What Census 2021 shows about women in Worksop and Retford

It comes as International Women's Day is celebrated this week with women's rights charity The Fawcett Society saying more concerted action is needed to tackle gender inequality in the UK.

The census survey taken across England and Wales in March 2021 shows of the 117,804 usual residents in Bassetlaw, 59,391 are women, accounting for 50.4 per cent of the area's population.

In Bassetlaw, women made up 58.5 per cent of unpaid carers, meaning they were looking after someone because of long-term physical or mental health conditions or illnesses, or problems related to old age without compensation.

This is similar to the trend across England and Wales where there are about 2.8 million female unpaid carers and about 1.9m male unpaid carers.

Additionally, women in Bassetlaw were more likely to have a disability than men, with 20.3 per cent of women stating they were disabled in the census, while 18.8 per cent of men did.

The recent census also revealed 4,925 people in Bassetlaw had previously served in the UK armed forces. Just 660, 13.4 per cent, of them were women.

Jemima Olchawski, Fawcett Society chief executive, said there is no single “sure-fire” solution to improve gender equality in the UK, but more action is needed.

She said: “This Government must urgently reform the childcare system so it is affordable, accessible, and works for women and employers must make flexible work the default. We simply can’t allow this Government to stand by as women's hard-fought gains are lost.”

The survey also highlighted women in Bassetlaw were more likely than men to identify with a sexuality other than heterosexual. Figures show about 1,180 women in the area, 2.4 per cent of women, identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or another minority sexuality, while 905 men, 1.9 per cent, did.

Across England and Wales, females, 3.3 per cent, were more likely to have identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or another minority sexual orientation than males, 3 per cent.

Census data shows 96.7 per cent of women in the area identified as white, 0.5 per cent as black, 1.2 per cent as Asian, 1.1 per cent as mixed and 0.4 per cent as another ethnicity.