What we can do about a gendered financial crisis overlapped with disaster
When the Canterbury earthquakes hit, no one was talking about the gendered impacts of the disaster. It took the pandemic, when the adverse effects on women were so noticeable, for the likes of Project Gender to start looking back at other disasters to track the data.
As we approach International Women’s
Day on March 8, it’s now the lens through which we look at the havoc of Cyclone Gabrielle and (especially for those that have walked the recovery road) appreciate the sheer magnitude of what they’re facing.
Those ‘‘gendered impacts’’ make small spikes into the daily news bulletin but they’re often presented as a singular data point rather than the full picture; ‘‘48 reports of family violence were received by police’’ is a classic example.
However, thinking about the big picture is what’s required. Thinking about how people’s experiences and outcomes differ by gender will enable us to make better, more informed decisions for our communities.
Predictably, disasters exacerbate pre-existing inequalities and vulnerabilities. Financial inequity, disproportionate care-giving responsibilities and access to healthcare are already larger issues for women, wa¯ hine, trans, non-binary and intersex people in Aotearoa compared to most men - let alone when we overlay traumatic and lifechanging events.
Research released in 2021 by the Finance Services Council revealed 80% of New Zealand women rate their financial wellbeing as low or very low. When we look at the gendered impact of Covid-19, in 2020 10,000 of the 11,000 job losses were borne by women.
It’s not too much to say there is a gendered financial crisis happening in Aotearoa.
We have a well-documented pay gap of 9.2%. For every dollar a Pa¯ keha¯ man earns, that’s $0.89 for a Pa¯ keha¯ woman. If you’re a Pasifika woman, that reduces to $0.75 in the dollar.
Gender and ethnic differences in financial wellbeing are dire enough, add in being a single mother and/or living with a disability, and it’s a more complicated problem to solve.
But let’s assume that we can improve financial equity for women. Is that enough to create life-long financial stability alone? Not quite! Because, we know that women also bear a disproportionate load of caregiving roles.
An immediate and tangible action that will have a powerful positive impact is paid parental leave being granted to both parents, instead of the maternity leave that we currently have, which theoretically can be transferred to the father but in practice only happens for 1%. But what if we create financial equity, and implement paid parental leave for both parents, is there anything else we’d fix?
Give me permission for one more. Our healthcare system is inequitable. Navigating the medical system with a terminally ill family member and having a baby during the pandemic, I am in awe of our healthcare workforce. Disasters or not, babies will arrive, medications will be required and care will be given.
However, this comes at a real cost: our maternal suicide rate is five times higher than that of the UK; the life expectancy of Ma¯ ori wa¯ hine is 6.8 years less than Pa¯ keha¯ women.
Want to do something about it? There are tangible actions that we can all take.
Let’s give power to our communities (one of the successes so far in the cyclone response is the on the ground advocacy of Nga¯ ti Kahungunu).
Let’s reform our Paid Parental Leave policies.
Let’s make sure our National Women’s Health Strategy centres women’s needs.
Let’s reduce the gender retirement gap.
Let’s make our employers report on their gender and ethnicity pay gap.
Let’s centre women’s voices, they tell us what they want (they’re the experts of their own lives).
Imagine that.
It’s not too much to say there is a gendered financial crisis happening in Aotearoa.