When I Realised How Political Policy Shapes Women’s Lives in the UK

For most of my younger years, politics felt distant. I associated it with Parliament on the television, men in suits arguing, complicated language about budgets and committees, and decisions that felt far away from my day-to-day life. I voted when I could, because I believed it was important, but I never really thought of domestic policy as something that directly shaped me as a woman.

It was only later, as an adult navigating work, motherhood, health, housing, and care, that I began to see just how profoundly UK political policy affects the experiences and lives of women.

This realisation did not happen overnight. It came gradually, often through moments of frustration or shock, when I traced back the obstacles in my life to the rules and systems designed, supposedly, to support us. Looking back now, I can see that what I thought were personal struggles were often structural ones. Policy was not some abstract concept, it was woven into my rent payments, my childcare costs, my pay packet, my healthcare, and my future pension.

In this blog, I want to share how I became aware of that reality, what I have learned about the way policy shapes women’s lives in the UK, and why I believe we need to start looking at every law, budget, and decision through the lens of gender equality.

Gendered Reality of Work

My first real encounter with policy shaping my life came at work. I was in my twenties, ambitious, eager to progress and working along side a great group of young professionals - female and male. Myself and another female colleauge qualified at the same time, and were looking forward the salary increase that came with it. However, we were both put on salaries lower than our male colleaugues had received when they had qualified. We discussed this together and then with management and we got responses such as "Martin had a big project", "Alan's been working here for years" and even a reprimand that we should not be talking about our salaries. This was in the UK in the 2000's and it took another 17 years for gender pay gap reporting to be introduced, forcing large employers to publish their pay data by gender.

It was not surprise to women when it was confirmed that not only were they earning less on average, but they were underrepresented in the highest-paid roles. Suddenly, it was not just about my own feelings of inadequacy compared to male colleauges, it was about structures, policies, and practices that undervalued women’s work.

Now, 25 year's on, women's historically lower salaries impacts pay discrimination today.

Childcare and the Motherhood Penalty

The next big awakening came when I became a mother of two. I remember sitting at the kitchen table with a calculator, working out how much nursery fees for a baby and toddler would take from my salary. And the answer was, more than my salary, and a bit more.

I began to understand why so many women step back from work after having children. Not because they want to “give up” their careers, but because policy makes it almost impossible not to. The UK has some of the most expensive childcare in Europe, and government support, while improved in recent years, still falls short. Free hours are limited and often do not cover the actual cost of full-time care.

Meanwhile, parental leave policy reinforces inequality. Statutory maternity leave is lengthy but poorly paid for most of it. Paternity leave is just two weeks. Shared parental leave exists in theory, but it is so badly designed and so poorly paid that it is hardly used. And so the pattern continues: mothers take the hit, fathers carry on working, and women’s lifetime earnings are slashed.

The “motherhood penalty” is a direct result of government policy choices.

The Impact of Austerity

My first pregnancy was in 2008, and I took almost a year off work. My daughter and I enjoyed free baby swimming lessons at the local pool and, with a Sure Start centre within 100 metres from our house, we found support and made friends, right on our doorstep.

It was the that the financial crisis unfolded. Public services were stretched and The Sure Start centre was closed. When my second child was born, there were no free swimming lessons, and the breast feeding clinic and weigh-in clinics had reduced hours. Across the country local libraries shut down and bus services were cut

Austerity was not neutral. Studies from the Women’s Budget Group showed that women were disproportionately affected by cuts to benefits, tax credits, and public services, because women were more likely to rely on them, more likely to work in the public sector, and more likely to shoulder the unpaid work when services were cut.

For single mothers in particular, austerity was devastating. Many were pushed deeper into poverty, with reduced support for housing, childcare, and welfare. There has historically been a public narrative painting sinlge-mothers and women on benefits as “scroungers” or “lazy,” when in fact the system itself was structured to make life harder for them.

