Women’s organisations in the UK voluntary sector are struggling to survive in the post-recession era and most are drawing on their reserves to stay afloat, a new study by Rosa has found.

Rosa commissioned research to find out how women’s organisations have fared since the recession, and received feedback from more than 70 groups of all sizes and locations around the UK.

Sixty per cent said they had struggled to maintain their income over the last five years, with two-thirds of these recording a drop in income.

Three have had to close.

Three-quarters said that their income does not cover the full cost of providing a service and so are having to draw on their reserves to keep going.

Rosa, the charity that supports women’s organisations, said that in other regions of the world funders recognise the importance of investing in women and women’s groups, because women are the principal agents of change in families and communities.  But “this link is rarely made in the UK”, according to Rosa.

The report provides details of how women fare in society generally in the UK, showing that they still face significant discrimination and disadvantage.

“The situation is becoming critical,” the report said. “We risk losing the wealth of experience, expertise and understanding of women’s needs that these organisations have built up.

“This in turn will lead to a further erosion of women’;s right; the costs will be borne by all ocf us, but especially by the most vulnerable.”

Rosa recommends that the case for women’s organisations needs to be made at different levels and in different ways, for example by:

• Supporting organisations to develop a strong evidence base for their work
• Working with funders to improve their understanding of the economic and social value that specialist women’s organisations can provide - and the costs of not providing such services, and
• Raising awareness of the need for, and value of women-only services more generally.

It added: “There is also a need for investment in infrastructure bodies, who can bring organisations together so that they can achieve collectively what they cannot do alone. For example, brokering and building partnerships, exploring new funding models or scaling up fundraising activities. And they have a key role to play in learning  lessons from the grassroots and translating these into an effective agenda for change.”