This briefing looks at how coronavirus is impacting Black and Asian women and women from ethnic minority backgrounds. The briefing is published jointly with Women's Budget Group, Queen Mary University of London and the London School of Economics. 

Both women and people from BAME backgrounds have been highlighted as particularly vulnerable to the economic and social impacts of the crisis. Coronavirus infection and mortality rates are much higher among BAME people and among BAME men. 

The briefing sets out the findings from research on the impact of the outbreak on the following aspects of BAME women's lives:

• Poverty and debt: More than 4 in 10 BAME women said they would struggle to make ends meet over the next three months.
• Work and employment: BAME women and men reported high levels of anxiety about having to go out to work during the pandemic.
• Domestic and care work: 45% of BAME women said they were struggling to cope with the different demands on their time.
• Access to support: Over half of disabled or retired BAME women said they were not sure where to turn to for help a result of the pandemic. 
  
• Health and wellbeing: Life satisfaction and happiness were lowest for BAME women.

The briefing also makes recommendations that include removing barriers to social security, increasing economic support and ensuring people can work or isolate safely. 

Download the briefing here.

In this briefing we report on findings for BAME women as a whole. We recognise the limitations of this artificial grouping, and that the experiences of women within it will vary greatly. The funding for this survey was not enough to cover the larger sample size that would have been needed to report separately on women and men by ethnicity. We felt it was important to carry out this research rather than not look at how gender and ethnicity intersect at all - but we acknowledge more research is needed to fully understand the experiences of black and Asian women and those from minority ethnic communities.