Is it Really Just the Cuts? Neo-Liberal Tales from the Women's Voluntary and Community Sector in London

Abstract

This article is based on our experience as feminist academics and practitioners and aims to analyse the ways in which recent neoliberal changes in service provision together with much reduced budgets due to austerity policies have affected women’s voluntary and community organisations in London. These organisations provide crucial resources to vulnerable women who are victims of domestic abuse, trafficking and honour based violence to name only a few, and are a primary example of women seeking support at the grass roots level. While there is a rich literature on the negative impact of public sector cuts on gender equality in as much as they affect women as workers, with a particular emphasis on increasing female poverty, less is known about the effects of the current coalition government’s cuts on women’s grassroots organizations. We do know that cuts to public spending have deeply destabilised, and in some cases decimated, women’s organizations, yet little attention has been paid so far to what we might term ‘the resilience strategies’ of women’s organisations. This article and aims to bridge this gap by critically examining what kind of coping strategies women’s organizations are developing.