Gender Responsive Budgeting

1. Gender Responsive Budgeting Rhonda Sharp University of South Australia Diane Elson Essex University Presentation to FACSHIA, Canberra June 24, 2009

2. Which box would you tick?  Leaves inequalities between men and women, boys and girls unchanged or is ‘gender neutral’.  Reduces gender inequalities  Increases gender inequalities Have no idea. Quiz QuestionWhat is the impact of your program expenditure or revenue raising on the existing pattern of gender differences and inequalities in Australia?

3. History • Australia was a pioneer in the 1983 with the world’s first Women’s Budget Statement that recognised that gender mainstreaming needed to include a gender responsive approach to the budget. • It is through the budget (revenue raising and spending of governments) that policies and programs are implemented or become concrete.

4. Budget impacts and gender mainstreaming • Budgets impact on different groups of women and men though a variety of channels both direct and indirect

5. Direct channels of budgetary impact on men and women differently via • provision of services • infrastructure • income transfers • public sector jobs • taxation • user charges • budget decision making processes

6. Budgets also impact differently on men and women indirectly via • Impact on the private sector through contracts to supply the public sector. • The macroeconomic impacts of the budget on aggregate demand in the economy and thus on job creation and economic growth.

7. Gender responsive budgeting 2 steps • Unpacks the gender-differentiated character of these direct and indirect impacts of the budget with analysis (Gender Budget Analysis) • Actions that bring about changes to policies, priorities and budgetary processes so that the budget contributes to promoting gender equity and equality.

8. Tips for doing gender budget analysis • Over the past 20 years a growing body of conceptual frameworks, tools of analysis and practical experience has been developed internally to reveal the gender-differentiated character of the impacts of budgets. (See www.gender-budgets.org) • What follows are some selected examples relevant to Australia

9. Distinguish between sex and gender • GBA is not simply a matter of sex disaggregation – i.e. looking at whether more women benefit from a program or policy than men or vice versa. • The analysis needs to go beyond this to look at the impact of government policies and their funding and taxation on gender relations and family types. • The post-war gender arrangements in Australia up until the1970s are described as a strong version of a male breadwinner model (sometimes referred to as a gender order or regime). • GBA needs to ask what model of gender relations is implied by the policy and funding changes, how do various household arrangements fare and is it likely to promote gender equity and equality?

10. Typologies of gendered households • Male breadwinner/female carer (traditional breadwinner model) • Male breadwinner/female part-time worker and carer (modern or modified breadwinner model) • Dual breadwinner/state or market carer model • Dual breadwinner/dual carer model • Other categories (eg sole parent, same sex couples, single person).

11. How does gender intersect with other categories? • The intersections between gender/class/location/sexuality/race/ethnicity/ are important in assessing gender gaps and impacts of budgets • Tendency to focus on one category rather than further disaggregate the analysis (eg World Bank studies on poverty) • The proposed Parental Leave policy is an example of how different groups of women and men will fare differently under its eligibility rules and funding arrangements.

12. Impacts are different according to lifecycle stage • This is well illustrated with the introduction of the 1992 Superannuation Guarantee Charge in and tax concessions for voluntary superannuation contributions as different age groups of men and women are impacted differently. • Downstream gender impacts of policy and funding may reinforce unequal gender relations (eg the lack of Parental leave and affordable quality child care in early life has implications for attachment to the workforce and retirement incomes) • Not doing something to improve gender power relations can be more costly to the government when life cycle effects are taken into account (eg the cost of domestic violence).

13. Distinguish between budget impacts that produce transformative changes in gender relations vis-a-vis ‘here and now’ • Eg making changes to who receives child benefits compared to changing the amount of cash payments to families • This requires, amongst other things, a recognition that unpacking the gender impacts of budgets and policies is shaped by the ‘unit of analysis’ and assumptions about resource allocation within the family.

14. The unpaid economy • Need to go beyond recognition of women’s unpaid work, to recognize the unpaid economy • Men work in the unpaid economy too, but women do more of the work than men; and men and women tend to do different tasks • Unpaid work does not just support families, it supports the paid economy, producing the labour force, saving money for businesses, subsidizing the budget • The unpaid economy, like the paid economy, responds to changes in the financial system • Policy to improve the efficiency of the paid economy can transfer costs to the unpaid economy • The unpaid economy is a critical element in the care economy

15. Australia’s unpaid labour force at a glance: some suggestions • Average weekly hours of unpaid work, women of working age • Average weekly hours of unpaid work, women above working age • Average weekly hours of unpaid work, men of working age • Average weekly hours of unpaid work, men of above working age • Market value of women’s unpaid work as % of GNP • Market value of men’s unpaid work as % of GNP • Subsidy to the budget provided by women’s unpaid work • Subsidy to the budget provided by men’s unpaid work • Average life time loss of earnings due to unpaid work, women • Average life time loss of earnings due to unpaid work, men

16. The global financial crisis and the unpaid economy • The unpaid economy often expands in response to a financial crisis, unlike the paid economy, which contracts • Women and men substitute goods and services produced unpaid at home for some of those purchased in the market • Can track this using special time use surveys at sentinel sites, or by using monthly data on household expenditures • Women’s total workload ( paid and unpaid) may rise in a recession, while that of men falls. • Happens if men are more affected by unemployment than women, more women get part-time or informal jobs to try to compensate ( added worker effect); and women, more than men , expand their unpaid work

17. Transference of costs to unpaid economy • Measures to improve efficiency of paid health services may transfer costs to unpaid economy Day surgery cuts costs of hospitals, but discharged patients still need care- typically provided unpaid by family, friends and neighbours, especially women • Encouraging use of working –age volunteers (mainly women) in public services reduces costs now-but may increase future poverty of elderly women who lack superannuation benefits • Need to check if policies are really cutting costs or transferring costs

18. Strategy for the unpaid economy • Recognize- through time use studies, satellite accounts, policies to support unpaid workers. • Reduce- through policies to improve housing, water and sanitation, access to energy, and to provide paid care. • Redistribute- though polices to enable men to do more unpaid work and women to do less.

19. Dilemmas of Care Economy • Care for children, sick and disabled people, frail elderly people • Unpaid and paid, public and private, local and migrant workers • Challenge of caring for ageing population, while promoting women’s labour market participation • What mix of public provision, carers allowances, tax breaks, visas for carers etc ?