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.
CEDAW: How the UN Women’s Bill of Rights creates possibilities for women and girls in Scotland.
Engender members and other people who stay in touch with our work will know that we have been enabling organisations that care about women’s and girls’ equality to shadow the UN CEDAW process. The International Bill of Rights for Women is a key global human rights instrument for gender equality. The UK Government has just been examined by its dedicated UN CEDAW Committee to see how well the rights it provides for are being realised across the four nations of the UK.
We’ve written about the process, what happened during the examination, and annotated the concluding observations (or recommendations) that the Committee makes to UK Government. Here we’re going to summarise four of our reflections from the experience of working on CEDAW over the past two years.
Guest Post: Media representations of women with mental health issues
Cara is a Glaswegian woman with experience of bipolar. You can follow her on twitter @cmacdowall. Here, she explores how women with mental health issues are depicted in the media.
According to Mind, approximately 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year [1]. So that may lead you to think that the media would be awash with representations of women with mental health conditions. It’s not.
Celebrating Scotland's Gender Pay Gap Action Plan
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Our Executive Director Emma Ritch reflects on the feminist journey to Scotland's first action plan to tackle the pay gap, and welcomes a substantial step towards women’s and girls’ economic justice.
Feminist policy advocacy requires determination, grit, and the willingness to work towards sometimes infinitesimal change in pursuit of a different world for women & girls. When we do see what amounts to a leap forward in a long-term, shared advocacy project it’s vital to pause, appreciate the moment, and recognise the women who collaborated over years to see it happen.
CEDAW concluding observations: what do they mean for women in Scotland?
On March 8th 2019 the UN CEDAW Committee released their concluding observations following the UK examination in Geneva.
We've gone through these concluding observations and highlighted things which specifically relate to Scotland, and things which appeared in our CEDAW reports. You can read this annotated report here.
Women's sector letter to Joan McAlpine MSP
This week the Scottish Parliament held its Stage 1 Debate on the general principles of the Census (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill. Following the debate, Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee convener Joan McAlpine MSP took to Twitter to criticise the work of Engender and other women's organisations. In order to clarify and correct some inaccurate statements which were made, Engender, along with Scottish Women's Aid, Rape Crisis Scotland, Close the Gap, Zero Tolerance and Equate Scotland, wrote to Ms McAlpine and other members of the Committee.
You can read our full letter below.
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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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