Power and Participation
Engender has been active in this field for many years. While women's representation in parliament has been a significant priority, we address the wider aspects of women's representation and participation in all aspects of public life and decision-making. Therefore we address the issues of women's participation and capacity to engage in representative politics at all levels - local/regional/national/European - but also in key decision-making arenas - for example, in public bodies - as well as in industry and the economy, and society more widely.Obviously the recent elections for the Scottish Parliament and for local councils, with the new electoral system, were a main focus. The lack of progress in increasing women's participation in councils was very disappointing, even more so was the reduction in the level of female representation in the Scottish Parliament. That has reinforced our view that work on researching, analysing, facilitating and promoting women's participation needs to be continuous and not just confined to the period immediately before elections.
A small group of interested individuals has come up with some ideas which we are currently exploring with some potential partners. These include a focus on the first decade of the Scottish Parliament and what that has meant for women, the impact of women and what the next steps should be. We are looking to ways of engaging women of all ages and kinds in developing these ideas, including through an audio-visual media project. We want to celebrate advances as well as planning to close the decision-making gap.
That gap exists in all areas of decision-making so we are looking to develop a plan of work to include those dimensions.
If women's participation matters to you, please contact the office if you would like to be part of this group.
- Out of our 129 MSP’s, 43 are women (33%). Scotland fell from 4th to 13th place in world league tables of women in parliament
- Only 22% of local councilors are women
- Women account for only one third of all public appointments
Sex & Power, EOC Scotland , 2007
Engender Supports
- Positive action measures to ensure that political parties select equal numbers of female and male candidates
- The right to request flexible working to be extended to all and at every level of every workplace
- Work that empowers women from across the diversity of Scotland to participate equally in public life
New Project - Women in Public Life
Through the EU Interreg programme, Engender will be working with women’s organisations in Northern Ireland on a project aimed at encouraging women living in rural areas to become involved in the political process at local, national and European level. Working with women in the North West of Ireland and the West coast of Scotland, the project will offer training and support to enable women to become involved in the decision making process which will have a positive effect on the delivery of public services.
See here for the projects Aims and Objectives
European Women's Lobby 50/50 Campaign
Find out about the campaign for equal representation in the European Parliament and sign the petition at http://www.5050democracy.eu/
Engender at the Festival of Politics 2008
Lesley was a member of the panel at a debate called 2008: Women and the Vote as part of the Festival of Politics in the Scottish Parliament. The event was hosted by Cathie Peattie MSP and also on the panel were Bill Butler MSP and Beatrice Barleon speaking on behalf of the 2008: women and the vote campaign that Engender is supporting.
Following opening remarks from the panel questions were taken from the floor. Amongst others, the panel were asked about positive action, if parties did enough to encourage women to stand for election and how to interest young women in politics.
