The current crisis will increase the demand for social services and the population at risk of exclusion is mainly female

2.6 million people are in a situation of severe poverty in Spain. A situation that is worsening even more in the Valencian Community. Encarna Canet, professor of the Department of Social Work and Social Services of the Faculty of Social Sciences, recalls that this population at risk of exclusion and vulnerability is mainly female, since women have lower salaries, lower occupations, take on care work and as for retirement, 36% are unable to retire despite having worked all their lives because they did not pay contributions.

This is an issue that, as Encarna Canet points out, is aggravated if we talk about women with disabilities, migrant and racialized women, refugee women and also women in situations of prostitution, as the professor tells us in a video from the Equality Unit.

As a social work professional, Canet has worked in several areas of intervention such as women and gender violence, family and child care, municipal social services, penitentiary institutions, school pedagogical service and elderly people. In the face of this crisis, the professor looks at the prostitution, pornography and trafficking mafias, and says that "at this time they will be rubbing their hands together to see how many needy women they will have within their reach and how this will make prices for whoremongers go down and women will be cheaper".

Social services in Spain serve six million people, most of whom are women, and this demand, predicts Professor Canet, will necessarily increase with this crisis. "It will therefore be necessary," she concludes, "to strengthen the social services with more professionals and more benefits".