Impact of Inflation on Women’s progress in equal salaries is disproportionate

Did you know that in Britain, women’s formal shoes have seen a price increase of 75% in 2021 due to inflation, while those for men increased by only 14%? Speaking about the global inflation crisis affects women and girls disproportionately. Although inflation is higher for products aimed at women they are also less likely to have salaries that keep pace with inflation.

In this case, civil society can help by raising awareness, campaigning on childcare reform, and supporting women in the global south. Across the world, we are facing an acute inflation crisis. In its latest economic outlook report, the IMF forecasts global inflation to increase to a record 8.8 percent in 2022, citing lingering pandemic disruptions and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Such high levels of inflation have sent prices of goods and services soaring. And it is therefore urgent to counter this cost-of-living crisis to protect people’s pockets.

This global inflation crisis affects everyone, but women and girls are disproportionately affected. Over the past two years, prices of products aimed at women have risen even faster than those for men. In Britain, for instance, women’s formal shoes have seen a price increase of 75% in 2021, while those for men increased by only 14%. The same inequities are also visible when it comes to electric razors, T-shirts, jeans, and even haircuts in the world’s fifth-largest economy. Before the inflation crisis began, women were already less wealthy than men worldwide.

The crisis further threatens to untangle social progress on closing the gender pay gap for women. Women are less likely than men to receive a salary rise at a rate higher than the rate of inflation in 2022. In the US, a recent national survey found that men are 33.3% more likely than women to have their salary keep pace with inflation. Similarly, in the UK inflation is forecast to exacerbate the existing gender wage gap between women and men.

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