Britain is no country for those women who will live shorter lives than their counterparts around the world

It was twelve years ago that Professor Ruth Lister, Head of the Department of Applied Social Studies at the University of Bradford, argued that within poorer households, it was women who did the hard work of managing poverty and debt, which was difficult, time consuming and tiring. Women were more likely to suffer time and income poverty than men and she coined the phrase that they acted as the : “Shock absorbers of poverty”.

Britain is a country with four nations : Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the richest, England and it is here that women in its poorest areas have been shown to be dying earlier than the average female in almost every comparable country in the world. Research by the 'Health Foundation' showed that millions of women living in the most deprived areas of England can expect to live 78.7 years, almost eight years fewer than those living in England’s wealthiest areas. The Foundation did not examine the other three kingdoms, but this kind of difference between women in wealthy and deprived areas could also be replicated there. 

Jo Bibby, the 'Director of Health' at the Health Foundation said : "The Government has committed to addressing stalling life expectancy and this has been described as a core part of the 'Levelling Up' agenda, however, it has so far failed to acknowledge the mountain it needs to climb to bring life chances in the UK in line with other comparable countries”. She said it must focus on providing secure jobs, adequate incomes, decent housing and quality education to improve women’s health in the poorest areas, otherwise 'Levelling Up' : “Will remain little more than a slogan”. She also said : “When OECD countries are ranked by life expectancy, the UK comes in 25th – a somewhat disappointing showing for the world’s fifth-largest economy”. 

Hannah Davies, the 'Health Inequalities' lead at the 'Northern Health Science Alliance' was not involved with the research, but described the findings as “Shocking” and : “Inequalities between the richest and poorest in England are morally and economically unacceptable and the devastating impact they’re having on the poorest women is shown here clearly. If the Government is to achieve its healthy life expectancy goals, it cannot ignore deprivation in the UK and must invest in helping those worst affected by the cost of living crisis through significant, funded support”.

Clare Bambra, a Professor of Public Health at Newcastle University, also not involved in the analysis, said it highlighted the “vast scale” of health inequalities in England, which were “likely to worsen through the very real health threats posed by the rising cost of living”.

The statistics are stark : Women living in the 10% most deprived parts of England have a lower life expectancy at 78.7 years, than the average woman in countries such as :

* Colombia at 79.8 years

* Latvia at 79.7 years

* Hungary at 79.6 years 

only : 

Mexico, at 77.9 years has a lower overall life expectancy than women in the poorest parts of England.

Within Britain itself some of the most deprived areas in England include the local authority areas of Blackpool, Knowsley, Liverpool and Middlesbrough and the least deprived areas include Chiltern, Hampshire, Hart and Rutland. The gap in life expectancy between women in the richest and poorest areas is 7.7 years. Those women in the 10% least deprived areas in England live on average 86.4 years which is higher than the overall life expectancy for women in any OECD country, except Japan, which has the highest level for all OECD countries at 87.3 years.

Incredibly, Jo Bibby would have been able to say of women in Britain, had she lived in 1922 and can still say in Britain in 2022 : 

"The stark reality is that the poorest can expect to live shorter and less healthy lives than their richer counterparts”.