12 problems we need to solve to make life better for women in the UK

Written By Kirsten Westlake

At Two Magpies Fund, we spend a lot of time in the weeds: reading grant applications, talking to frontline workers, tracking policy changes, trying to direct funding where it will do most good. But every so often, it is worth stepping back and looking at the bigger picture: "what, exactly, are we trying to solve?" That is what prompted this piece. We wanted to map the landscape and create a picture of how women's lives are shaped by the structures around them.

The scale can feel paralysing. Two million women experiencing domestic abuse every year. Seventy thousand rapes recorded, fewer than three in every hundred resulting in a charge. A gender pay gap that costs women hundreds of thousands of pounds over a lifetime. A family court system that, in too many cases, places children back in the hands of the people who hurt their mothers. When you lay it out like this, it is tempting to look away.

But here is what the evidence also shows: these problems are deeply, structurally connected and we choose to see this as a cause for hope. The gender pay gap fuels economic abuse by making women financially dependent. Online misogyny normalises the attitudes that make domestic violence feel acceptable to perpetrators. The underfunding of specialist services means that women who escape one crisis (violence, homelessness, mental ill-health) are left to navigate the next one alone. Pull on any thread and you find the others. Which means that investment in one area creates ripple effects across the whole system.

What follows is our attempt to set out the twelve most significant problems we need to solve in order of magnitude, with a simplified snapshot of the evidence behind each one and the human reality it represents. None of these problems are inevitable. All of them are solvable. But not without sustained funding and the resources to do it…

1) Domestic Abuse

The Scale of the Problem

2.2 million women in the UK experienced domestic abuse in the year to March 2025 (9.1% of the female population); a VAWG offence is reported to police every two minutes in England and Wales.

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Domestic abuse remains the single largest driver of violence against women and girls and acts as a gateway harm - those experiencing it face dramatically elevated risk of homelessness, mental ill-health, poverty and loss of employment. The Domestic Abuse Commissioner has described a persistent 'justice lottery' in the criminal justice response. The government's 'Freedom from Violence and Abuse' action plan sets a mission to halve VAWG within a decade.

Cost/ Impact

  • £85 billion annual cost to society

Sources

2) The Rape and Sexual Violence Justice Gap

The Scale of the Problem

Approx. 70,000 rapes are recorded by police annually but only approx. 2.8% result in a charge or summons; annual conviction numbers are static at 1,400 – 1,600 despite a doubling of reporting.

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In England and Wales, fewer than 3% of recorded rapes result in a charge. That figure has barely moved despite reporting doubling over the past decade. Most recorded rapes never become charged cases. This represents a profound denial of justice and creates a culture of impunity that deters victims from coming forward. Operation Soteria is reforming police and CPS practice, and the government has committed to specialist rape and sexual offences teams in every force.

Cost/ Impact

  • Women's Budget Group, the UK’s leading feminist economics think tank, estimates the total societal cost of sexual violence and abuse in England and Wales exceeds £400 billion.

Sources

3) Online Misogyny and Manosphere Radicalisation

The Scale of the Problem

Women are 27 times more likely than men to be harassed online; 44% of Gen Z women in the UK experienced online misogyny in 2025; 77% of girls have experienced online harm; 1 in 3 young women aged 17–21 have received unsolicited sexual images.

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Influencers profit from algorithmic radicalisation and monetisation of misogynistic content. The manosphere exploits boys' and men's loneliness and economic insecurity. The government has committed to an Online Safety Commission, statutory Code of Practice and bans on nudification apps and strangulation pornography.

Cost/ Impact

  • EU equivalent harms estimated at €49–89 billion annually

  • Severe mental health impact — 55% of affected women reported anxiety and panic attacks

Sources

4) Economic Abuse

The Scale of the Problem

4.1 million women (1 in 7) experienced at least one form of economic abuse from a current or ex-partner in the past year; 2.9 million women experienced economic exploitation; nearly 1 million women were prevented from leaving abusive relationships.

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Economic abuse - controlling a partner's ability to acquire, use or maintain economic resources - is pervasive but frequently invisible. Women aged 18–24 are most affected (38%). Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic women experience it at twice the rate of white women; disabled women at nearly twice the rate of non-disabled women.

Cost/ Impact

  • 1 in 11 women had bank account access restricted

  • 1 in 13 had credit taken out in their name without consent (equivalent to 2.1 million women)

Sources

5) The Gender Pay Gap and Structural Economic Inequality

The Scale of the Problem

All-employee median hourly pay gap of 12.8% in April 2025 (down from 13.1% in 2024); women earn 87p for every £1 men earn; full-time gap 6.9%.

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The pay gap reflects structural inequalities: women's concentration in lower-paid sectors, the motherhood penalty and undervaluation of care work. Austerity and the cost-of-living crisis have fallen hardest on women, widening poverty rates. Women retire with significantly smaller pension pots.

Cost/ Impact

  • Advancing gender equality could add over £150 billion to UK GDP (McKinsey)

  • The 'motherhood penalty', occupational segregation and undervaluation of care work compound lifetime earnings disadvantage

Sources

6) Family Court Failures in Domestic Abuse Cases

The Scale of the Problem

73% of private family law hearings involve domestic abuse allegations; 80% now have at least one unrepresented party; 39% have neither party represented (up from 13% in 2013).

