Women are ‘shock-absorbers’ of poverty and will suffer after Brexit
The Women's Budget Group think-tank says years of austerity after the 2008 crisis has shown that women suffer more than men when the economy takes a knock
London — From job losses to squeezed family budgets and reduced legal protections, Brexit could have a devastating impact on women, gender experts said ahead of Britain's departure from the EU But women who support Brexit accused them of scaremongering and suggested some of their arguments might verge on sexism, highlighting the bitter split in the country since a referendum in 2016 when Britain voted by a small margin to leave the EU. "Brexit will have a negative impact on the economy as a whole - and will hit women harder than men," said Mary-Ann Stephenson, director of the Women's Budget Group, a feminist think-tank. "We know that women act as the shock-absorbers of poverty." Britain's economic growth has slowed since the referendum, but not by as much as many forecasters predicted. The uncertainty has since cost the economy about £600m per week, Goldman Sachs said on Monday. The Bank of England estimates a worst-case Brexit could shock the economy into a 5% contraction within a ...
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