the unequal sharing of family and household responsibilities means that when public services such as health childcare water and sanitation are cut back or become less affordable it is usually women and girls who fill the ensuing gap spending more time on unpaid care and domestic work see chapter finally because women are more likely to be employed in the public sector they are particularly affected by staff and wage cuts in this sector in the united kingdom the womens budget group has repeatedly denounced the regressive nature of fiscal consolidation which is based on spending cuts rather than tax increases and quantified the toll that budget cuts take on the most disadvantaged women and girls in the country