Some of the fear being felt by women who work in the public sector can be seen in Newcastle. It is there that Natasha Nicholson, an outreach worker for Sure Start, jokes that next year she will be able to afford only beans on toast for her young family. "The reality is we might not even be able to pay for the bread," says Nicholson, 25, through a choked laugh.
And in Yorkshire, in Hebden Bridge, Lisa Ansell, a former civil servant and social worker, remembers settling down with a calculator after watching the chancellor, George Osborne, deliver his emergency budget. "I suddenly realised just how much I rely on public services: on subsidised public transport... on Sure Start."
Travel 290 miles south to Worthing, West Sussex, and there is Dee Luxford, 40, with her husband and three children. She and her colleagues in low management and administration roles at HM Revenue & Customs (mainly women) fear for the service they are providing. "If we tighten the belt any more, we are going to suffocate," she says.
All feel nervous about one thing: repeated reports that suggest the government's axe is hovering over them. Some claim that women will shoulder three-quarters of the pain as the most severe austerity measures in a generation start to take their toll.
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