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.
Apply to our new Board Pioneer Programme
Engender is launching our new Board Pioneer Programme offering an opportunity to get involved in feminist governance and see how a board works. Find out more in this blog from our Communications & Admin Assistant Maxine.
EDIT 23/07/21: Following the unexpected death of Engender's Executive Director, Emma Ritch, earlier this month, we are postponing recruitment for the Board Pioneer Programme. We are still very committed to the scheme, and will be relaunching it in the future, when board members will have more capacity to get involved. Thank you for your understanding.
Today we’re launching Engender’s Board Pioneer Programme, based on the excellent work and success of Stellar Quines, the award-winning Scottish theatre company. Stellar Quines launched their Pioneer programme a few years ago and have created a detailed resource pack for others to use the model which highlights the importance of involving and learning from those whose voices are traditionally underrepresented on boards.
When we think of the stereotypical depiction of boards in films and tv, the image that springs to mind is a foreboding group of greying men in suits prioritising profits. According to the Young Trustees Movement, 1 in 12 trustees is named either John or David, and less than 3% of trustees are under 30 which means that the voices of young people, and young women in particular, are sorely lacking on boards across the country. The image of a board as a homogenous group does a disservice to the wealth of experience and knowledge that people from underrepresented groups can share – young people often have caring experience, or experience of working zero-hours contracts, or are involved in on the ground activism. Intergenerational perspectives enable better decision making for boards, and the widespread practice of filling trustee vacancies through informal networks means that boards tend to recruit in their own image, perpetuating the underrepresentation of carers, disabled women and girls, Black and minority ethnic groups, and LGBTI people.
Telemedical abortion services: joint letter to Maree Todd MSP, Minister for Public Health, Women's Health, and Sport
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Today Engender and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) have, together with 25 women's organisations, human rights bodies, and healthcare providers, written to the Scottish Government asking them to make telemedical abortion services permanent in Scotland.
In March 2020, the Scottish Government provided temporary permission for telemedical early medical abortion care. This ensured that women and pregnant people all over Scotland could continue to access abortion care without travel to a clinic, decreasing their own and clinic staff’s risk of exposure to Covid-19. Our letter asks that this change be made permanent, continuing to provide women with as much choice as possible in accessing abortion care.
GUEST POST: Sex, Relationships and Parenthood – A Network Supporting Young Women and Girls with a Learning Disability
In this guest blog, Yvonne Kerr, Programme Manager in Sexual Health and Blood Born Viruses at NHS Lothian, discusses the national Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood and Learning Disability / Additional Support Needs Network.
Engender’s report, Our Bodies Our Rights, found that a lack of knowledge and access to information acts as a barrier to disabled women’s reproductive rights because of a huge knowledge gap regarding disabled women’s reproductive, sexual and maternal health. It also found that access to inclusive and targeted sex and relationships education for disabled young women and girls is also almost entirely absent from mainstream and specialist education.
![Graphic shows a light pink back ground with dark purple text that reads, "It became apparent early on in the life of the group that young people with additional support needs and/or learning disabilities were a group much more likely to miss out on this [RSHP] education, and that this was particularly the case for young people who had severe and complex additional support needs." The quote is attributed to Yvonne Kerr, Programme Manager in Sexual Health, NHS LOTHIAN. The Engender logo is bright pink circle with an equals sign at the centre of it, in the right hand corner of the graphic.](siteimages/Blog/resized/yvonne-kerr-guest-blog-quotes-square-1080x1080-400.png)
We therefore recommended that “Scottish Government, Education Scotland and local authorities should work together to create a national network of RHSP workers specialising in disability who can share good practice across Scotland”. We are very pleased to be members and to work with Yvonne and others to help organise the secretariat for the Network to advocate for girls and young women’s rights in RSHP education. We asked Yvonne to write a blog about her work in this area.
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Covid-19 and Mental Health
Engender has been working with Close the Gap, and other women's organisations across the UK, to carry out some polling work to see how Covid has impacted on women's lives. We published the our first findings from this study - focusing on the impact on women with childcare responsibilities - back in March and you can read it here. Our next report looks at the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on women's health.
This week marks Mental Health Awareness Week, in a year which has seen women's mental health be challenged like never before. The bereavement, trauma and isolation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, combined with the massive increase in unpaid work done by women including home-schooling, stepping in where social care visits were stopped, and emotional support for friends and family, has impacted on all of our mental wellbeing.
As part of our work for a gendered recovery, we carried out a survey on the impacts of COVID-19 developed alongside Close the Gap, the UK Women’s Budget Group, Fawcett Society, Women’s Equality Network Wales, and Northern Ireland Women’s Budget Group. The survey was carried out by Survation between 18-27 February 2021 across the four nations in the UK.
GUEST POST: Gender-Based Violence Policies at the Local Authority Level Part 2
Today we're publishing the next in a series of blogs from two student placements Engender is hosting from the University of Strathclyde Applied Gender Studies and Research Methods course. These blogs explore women's representation and decision-making around women's equality in local authorities across Scotland. You can see other blogs in the series here.
In 2020 Jennifer Robinson graduated with an honours degree in Society Politics and Policy from the University of the West of Scotland. She is now undertaking a Masters in Applied Gender Studies and Research Methods with a particular interest in feminist disability studies. She has previously written for the Glasgow Women’s Library and you can find her tweeting about feminism and disability on twitter @JenRobinson95.
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As part of my Msc Applied Gender Studies and Research Methods I am undertaking a placement with Engender to research gender equality within Renfrewshire Council and Edinburgh Council. In my previous blog post I explored Renfrewshire council’s gender-based violence policies and funding decisions. In my final blog post I will outline Edinburgh Council’s Domestic Abuse Housing Policy, their council budget and transport policies.
RSSDownloads
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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