BSL Talks: Counting women in

In the lead-up to International Women’s Day, we held a special BSL Talks: Counting women in: breaking poverty cycles through economic security.

We know women, particularly single parents and older women, are a significantly over-represented group facing poverty in Australia.

In the lead-up to International Women’s Day, we held a special BSL Talks: Counting women in: breaking poverty cycles through economic security. It canvassed a wide range of reasons why women find themselves trapped in poverty and was full of practical examples of how we could change this with short- and long-term solutions.

We were honoured to have Dr Anne Summers AO join us on the panel, talking about her recent work at the University of Technology Sydney and her report, ‘Poverty or Violence’ which helped to generate changes by the federal government to the single parenting payment and the punitive Parents Next program. Hosted by the Director of BSL’s Social Policy and Research Centre, Dr Nicole Bieske, other panellists included Terese Edwards from Single Mother Families Australia, Aradia Sayner, expert by experience and co-founder of Women in Poverty, and BSL’s Social Policy and Research Centre Senior Research Officer, Margaret Kabare.

Housing affordability, low participation of women in employment, high rates of part-time roles for women, high costs of further education, unpaid caring responsibilities, and inadequate rates of government payments were some of the barriers discussed. Panellists acknowledged that while there have been positive steps recently towards improving systems – like the abolition of the punitive Parents Next program – much more needs to be done.

As Dr Anne Summers noted:

We've had some great progress from the Albanese Government in helping single parents out of poverty - but we need them to finish the job at this year's Budget and make sure that they don't lose the Single Parents Payment when kids turn 14, we need it raised to 16 years.

Aradia Sayner, a single parent who has been on a social housing waiting list for over a decade and is currently homeless, reflected that no woman would wish or imagine that they would be in this situation in their mid-fifties. 

Living in poverty is extremely dehumanising and isolating. Let’s start by investing in affordable housing which should be a basic fundamental right.

Watch the full BSL Talks - Counting women in webinar now.