Austerity programs enacted after the 2008 global financial crisis, often featuring deep cuts in public spending, hurt women more than men and helped to reinforce rising income inequality, the United Nations said.

A report from the UN women’s empowerment division on Monday looked at how broad policy measures taken by governments can have unequal and often gender-specific consequences -- but don’t have to.

“Macroeconomic policies can pursue a broader set of goals, including gender equality and social justice,” UN Women said in the 337-page report entitled “Progress of the World’s Women 2015: Transforming Economies, Realizing Rights.”

Instead women, who globally earn 24 percent less than men, struggle for access to better-quality jobs and the valuable benefits often associated with those jobs, such as pensions, UN Women said.