Engender blog

Guest Post: Gender matters in refugee policy

Dr Sophie Cartwright is a former volunteer at the Unity Centre in Glasgow and a regular contributor to BrightGreen. Here she writes on why 'safe return review' and deportation is cruel and dangerous - and will disproportionately impact women and girls who have fled gender-based violence.

One last chance to scrap the rape clause

Last week, the UK government introduced a law that will limit social security payments to the first two children in a family. In short, the UK government introduced a ‘family cap’, telling families who rely on social security for their well-being that help will only be provided if you have a maximum of two children. The draft law, however, has an exemption. A ‘family cap’ will not apply to your family if a third or subsequent child is the result of rape. Known as the ‘rape clause’, this new policy will force a woman to disclose that she is the victim of rape at a time and in a context not of her own choosing.

Scottish women’s organisations make final appeal to House of Lords to scrap the 'rape clause'

Today, Engender are calling on a little-known House of Lords committee to re-examine the so called ‘rape clause’ which limits tax credits and the child element of Universal Credit to two children unless a third or subsequent child was the result of rape. In a letter to the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee of the House of Lords, we've joined with Rape Crisis Scotland and Scottish Women’s Aid, to challenge the basis of the legislation itself, and the manner in which it was covertly passed using a procedure that avoided parliamentary debate.

Review: Nasty Women, edited by 404ink

Maxine Blane is Engender's communications and administration assistant. Here she reviews Nasty Women, a new anthology of essays published by 404ink.

“This is an emergency. Tell your stories and tell them loud.” declares the brief preface to Nasty Women, the eagerly awaited collection of essays published by 404ink, Scottish publishing’s new wunderkind. Commissioned as both a response to and in defiance of the now infamous description of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton by Donald Trump, the collection contains twenty-one essays written by playwrights, poets, punk-rockers, photographers and more.