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When governments look to cut spending, women are often disproportionately impacted. It has been no different in Manitoba under the austerity agenda of the Progressive Conservatives (PCs) since forming government in 2016. This agenda consisted of mandated expenditure cuts and the underspending of budgets, while privatizing and offloading public services to for-profit companies. Seventeen percent of the civil workforce was cut leading up to the pandemic.
Given women’s overrepresentation in the caring economy, such as jobs in health care, family services, seniors care, childcare, and education, (and replacing full time decent work with precarious jobs), cuts resulting from austerity measures hurt women the most. As noted with unease by Journalist Shannon Sampert: “Because women are most often tasked with providing care in the private or domestic sphere, when the public sphere no longer provides services, it’s expected those services will then be picked up by the private sector,” and that means women in particular “are expected to pick up the slack.” Women in Manitoba faced a double burden under PC austerity: worsening paid working conditions, and additional pressures at home.
As part of a larger research project examining provincial government austerity, based on a review of provincial staffing and expenditure data as well as surveys completed by over 2000 public service workers, we examined the impact of the PC austerity from the perspective of women workers as well as programing specifically targeted for women, including women’s shelters and centres.
Accounting for inflation, expenditures to the Manitoba Status of Women Secretariat and Family Violence Prevention programs fell by 8% between 2016 and 2022. Survey respondents reported that reduced family and community services exacerbated service-provider burnout: All reported that their work was at least moderately impacted by Austerity governance, and most reported their work was greatly impacted. Over three-quarters of respondents reported that their workload has increased and intensified in distressing ways that wear workers down.
As one respondent explained, “The people we work with can't afford the basic necessities of life. EIA rates haven't kept up with inflation, and everything is more expensive, so more people are relying on non-profits like ours for access to basic needs like food, diapers, housing, washrooms, and phones. And we have fewer resources to provide, so we are stretched thinner and not able to do the work in the caring way people need.” Another respondent conveys distress at the sprawling toll on human lives in Manitoba: “When you cut social supports, the problems and root causes don’t disappear. We are seeing increasing need and more acute abuses experienced by populations we serve.”
Managing services provided under the provincial Status of Women portfolio, many respondents feel keenly the difficulty of recruiting and retaining social service workers in such critical, low-paid, punishing work conditions. These results echo and amplify the experience of women workers responding throughout the larger study, who found themselves burdened by increased work responsibilities and resource shortages as budgets and staff were cut, and work was contracted out and privatized. Over 80 percent of women workers reported worsening working conditions, plummeting work satisfaction, and deteriorating employee mental health as a result of austerity. 40 percent of women workers surveyed reported that worker safety had declined, and two-thirds have considered moving on to other employment.
Austerity left half of respondents stripped of resources, more perilously serving the same or increased numbers of clients, burdening Manitobans with inappropriate, counterproductive, and costly reforms. Three-quarters of women workers responding to the survey have observed service declines as a result of austerity. Respondents also overwhelmingly agree that they were left out in the cold when austerity was imposed, neither being consulted nor benefitting from reasoned explanation for cuts, and 70 percent predict that austerity in their line of work will either hurt Manitobans economically or shuffle costs from their department to others. “Less value for money,” is far and away most women workers’ view of austerity.
Reported actual expenditure data is currently only available up until March 2022, and announcements under former Premier Stefanson suggest some increases in support. Caution however is advised, particularly given the half billion dollars of tax cuts proposed in the 2023 provincial budget. When the fiscal pressures again mount and government imposes further service cuts, women again will disproportionally bear the burden. It's time that all Manitobans consider the cost of underfunding services for women, particularly those most disadvantaged, and the gendered and regressive impact of paying for tax cuts by starving our health, education and others social services we all rely on. As emphasized by our survey respondents, in this scenario, women lose, and we are worse off as a province.
Grant: Community-Driven Solutions to Poverty: Challenges and Possibilities - 2020-2027
Category: Social Inclusion