WOMEN donned marigolds and aprons to dress as 1950s housewives took part in a flashmob in Oxford city centre to protest against Government cuts they believe are having a disproportionate effect on women and forcing them back into the home.
The Fawcett Society, the UK’s leading campaign group for equality between between the sexes, organized a day of action on Saturday with protests across the country to draw attention to the fact that women are bearing the brunt of spending cuts and are being stung for £11.5bn. This is more than two thirds of cuts totalling £16bn outlined in Chancellor George Osborne’s budget and spending review.
Between 20 and 30 women took part in the flashmob outside St Micheal at the North Gate, on Cornmarket Street, at midday. The women gathered almost 100 signatures to a petition calling on the Government to reassess cuts which are they believe are turning back time on women’s equality.
The recommendations include restoring support for childcare costs in low income families to pre-April 2011 levels, ring fencing funding for Sure Start children’s centres and ensuring that women who are the victims of violence have access to support.
Kate Clayton-Hathway, from the Oxford Fawcett Society, who organized the flashmob, said: “We are trying to draw attention to the fact that the coalition cuts are having a disproportionate affect on women. Women are losing jobs because two thirds of the public sector workers are women.
Cuts to benefits are having a negative effect on women, cuts to working tax credit, Sure Start, child benefit. Social care budget cuts mean that more people are having to be cared for in the home as many families can’t afford day care.
Eighty per cent of carers are women meaning that it won’t be viable for them to work. The Fawcett society see the cuts as forcing women back into the home.”
The Day of Action followed the news that women’s unemployment has reached its highest level in 23 years, with 1.09 now women out of work.
Pauline Simmons, 63, a retired woman from east Oxford, who took part in the flashmob, said: “I am really angry about what the new coalition Government are doing to damage women’s jobs, welfare, education and rights to legal aid and benefits. That’s why I am here.
We already know that women’s unemployment has gone up to a new high. Cuts to legal aid will affect women seeking legal advice.
Cuts have been made to charities that help women who suffer from domestic violence. More part time jobs are going, which has a huge affect on women and the retirement age is going up, which affects women far more than men.”
Debbie Hollingsworth, 47, a support worker from Kidlington who also took part, said: “One of the biggest issues is housing, we have known for years that there is a lack of social affordable housing. A lot of young women, with or without children are presented to Oxford City Council as homeless.
“Women are being pushed into private sector housing, which is fine while they are on benefits but these young women are never going to work. They are never going to be able to earn enough money to pay for private sector housing, which means they are stuck in the home.”
Cameron Miller, 23, a student from Botley who was walking past and added his name to the petition, said: “I think it’s important that we don’t go back to the way things were for women for my mother’s generation. When she was at school she was told that the options for her were to be a secretary, nurse or teacher, that was pretty much it.
"She graduated from school in the early 80s and became a housewife, it was only really when my siblings and I went to boarding school that she managed to retrain and work as a social worker for the NHS. I think it’s important that we don’t go back to thinking women’s work is secondary and rate women’s jobs as less important than men’s jobs.”
