The government’s economic policy ignores the gendered effects of its ‘competitive’ growth strategy

The Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) conducted for the 2011 Budget, while a welcome development given the lack of impact assessment in last year’s Emergency Budget, is severely lacking in rigour and scope. Amy Watson, co-ordinator of the Women’s Budget Group (WBG), presents research from the WBG and the Fawcett Society, which focuses on the government’s policy of reducing corporation tax and examines how this policy continues to disadvantage women. The research also considers the role that the coalition government could take in allocating resources and devising policies to actively pursue gender equality.