Picture a Wales without poverty

On the surface it’s easy to picture a Wales without poverty.

We would see all households earning the minimum income required for a basic standard of living. Wales would be a Living Wage nation where we see an end to a low wage economy, the abuse of zero hours contracts and the stress of precarious employment. We would certainly no longer be talking about in-work poverty.

Wales would be a country where women are able to achieve and prosper, with all barriers to work and progression removed. There would be equality of opportunity for all in education, with no child’s educational attainment being attributed to the community from which they come. And there would be a strong economy with equal opportunities for all, a high skilled workforce that is representative of the local community and the necessary infrastructure to support people in work, i.e. access to childcare, transport and high speed broadband.

Painting the picture of what a Wales without poverty looks like is easy, the route to such a vision is much tougher. The causes of poverty are complex but in terms of women’s poverty there are some key issues which if tackled, could have a significant impact on poverty levels more widely.

The impact of women’s incomes is significant as it often decides whether a household is living in poverty.

Women are more likely to live in poverty than men, are more likely to suffer longer and recurrent spells of poverty than men and are more at risk of falling into poverty if they lose their job. Part of the problem is the nature of “women’s work”, that is, the jobs that women seem to dominate in.

This segregation sees women concentrated into low paid, low skilled, often part time roles, which offer little chance of progression. Women are still missing from the top jobs and miss out on the benefits of infrastructure investment due to being dramatically under-represented in the STEM sector.

Part time work is also a significant problem.

Women occupy 80% of all part time jobs in Wales, of which 75% are in administration, personal services and elementary occupations. This leads to a gap of 34% between men’s full time earnings and women’s part time earnings in Wales.

Addressing these issues is fundamental to dealing with poverty in Wales and can be achieved through some simple steps:

•  Action needs to be taken to ensure that women are represented in equal numbers in senior positions in both the public and private sector.
• We need to continue work to encourage more women to consider careers in sectors that have traditionally been seen as male dominated, such as STEM.
• We need to look at the problem of part time work, the perception that it is less valuable and the fact that it is mainly low paid work offered on this basis.
• We need to tackle the perception that women are carers first and earners second and make sure that parents are able to take advantage of affordable, accessible childcare to help balance work and care.
• We need to encourage employers to consider, alternative, modern working practices at all levels and across all roles to further ease the pressure of balancing work and home life.

Taking these steps would have a significant impact on women’s position in the labour market and support them to reach their potential. In doing so, we can build a Wales where women achieve and prosper and take a major step towards building a Wales without poverty. 

Natasha Davies is the Policy Partner at Chwarae Teg 

Photo by Images_of_Money via Flickr 

Tell us what YOU think a Wales without poverty would be like in our short survey here.