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The family court routinely re-traumatises survivors. 'Parental alienation' - a discredited concept - is weaponised by abusers as a counter-allegation. The presumption of parental contact is rarely disapplied even in domestic abuse cases. Legal aid cuts have created severe inequality of arms. The government is repealing the presumption of parental involvement and banning unregulated parental alienation experts.

Cost/ Impact

  • Women's Aid documented 19 child homicides linked to unsafe court-ordered contact arrangements between 2015 and 2024 - a 50% increase on the previous decade

Sources

7) Stalking

The Scale of the Problem

1.5 million people experienced stalking in the year to March 2024; 1 in 25 women (4%) are stalked annually; 1 in 5 women have been stalked at some point in their lifetime; young women aged 16–19 are most affected (10.5% per year).

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Police identification and investigation of stalking remains poor and inconsistent. Stalking Protection Orders are underused. Smart technology, GPS, social media and connected devices are increasingly exploited by stalkers. The government has committed to a Stalking Legislation Review, improved police guidance and expanding the 'Right to Know' scheme.

Cost/ Impact

  • Stalking is a primary predictor of escalation to serious violence and domestic homicide

  • Cyberstalking is growing faster than all other forms

Sources

8) Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

The Scale of the Problem

52% of women have experienced sexual harassment at work (TUC); 1 in 4 women have suffered work-related sexual assault (Unite survey, July 2025); women are twice as likely as men to experience workplace abuse.

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Despite a new legal duty (in force since October 2024) requiring employers to take 'all reasonable steps' to prevent sexual harassment, it remains endemic. NDAs have been systematically misused to silence victims - the Employment Rights Bill will restrict this. Women in hospitality, retail and care are most exposed.

Cost/ Impact

  • Calls to Acas on workplace harassment rose 39% in the first half of 2025 (5,583 calls)

  • Sexual harassment in the workplace impacts on career progression and workforce retention, and leads to significant losses in earnings

Sources

9) Children Exposed to Domestic Abuse

The Scale of the Problem

400,000+ children areidentified as being at risk by local councils across England and Wales; 535,439 police-recorded crimes were linked to children where domestic abuse was a factor (2022–24).

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Babies and children are direct victims, not merely 'witnesses'. Exposure to abuse in early life causes lasting neurological, psychological and developmental harm. Women's Aid documented a 50% increase in child homicides compared to the previous decade, many following unsafe court-ordered contact. Operation Encompass (police information-sharing with schools) is now a statutory duty.

Cost/ Impact

  • Children who witness abuse are significantly more likely to experience or perpetrate it as adults

  • Specialist children's services are at risk of financial collapse

Sources

10) Fragmented and Underfunded Specialist Support Services

The Scale of the Problem

Postcode lottery of provision across England and Wales; 'by and for' services chronically underfunded; specialist children's services described as at risk of financial collapse (2025).

More Detail

Services run by the voluntary sector are chronically underfunded and reliant on short-term contracts. 'By and for' services - led by and for minoritised communities, disabled women and LGBT+ people - are especially underfunded. Deaf survivors face acute shortages. The government's reformed commissioning framework and £550m investment are positive steps but long-term sustainable funding remains the central challenge.

Cost/ Impact

  • The government is committing £550 million over three years (2026–29) to victim support services - the largest-ever such investment, reflecting the scale of unmet need.

Sources

11) Intimate Image Abuse, Deepfakes and Cyberflashing

The Scale of the Problem

1 in 3 young women aged 17–21 have received unsolicited sexual images; AI has dramatically lowered barriers to creating non-consensual synthetic intimate images.

More Detail

The government is legislating to ban nudification apps, criminalise non-consensual deepfake creation, designate cyberflashing and strangulation pornography as priority offences under the Online Safety Act, and establish a global mechanism to share and remove non-consensual intimate images (NCII). The harm is likened by researchers to sexual assault in its psychological impact.

Cost/ Impact

  • Severe psychological harm to victims

  • A growing commercial industry in nudification apps and deepfake creation tools targeting women's images

Sources

12) Honour-Based Abuse, Forced Marriage and FGM

The Scale of the Problem

6,980 women and girls with Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) were identified in NHS settings in 2024–25 (16,300 total attendances); 41,645 cumulative FGM cases have been recorded since NHS reporting began in 2015; approx. 1,400 forced marriage cases were handled by the Forced Marriage Unit in 2024.

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Honour-based abuse (HBA), forced marriage and FGM are poorly understood by many frontline agencies and frequently mishandled. The government has committed to a statutory definition of HBA, a ministerial roundtable, a review of FGM mandatory reporting and research into prevalence estimation. These crimes disproportionately affect women from specific ethnic and faith communities, requiring culturally competent specialist responses.

Cost/ Impact

  • Hidden crimes with severe lifelong physical, psychological and social consequences

  • Significant under-reporting means true prevalence is much larger

Sources

Kirsten Westlake

CEO, Two Magpies Fund

Please Note: The references in this blog were compiled with the help of Claude AI. The analysis, editorial judgements and funding perspective are my own.

Kirsten Westlake
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