The first thing I read this morning was a great Guardian article on how women’s rights seem to be regressing during the pandemic. This will come as no surprise to most women, who may have been affected disproportionately by any number of things, including home-schooling, choice of which businesses are prioritised for help, ways that earnings are calculated, maternity care conditions, or expectations that they will be the ones to take up caring roles. 

Women are not the only group to have been negatively affected during the pandemic. The Equality Act (2010) lists several protected characteristics, including age, disability, ethnicity… if you look down the list virtually every protected characteristic has been disadvantaged at this time. Whoever is doing Equality Impact Assessment on government policies is doing a shoddy job.

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