Engender blog
All of Engender’s latest news. Reports, reviews, books, articles, and information from across Scotland’s women’s sector.
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Joining Up Policymaking to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls
At Engender, one of our areas of focus is preventing violence against women and girls (VAWG) before it gets the chance to occur. This approach, known as primary prevention, focuses on tackling the root cause of violence, gender inequality, by embedding gender-sensitive thinking into every area of public policy.
Through our Delivering Equally Safe project, we explore how different areas of public policy can prevent violence from occurring. We believe that to truly move the needle on VAWG, we need more than good intentions. We need policy professionals across sectors to work together. That’s why, in 2024, we brought over 50 policy professionals from 30 different organisations together for our first Primary Prevention and Policymaking Conference.
Our first conference showed just how vital cross-sector collaboration amongst policy professionals is to embedding primary prevention. Fast forward one year, and we were delighted to be joined by policy professionals from across Scotland in Glasgow in March to reflect, share the findings of our recent research, and look ahead. It was a chance to share knowledge, build relationships, and spark real momentum.
Where We Are a Year On...
At this year’s event, Hannah Brisbane, our Delivering Eqaully Safe Policy Officer, kicked things off with a deep dive into the Delivering Equally Safe (DES) project. Her presentation unpacked what some of the key components of a primary prevention approach in policymaking, including:
- Equal representation across all levels
- Intersectional gender analysis
- Designing policies that actively promote women’s safety
Hannah also shared reflections from the previous year’s conference, noting that attendees had expressed a sense of pride in Scotland’s world-leading approach to addressing VAWG but were frustrated that budgets and capacity did not match the scale of the challenge we face.
Good Practice and Missed Opportunities
Following last year’s conference, we commissioned research to find out more about local primary prevention approaches in Scotland, and we’re delighted to share the report produced by independent research consultant Kathryn Ramsay with you now.
The report highlights several structural barriers to primary prevention work across local areas, including:
- a lack of authority for VAWPs,
- a lack of funding and resources for existing work and
- insufficient priority given to prevention work by leaders. Kathryn also shared other challenges beyond these, including
- the poor implementation of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), the
- lack of reliable measures of progress with prevention and
- the use of potentially confusing terms and jargon
In Kathryn’s research, numerous interviewees highlighted existing Equally Safe programmes (Equally Safe at School, Equally Safe at Work, and Equally Safe in Practice) as good practice happening locally on primary prevention. These initiatives are real-world examples of how prevention can be embedded into different areas, and it’s interesting to note that these good practice examples were designed and delivered by women’s sector organisations.
Reflections
We asked attendees at this year’s conference to reflect on what enables them to take a primary prevention approach, and what gets in the way. Not surprisingly, funding and capacity came up as one of the most common barriers to implementing primary prevention. However, many attendees also noted the potential for funding and capacity to be vital enablers when provided adequately and sustainably.
Other key enablers included:
- Gender expertise and competence
- Intersectional thinking
- Networks like the the National Violence Against Women Network, the Authentic Voices Network and the Safer, Sooner Domestic Abuse network
It’s clear to us that there is a strong appetite for cross-sector collaboration, and that people want to work together to build policies that prevent violence before it starts. While opportunities exist to facilitate this collaboration, Kathryn’s research shows that some of these are not reaching their full potential.
What’s Next?
We’ll be using the findings from Kathryn’s report and from the sessions throughout this year’s conference to push for meaningful change in relation to the implementation of primary prevention in Scotland. We’ve created a conference report that explores what was shared in workshop sessions on gender mainstreaming, VAW in politics and public life, a public health approach to preventing VAWG, and applying a primary prevention lens to public policy.
Read the conference report here.
Read Kathryn’s research report here.
Free Feminist Artwork...
We’ve a wee surprise for you this International Women’s Day...
We’ll be sending out a stunning limited edition A6 print to every Engender member, created by fabulous local designer, Madeleine Leisk.
Artwork to be revealed... So members, keep an eye on your post box!
Not a member?
Don’t worry, we’ve a further 100 of these limited edition prints up for grabs - just complete the form below to bag yours and we’ll send it your way! [UPDATE: All 100 extra prints have now been ordered. Make sure you’re signed up to our newsletter to be the first to hear about giveaways and opportunities.]
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3 Steps to Achieving Primary Prevention in Housing
We’ve published the second in our series of mini-briefings shining a spotlight on how to achieve a primary prevention approach in different areas of public policy with this new briefing highlighting why ensuring women’s access to safe, secure and quality housing is essential for advancing women’s equality and preventing VAWG once and for all.
Women’s access to housing is fundamentally shaped by structural gender inequality and other intersectional forms of marginalisation.
In Scotland, women generally experience less favourable outcomes in the housing system than men. This deepens gender inequality not only in the housing system but also in wider society. These factors can create an enabling environment for VAWG in the home as well as in the public realm, as women participate in it less.
