Wallet
Zombie Statistics:
Misleading or false statistics repeatedly used without verification, influencing policies negatively. For instance, the belief that "70% of those living in poverty are women" is widely circulated without accurate backing.
Gendered Poverty and Household Economics:
Poverty measures typically assess households as single economic units, assuming resources are equally distributed. However, income controlled by women tends to benefit children and women more than income controlled by men.
Joint vs. Individual Taxation:
Joint taxation systems often penalize secondary earners (usually women), discouraging female employment and financial independence, thus reinforcing the gender pay gap.
Gender-blind Tax and Economic Policies:
Tax policies frequently ignore gender differences, leading to gendered outcomes, where women disproportionately bear the burden of budget cuts, austerity measures, and indirect taxes (e.g., VAT).
Tax Avoidance by Multinationals and Gender Impact:
Tax-avoidance practices by multinational corporations indirectly impact women, as governments compensate lost revenue through consumption taxes, disproportionately affecting women’s financial wellbeing and increasing unpaid care work burdens.
---
2. Examples/Stats:
UK Child Benefit Experiment (1977):
When child benefit shifted from tax deduction on a father’s income to cash payments to mothers, spending on women's and children's clothing significantly increased, indicating a positive redistribution from men to women.
Karnataka Household Asset Survey (India):
Found that traditional poverty measures overlook gender inequalities within households; while household-level data showed no gender difference in poverty, individual-level analysis revealed 71% of those in poverty were women.
US Joint Tax Return System:
96% of married couples file jointly, leading women (usually secondary earners) to be disproportionately taxed at a higher rate than if they filed independently.
Japan’s Tax Deduction:
The 'head of household' deduction incentivizes women to work fewer hours; a survey showed over a third of married Japanese women curtailed working hours to qualify for tax breaks.
Zambia Tax Avoidance Case:
Tax evasion by multinational corporations like Glencore deprived Zambia of $1.2 billion—60% of the national health budget—forcing the government to increase indirect taxes like VAT, disproportionately impacting women.
