Measures announced in the comprehensive spending review will hit women twice as hard as men, according to research by the House of Commons library.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow foreign secretary and shadow minister for equalities, who commissioned the research, said tonight that the changes represent the biggest reversal in opportunities for women since the end of the first world war
Of the £8.5bn being raised by cutting direct contributions to individuals, £5.7bn – two thirds – is coming from women, while £2.7bn is being raised from men, the Commons library says.
In June's emergency budget £5.8bn was raised from women and £2.2bn from men.
That means that of the total £16bn being brought back into the exchequer by the coalition through direct tax benefit changes, £11bn will come from women.
Cooper shows that 70% of tax credits including childcare, working tax credits and other support is paid to mothers, as is 94% of child benefit. Some 60% of housing benefit, also due to be cut, is paid to women. According to the Daycare Trust, the spending review amounts to a £1,500-a-year cut in help with childcare costs.
Cooper compares the review to the period after the first world war when women who had been working had to stop because of the return of men from the front.
"Cutting back measures like childcare and working tax credit, when women still earn much less than men, will mean women have more limited career prospects.
"Women live on lower incomes yet they have chosen to take the majority from women," she said.
"You have to go back in history to find anything comparative. Not since the end of the first world war have we seen such a complete reversal of women's opportunities and economic independence. We haven't seen an attempt to turn the clock back like this for very many generations."
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