the effect of joint claims for jobseeker's allowance (requiring both partners in a couple - rather than just one - to search for work). After some months, positive effects on benefit exit were detected, but effects on job entry were less apparent. Mostly, the effect operated through the female partner.
Source: Richard Dorsett, Unemployed couples: The labour market effects of making both partners search for work, Research Discussion Paper 13, Policy Studies Institute (020 7468 0468)
Links: Paper (pdf) | Summary
Date: 2003-Aug
A committee of MPs called for a shift towards midwife bookings, greater autonomy for midwives in delivering services, and a greater priority given by trusts to maternity issues, in order to help reverse the 'worrying medicalisation' of birth.
Source: Choice in Maternity Services, Ninth Report (Session 2002-03), HC 796-I, House of Commons Health Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jul
A committee of MPs reported on access to maternity services by women from disadvantaged groups. It said that it had found examples in some areas of excellent practice in meeting the needs of minority ethnic groups, asylum seekers, homeless people, those living in poverty, those from the travelling community and those affected by domestic violence. But it said that good practice was rarely taken up in other areas, or indeed shared across the health service.
Source: Inequalities in Access to Maternity Services, Eighth Report (Session 2002-03), HC 696, House of Commons Health Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jul
A new book examined the ways in which pension choices over the lifecourse were structured by gender, class and ethnicity; the impact of changing patterns of partnership and parenthood on pension building; the distributional impact of privatising pensions; and questions about individualisation of rights, survivor benefits, a citizen's pension, and means-testing.
Source: Jay Ginn, Gender, Pensions and the Lifecourse: How pensions need to adapt to changing family forms, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2003-Jun
In its response to a Green Paper on pensions, the Equal Opportunities Commission said women's retirement incomes could not be improved without a radical rethink of the state pension scheme. It also said that compulsion was the only way to stem the closure of occupational pensions and extend the benefits of employer contributions to all employees. In the case of very lowly-paid workers, it said that compulsion should be backed by state credits to private schemes (or through the state second pension). It also recommended changes to the lower earnings limit threshold, the national insurance system, and home responsibilities protection.
Source: Response to the Department for Work and Pensions Green Paper 'Simplicity, Security and Choice: Working and Saving for Retirement', Equal Opportunities Commission (0161 833 9244)
Links: Response (pdf) | EOC press release | Green Paper (pdf)
Date: 2003-Jun
From 6 April 2003 statutory maternity pay increased from 75 to 100 per week.
Source: Press release 18.11.02, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7712 2171)
Links: DWP press release | Inland Revenue explanatory note
Date: 2003-Apr
The actuarial profession said that the best way to tackle the problem of retired women living in poverty is to address the underlying problems of discrimination they suffer - rather than trying to manipulate pensions and savings schemes in their favour.
Source: Submission from the Actuarial Profession to the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs Inquiry into Aspects of the Economics of an Ageing Population, Institute of Actuaries (01865 268205)
Links: Submission (pdf) | Press release
Date: 2003-Feb