Women are baring the brunt of ongoing cost of living crisis according to new research

According to a report carried out by Ulster University and the Women’s Regional Consortium, women are disproportionately bearing the brunt of the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.

With prices for food at their highest in nearly 50 years, and the marked rise in energy costs, women’s mental and physical health is deteriorating.

This is according to a survey that questioned a sample group of 250 women here.

It made clear that 75% of participants are struggling to pay for groceries while 73% indicated that they were struggling to pay energy bills as inflation continues to remain at levels not seen since the Second World War.

Women are labelled as the “shock absorbers” of poverty and other social inequalities since they are more likely than men to go without food or take on unpaid caring roles in order to protect children and other family members.

Some 43% of women who took part in the survey admitted to having had to skip meals to stop others going hungry, while other respondents said they had been forced to eat out of date food in order to keep homes warm as the ‘eat or heat’ conundrum continues.

Proposed cuts to funding of the communities and education departments will only add to the pressure they are facing, and there is particular concern about children having to go without adequate nutrition during the summer months, since for many school meals remain their primary source of daily sustenance.

This means that when school is out in July and August, 96, 300 children in NI face food insecurity.

A representative from the Women's Support Network, one of Northern Ireland’s leading representative bodies for women, said: "Many [women] are making torturous decisions around feeding themselves and their families. They are faced with no other choice and the stark reality is that they are unable to live dignified, healthy lives.

"This should not and cannot be acceptable for women living in Northern Ireland.

"We are calling for the Holiday Hunger Scheme to be urgently reinstated and for the Healthy Start Scheme to be widely publicised to ensure women and children do not go hungry during the summer months.”