Women in north of England work more, live less long – new report
Health Equity North shows that women in the north live shorter lives, work more hours for less pay, are more likely to be an unpaid carer and to live in poverty than women in other regions of England.
A new report, Women of the North: Inequality, health and work, provides damning evidence of growing inequality between different parts of England. The authors find that, compared to elsewhere in the country, women living in the north have lower healthy life expectancy, fewer qualifications, worse mental health, and are more likely to suffer domestic violence or end up in the criminal justice system. What’s more, infant mortality is higher and abortions are more common in the north.
Photo by Matteo Badini
More than 70 academic, health, social care and policy professionals contributed to the report, aiming to explore social determinants of health for women and how these play out in the region. The results making startling reading but the hope is that the study – and its damning figures – will help to inform evidence-informed policy solutions by central and regional government and the health service. Indeed, the report makes many recommendations.
So what does it find?
Girls born in the north east between 2018 and 2020 can expect to live in good health until the age of just 59.7 – some four years fewer that the national average and six years less than girls born in the south east. The figure for Yorkshire and the Humber is 62.1 and for the north west is 62.4, both below the national average.
There’s an economic impact to this, too. The report estimates that women in the north are missing out on £132m per week in wages, or £686bn per year, compared to women paid for the same work elsewhere in the country. Average weekly wages for women working full time are £567 in Yorkshire and the Humber, £569 in the north east and £598 in the north west – significantly lower than the £625 national average and the £757 paid to women in London.
Women in the north also contribute an estimated £10bn of unpaid care to the UK economy per year. This is £2bn a year more than if they provided the national average of unpaid care. Indeed, one fifth of women in the north aged 55 to 59 was found to provide care to a family member because of illness, disability, mental illness or substance use.
The north saw the highest increase in abortion rates between 2012 and 2021, which the report links to austerity, the implementation of the two-child limit and increased rate of abortions. More than 25% of pregnant women in the north live in the 10% of most deprived areas, compared to fewer than 5% of pregnant women in the south east.
The report also addresses higher rates of severe mental conditions such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and a lower proportion of women with such a condition receiving treatment. Women in the north suffer the highest rates of domestic violence abuse in the country – 19 per 1,000 in the north east, compared to the national average of 11. Recorded deaths with alcohol-specific causes are also the highest in England.
Hannah Davies, Executive Director at Health Equity North, says: ‘Our report provides damning evidence of how women in the north are being failed across the whole span of their lives. Over the last 10 years, women in the north have been falling behind their counterparts in the rest of country, both in terms of the wider determinants of health and, consequently, inequalities in their health.
‘There is a lot of work that needs to be done to turn the tide on the years of damage detailed in this report. But the situation for women’s health in the north can be changed for the better through evidence-based policy interventions. We need to see policymakers build on the ambitions outlined in the Women’s Health Strategy for England with focused effort to understand and address the regional inequalities in the many different facets of women’s health.’
Professor Kate Pickett OBE, Academic Co-Director at Health Equity North and Director of the Public Health & Society Research Group and the York Cost of Living Research Group at the University of York, adds: ‘This report unpacks some of the wide-ranging challenges women face across many aspects of their lives, and the impact of these on their health. For women in the north, these challenges are often felt more deeply.
‘We know that much of the inequality we see affecting women in the north is a direct consequence of poverty, which is completely unacceptable in the 6th largest economy in the world. Cuts to welfare and public health funding, the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis have hit the most deprived communities and the north hardest. We hope that the findings and recommendations act as a wake-up call for government to make health and addressing health inequalities central to policies going forward.’
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