Women’s equality in the UK – A health check

3.18
3.19
3.20
3.21
expertise in language, cultural understanding, or understanding of the distinct circumstances
for particular groups. 22
Ring-fencing funding is the only way to make sure that women, and other equalities groups,
will receive money. Political will is needed to prioritise the needs of women and their support
services. There is an assumption that sustainability can be achieved through non-government
money, which is not a reality for many small organisations.
The Government’s report has failed to address the critical role of women’s NGOs as key
institutions in promoting gender equality. Neither has the Government reported on the crisis
facing the women’s NGO sector which they have not publicly acknowledged or indeed made any
plans to intervene in to halt the imminent closure of organisations. (See Appendix: 4 for further
information)
Recommendations:
• There is a need for ring-fenced funding for women-only services
• The needs of women within a particular locality need to be assessed in order to
enable appropriate provision of services and address discrimination, including
within existing services; local strategies should also be developed to address local
needs
Lack of disaggregated data
CEDAW General Recommendation 28 23 highlights States parties’ responsibility to “create and
continuously improve statistical databases and the analysis of all forms of discrimination
against women in general and against women belonging to specific vulnerable groups in
particular... Mechanisms that collect relevant sex-disaggregated data, enable effective
monitoring, facilitate continuing evaluation and allow for the revision or supplementation of
existing measures and the identification of any new measures that may be appropriate.” During
the 2012 UPR there was also a recommendation to the UK to strengthen data collection and
maintain disaggregated data to better understand the scale and severity of hate crimes towards
women and other groups.
However, data is not being collected at all under some of the Equality Act 2010 ‘protected
characteristics’. For example, the UK has no reliable baseline estimate of how many women
identify themselves as lesbian, bisexual or transgender 24 which is a major obstacle in tackling
discrimination and inequality and in measuring specific needs of this population in the UK. The
lack of socio-economic data about the LGB&T community is also a barrier to both funding and
greater influence. 25 There is also a lack of data disaggregated by gender and older age in some
areas, 26 as well as a general lack of statistics disaggregated by multiple aspects of identity,
such as disability and gender. Statistics also fail to recognise that disabled people are not a
homogenous group and include disabled women as well as men. During the research for this
22. Maternity Action (2012) Guidance for Commissioning Health Services for Vulnerable Migrant Women. WHEC: London http://www.
maternityaction.org.uk/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/guidancecommissioninghealthservvulnmigrantwomen2012.pdf
23. CEDAW General Recommendation No. 28 The Core Obligations of States Parties under Article 2 of CEDAW (forty-seventh session, 2010)
http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G10/472/60/PDF/G1047260.pdf?OpenElement
24. Equality and Human Rights Commission (2009) Beyond Tolerance: Making Sexual Orientation a Public Matter. EHRC: London http://www.
equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/research/beyond_tolerance.pdf
25. Women’s Resource Centre (2010) In All Our Colours: Lesbian, bisexual and trans women’s services in the UK. WRC: London http://
thewomensresourcecentre.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/IAOC.pdf
26. Sclater, E. (2012) NGO Thematic Shadow Report: Older Women’s Rights in the United Kingdom. Older Women’s Network,
Europe and National Alliance of Women’s Organisations http://thewomensresourcecentre.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/
olderwomensrightsukNGOthematic.pdf
40 Women’s equality in the UK: CEDAW shadow report 2013