As of 2025, according to the IMF, over half of lower income countries are in or at high risk of debt default. For those countries, being trapped in a debt crisis significantly undermines progress on gender equality, as governments are forced to implement budget cuts that prioritise repaying creditors over funding social protection, key public services and gender‑transformative policies.
The gendered impact of these austerity-related budget cuts is so acute that it has been strongly argued that austerity itself constitutes a form of gender-based violence.