When we talk about primary prevention of VAWG, we’re talking about preventing this violence from happening in the first place. Evidence shows the best way to do this is to tackle the root cause of this violence: gender inequality. Therefore, ensuring women’s access to safe, secure and quality housing is essential for advancing women’s equality and preventing VAWG once and for all.
Without access to safe, secure and affordable housing, women’s living standards, economic and social opportunities - as well as their health and wellbeing are affected - reinforcing gender inequality, which ultimately enables VAWG. The lack of intersectional gender analysis in housing policy undermines women’s safety due to things like lack of affordable housing options, lack of safe housing options, and a lack of gender-sensitive design and planning in housing.
Our new briefing highlights Three Steps Towards Achieving a Primary Prevention Approach in Housing Policy
1. Women are equally and fairly represented in policy-making roles
- Improve women’s pathways and career progression opportunities, particularly for minoritised women, in the housing sector
- Ensure inclusive working environments in the housing sector by implementing flexible working procedures,
anti-discrimination and harassment policies and women’s leadership initiatives
2. Policymakers consistently apply intersectional gender analysis in their work
- Collect and publish intersectional gender-sensitive sexdisaggregated data on women’s experiencing housing,
including for the Scottish Household Survey and Scottish Housing Condition Survey - Ensure Equality Impact Assessments are conducted at the outset of new housing policies and that these are
informed by intersectional gender-sensitive data on housing issues
3. Policymakers mainstream primary prevention in all areas of their work
- Increase opportunities for co-designing housing developments with women, especially those with lived experience of VAWG
- Embed women’s safety considerations into housing planning and design and decisions about the housing system, including on social security, service provision and housing legislation
Find out more in our new briefing here and follow us on social media to get the latest news on other briefings in the series, coming soon!
Why we need better data collection to improve women’s representation
We’ve written to the Minister of State for Women and Equalities, Annelise Dodds MP, calling on the UK Government to enact Section 106 of the Equality Act 2010.
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Access to robust, intersectional data on the protected characteristics of our elected representatives is vital in ensuring high-quality democracy. Without this information, it’s very difficult to map the causes – or create solutions to – the chronic underrepresentation of women – especially Black & minoritised women, disabled women LBT women, and young women.
Although the legal framework exists to require parties to track the diversity of their candidates and representatives, very little reliable data is publicly available. What information we do have is inconsistent and poorly documented, making it hard to see progress over time or take steps to improve representation.
Section 106, which has never been put into effect, would require political parties to collect and publish basic equality data. Enacting it would give us much better insight into the demographics of our representatives, and help us take the action needed to improve women’s representation at all levels of politics.
Read the full letter here.
16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence
Amplifying Marginalised Perspectives Through Journalism and Storytelling
Migrant Women Press have launched a powerful new initiative dedicated to raising awareness about the specific and often overlooked challenges faced by migrant and ethnically diverse women victims/survivors of gender-based violence.
We are sponsoring this campaign, held within “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence” from the 25th of November to the 10th of December. The project will amplify voices and stories too often left out of mainstream narratives, aiming to foster greater understanding, empathy, and change.
16 stories will be shared—one each day during the 16 Days of Activism—authored by migrant and ethnically diverse women journalists and authors from diverse backgrounds and countries. Each piece will explore how factors like class, race, gender, immigration status, disability, and nationality intersect to increase these women’s vulnerability to violence. Additionally, stories will highlight prevention strategies and propose solutions for combating gender-based violence.
Vital pieces released so far include:
- East and/or Southeast Asian women survivors remain excluded and unsupported in the UK
- From Newsroom to Exile: The Hidden Costs of Being an Indian Woman Journalist
- The impact of the UK’s housing crisis on black and minoritised survivors of gender-based violence
- Why Won’t The UK News Media Call Femicide A Public Health Crisis?
Follow along with all posts from Migrant Women Press on their website here.
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Engender Briefing: Pension Credit Entitlement Changes
From 15 May 2019, new changes will be introduced which will require couples where one partner has reached state pension age and one has not (‘mixed age couples’) to claim universal credit (UC) instead of Pension Credit.
Engender Parliamentary Briefing: Condemnation of Misogyny, Racism, Harassment and Sexism
Engender welcomes this Scottish Parliament Debate on Condemnation of Misogyny, Racism, Harassment and Sexism and the opportunity to raise awareness of the ways in which women in Scotland’s inequality contributes to gender-based violence.
Gender Matters in Social Security: Individual Payments of Universal Credit
A paper calling on the Scottish Government to automatically split payments of Universal Credit between couples, once this power is devolved to the Scottish Parliament.
Gender Matters Manifesto: Twenty for 2016
This manifesto sets out measures that, with political will, can be taken over the next parliamentary term in pursuit of these goals.
Scottish NGO Briefing for UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women
Joint briefing paper for the UN Rapporteur on Violence Against Women.
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