Engender blog
All of Engender’s latest news. Reports, reviews, books, articles, and information from across Scotland’s women’s sector.
We would love to hear from other feminists around Scotland. Check out our guidelines for more information on how you can blog for us.
BAFTAs so...diverse?
Awards season is upon us: the 2022 ceremony for the British Film and Television Awards (the BAFTAs) took place on the 13th of March, and the Academy Awards are coming up fast. As always, with awards-fever comes discussions of representation, and in this blog, Dr Miranda Barty-Taylor reflects on the changes we have seen to the BAFTA awards, and whether they are enough to bring about women's equality in the arts.
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When they are done right, or even when they are done wrong, awards ceremonies can highlight the work of women and other underrepresented people within the film and TV industry. They can increase the visibility of participation on screen and off, create role models, shift stereotypes and increase the popularity – and economic viability - of hiring diverse actors and producers. But beneath the veneer and rhetoric of equality, has there been any real progress, or do prestigious awards remain as exclusive as ever? In this blog I’m going to be focusing on how far the BAFTAs have succeeded in using process-driven changes in their regulations to affect diversity of representation in the awards themselves.
In January 2020, strong criticism was levelled at BAFTA following the release of their nominee lists. From an equality and diversity perspective, the lack of progress was stark; the nominees for the performer categories (best lead and best supporting) were all white, and for the 7th year in a row the nominees for best director were all men. The hashtag #BaftasSoWhite trended and a spotlight was again shone on systemic racism and more general exclusion from awards ceremonies. Discussion ensued around specific exclusionary practices in the nominations and longlisting processes: those categories awarded by jury decisions for example, are notably more diverse than those decided by voting alone.
Trapped: the call for a more flexible world
Fran Macilvey is an Edinburgh-based author. Her memoir ‘Trapped’ tells the story of her life with cerebral palsy. She has also published two self-help books which she thinks of as ‘gleaning something valuable from forty years of making mistakes’ and has recently finished writing three novels about women’s experiences with the law.
As part of a series of events being organised by Edinburgh Libraries to mark International Women’s Day on 8th March 2022, I was asked to take part in a panel discussion. Our brief, to publicise the life and work of an Edinburgh-based woman (or group of women, why not?) brought me to Engender, who invited me to contribute a guest post to ‘On the Engender’. I’m delighted and honoured to have this opportunity.
Reading Engender’s 2018 report, Our Bodies, Our Rights has been a vindicating – and at times, depressing – experience. It is a brave and realistic assessment (at last!) of the gaps in health and social provision that hinder disabled women in exercising their private and reproductive choices; in effect, their most basic human rights. Whether to have intimate relationships – read that again – whether to get married and have children, and how to bring them into adulthood while running the gamut of inconsistent and unpredictable help from professionally-minded others with rather mixed agendas. Thorny personal decisions which, as often as not, we have to navigate alone, in the face of fairly generalised ignorance and many misplaced good intentions. But this is only one aspect of the price that I, and countless others, continue to pay in our efforts to participate in mainstream life.
Using the law to tackle misogyny
Engender’s Policy and Parliamentary Manager, Eilidh Dickson, has been a member of the Independent Working Group on Misogyny chaired by Baroness Helena Kennedy. Here she reflects on the final report released today:
Misogyny constrains every aspect of women’s lives – from the decisions about what time or where we feel comfortable to go for walk in our own neighbourhoods, to the subjects we take at school because of peer pressure, teasing or worse if we break with gendered conventions. Women in Scotland need a wholesale culture shift towards a society which values equality and where misogyny is no longer acceptable. For a number of years Engender has been calling for a standalone criminal offence based on misogyny; using the law as one piece of the puzzle to making women safer in Scotland.
February 2022 - Policy Round Up
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Each month we share a summary of the policy work Engender has been doing . You can find all of our latest briefings and publications here, or in the links below.
A Gender Audit for the Scottish Parliament
We're excited to welcome the recent announcement that the Presiding Officer, Alison Johnstone MSP, will be leading a Gender Audit of the Scottish Parliament. We've been calling for such an audit - as advocated for by the Interparliamentary Union and the European Institute for Gender Equality - for a long time, and so we're really pleased to be invited to sit on the advisory group for the audit.
Achieving women’s equal representation in politics is about more than just looking at the numbers of elected representatives (important though this is). By examining the make-up of committees, gathering data on who is being invited to give evidence, and understanding where gender mainstreaming is being ignored, a Gender Audit can help us work towards a Scottish Parliament which creates better legislation and leads policy change across Scotland for women.
Read more about Gender Audits and what this means for women in Scotland in this blog from our Policy and Parliamentary Manager Eilidh Dickson.#NotInOurName - Rejecting the Nationality and Borders Bill
"We must act – in Scotland – to use the powers we have to object in the strongest possible terms, to push back and stand with our fellow human beings through practical action, and to say loudly and clearly: not in our name."
Last week we joined over 60 Scottish organisations, including Rape Crisis Scotland, Scottish Refugee Council and JustRight Scotland, to unite against the UK Government's Nationality and Borders Bill to say #NotInOurName, urging MSPs to vote against the bill in Holyrood on Tuesday evening. You can read the full statement here.
The Scottish Parliament voted 94 Yes to 29 No - in favour of the motion to reject the Nationality and Borders Bill, sending a clear message that refugees are welcome here in Scotland. This follows the Welsh Parliament rejecting the Westminster legislation earlier this month. Read about why the bill is so dangerous and why this vote matters from Scottish Refugee Council here, as well as coverage in The National here.
Response from John Swinney MSP to our letter on the Covid-19 Inquiry Terms of Reference
We've received a response to this letter, which you can access here. Needless to say, we're disappointed in this response, which seems to completely miss the point of taking an equalities response. While we are pleased to hear that "the Inquiry will be undertaken in a way that ensures human rights and equality considerations are at the heart of it", if this does not appear directly in the Terms of Reference, there is no guarantee this will actually happen.
We'll continue to challenge the Scottish Government on this.
Joint Statement: Not In Our Name
Today we join over 60 Scottish organisations, including Rape Crisis Scotland, Scottish Refugee Council and Just Right Scotland to unite against the UK Government’s Nationality and Borders Bill and say #NotInOurName
Read the full statement below and here on Rape Crisis Scotland's website.
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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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