Violence against women and girls (VAWG) cuts across culture, ethnicity, age, wealth and geography, affecting women of all ages and all backgrounds.

Women who work outside the home are at lower risk of domestic violence than those who are not earning (Mirrlees-Black, 1999).

Women are three and a half times more likely to be subject to domestic violence, two and half times more likely to experience sexual violence and more vulnerable to stalking if they cannot find £100 at short notice (Walby & Allen, 2004).

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VAWG includes physical, sexual and psychological/emotional violence, economic abuse and exploitation

Research into economic abuse has identified four different ‘types’ of economic abuse (Sharp, 2008). These include the abuser:
1. Interfering with education and employment
2. Controlling access to economic resources
3. Refusing to contribute to household expenses and bringing up children
4. Generating economic costs by destroying possessions/taking out credit in partner’s name

Click here to view the economic abuse wheel

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Children and young people who are living with domestic violence and/or child sexual abuse have less resources to devote to learning, and in some instances may fail to attend school and may be at risk of ending up in lower paid employment.

Current experiences and/or past legacies of abuse may diminish women’s capacity to sustain and succeed in employment.

The mental health and physical impacts of violence against women can make it difficult for women to work and limit their prospects for employment.

Sexual harassment in the workplace is commonplace resulting from women’s disadvantaged employment positions whilst simultaneously serving to keep women concentrated at low levels in organisations.

Lack of financial alternatives can trap women in prostitution and jobs in the wider sex industry; many who would like to exit prostitution are deterred not only by their limited skills/qualifications but also by under-confidence, poverty of aspiration and lack structure and support in their lives.

Over half of women in prison say they have experienced domestic violence and one in three has experienced sexual abuse.

Many abused women are subjected to financial control and abuse and inhibited from employment, education and training by perpetrators, making them economically dependent.

Living in a refuge may make it harder for women who have experienced domestic violence or forced marriage to maintain their existing jobs.

The threat and reality of violence against women can create homelessness - many young women are homeless as a result of fleeing sexual abuse, domestic violence, crimes in the name of honour, forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

The trafficking of women and girls is often characterised by the inducement of money, accommodation, food or other incentives as a consequence of imbalances of power in relation to economic resources.

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Because gender organises responsibility for breadwinning and care giving, women are more likely than men to experience economic dependency.

Children often increase women’s economic dependency on their partners and qualitative studies suggest that many women remain or return to violent partners because they fear they cannot provide for their children without the economic support of their partners.

Ending violence may result in women and children needing temporary accommodation in the short term and being dependent on income support and housing benefit over the longer term.

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