Housing, Security, and Gender

Housing is another area where the gendered impacts of policy can be seen. My friends were worried about the insecurity they felt with short-term contracts and rising rents. One single-mother friend of mine tried to buy her first home, and I saw how much harder it was for her compared to her male counterparts. Women’s lower average earnings, combined with more frequent career breaks, meant smaller deposits and lower borrowing power.

Housing policy affects everyone, but women are especially vulnerable. Women are more likely to head single-parent households, more likely to live in poverty, and more likely to face housing insecurity.

Domestic abuse survivors, overwhelmingly women, often find themselves at the sharpest edge of the housing crisis, struggling to access safe and affordable housing when they need to leave. Read more about the effects of Poverty on women.

When governments fail to build enough affordable housing, or when housing benefit is restricted, the consequences fall heavily on women.

Healthcare and Reproductive Rights

Following austerity, booking a GP appointment became difficults with long waits, and for many women this came on top of the dismissive response so often faced by women, particularly around reproductive health issues. Friends going through menopause spoke of how poorly resourced support was. Reading reports about maternity services in crisis made me realise how much women’s health had been neglected in policy planning.

Access to contraception, maternity care, and abortion services are all shaped by policy decisions. Reproductive rights are often treated as “women’s issues,” siloed away from mainstream policy debates. But they are central to equality. The ability to plan if and when to have children, to access safe maternity care, and to receive proper support through menopause, are all basic needs. When policy underfunds these services, it is women who pay the price.

Pensions and the Lifetime Penalty

I returned to part-time work when both my children were at primary school, and to full-time work, when they were at high school. This is when I started thinking about the pension payments coming out of my wages and whether I need to do more following my break from the workforce and reduced earnings.

When I could, I gradually increased by pension contributions, but I know now, what a massive impact that break will have on my pension. Women retire with significantly smaller pensions than men. The “gender pension gap” in the UK is around 35%.

Why? Because of the cumulative effect of lower earnings, career breaks for childcare, part-time work, and the undervaluing of women’s contributions. Add to that the changes in state pension age, which particularly affected women born in the 1950s, and you see how policy choices have created generations of inequality.

I realised that the choices I made in my twenties and thirties, shaped by childcare policy and pay inequality, would echo into my sixties and seventies. Policy was not just about the present, it was about my entire life course.

Is there something I would have done differently? Would I have gone back to work earlier and work for a negative income? Would I have worked part-time? Probably not. But If I had known about the massive pension and wealth inequality in later life, I would have discussed it with my partner and talked about sharing the early years caring, or mabye how his wages could support my pension investment

Seeing Policy as a Feminist Issue

Once I saw these patterns, I could not unsee them. Domestic policy is not gender-neutral. It is built on assumptions about who works, who cares, who earns, and who pays. And because those assumptions are often outdated and unequal, women bear the brunt.

The more I learned, the more I realised that feminist activism is not only about changing attitudes, it is about changing policy. It is about demanding gender impact assessments for every budget decision, about investing in childcare and social care, about designing parental leave that works for both parents, about funding women’s healthcare properly, and about recognising unpaid work in economic models.

Why This Matters for Everyone

Sometimes when I talk about these issues, people assume they only matter to women. But the truth is, gender-sensitive policy benefits everyone. When childcare is affordable, fathers can be more involved, and families are stronger. When women earn fairly, households have more security. When public services are funded, communities thrive.

Equality is not a zero-sum game. Creating policies that work for women creates a fairer, healthier, and more prosperous society for all.

My Call for Change

Becoming aware of how policy shapes women’s lives has been both empowering and frustrating. Empowering, because I can see the patterns and add my voice to the call for change. Frustrating, because so many of these issues have been known for decades, yet change feels slow.

But I believe awareness is the first step. The more women, and men, realise that our struggles are not individual failings but systemic outcomes, the stronger our collective demand for change will be.

We need domestic policy that centres women’s lives, that recognises care as essential, that values equality not as an afterthought but as a foundation. For me, politics is no longer distant. It is here, in my home, my work, my healthcare, my future. And I will not stop noticing how it shapes me, and how it shapes us all.

August 2025