International Women’s Day 2024, Invest in Women
Lilly Lewis, Women’s Involvement Advisor, One Small Thing
This International Women’s Day, Lilly explores the UN’s theme, ‘Invest In Women - Accelerate Progress’. She explores what investing in women looks like, and why it’s vital that more funding is put into specialist services for women.
As we celebrate another International Women’s Day let’s talk about investing more in women and women’s services, and what this could look like.
Women’s specific services are generally overlooked. I think the government does not understand the specific needs of women. Most financial needs of women are being unmet. A huge percentage of women who stay in abusive relationships do so due to a lack of financial resources, and over 90% of women living in an abusive relationship have experienced financial abuse. More statistics need to be recognised by funders and the government to support women. This would place women in stronger positions when making choices about their lives.
Those affected by the criminal justice system will often be primary caregivers and may even lose their homes once they go into prison, there should be additional housing funding for women who are being released from prison homeless. It was shown that 600 of the 4685 women who were released from prison in 2020 & 2021 ended up rough sleeping. Many women were released from prison with a tent! This almost certainly sets them up to fail. Having no address can cause problems with opening a bank account or registering with a GP. Many of these women will be returned to prison on recall.
I would like to see more investment and funding go towards charities that support women facing homelessness, such as WHAG in Rochdale who offer support for women who are affected by domestic abuse or any disadvantage, for example, substance misuse or on release from prison. I’d also like to see more funding going into homeless hostels for women only as these are very few in comparison to male hostels. There needs to be more money and funding to support these women into safe accommodation.
“Investing in women doesn’t just mean financial investment. It also means investing time. ”
When we invest in women we help create a society where all women have great economic independence. Allowing women to have ownership and control over their assets and buildings strengthens their financial resilience.
“If women’s services had more investment, this would make a huge difference, and create more positive outcomes for women and children.”
I also think if women's services were funded more this could create better support workers who can be trained appropriately, for example, trauma-informed training for all workers who are working with women who've experienced domestic abuse or have experience of the criminal justice system.
Investing in women’s services throughout the country should be a priority, and we need to look at those charities supporting black and brown minoritsed women so that we can level up the amount of support that is given to all women regardless of their race.
Written by: Lilly Lewis, Women’s Involvement Advisor at One Small Thing
