Engender blog

Five reasons that media coverage of the pay gap is so bad (and why we think we should do better)

Yesterday saw the repeat of a ritual that happens a handful of times a year. An organisation - in this case the Chartered Management Institute - produces a figure it describes as a gender pay gap. News outlets contact organisations working on gender, or women and work, to ask for short quotes that explain both the pay gap and how we're going to fix it. These quotes are then strung together into pieces that are shaky on the facts and slight on analysis. In recent years, as the tenor of public discourse has softened slightly towards women's equality, they've been complemented by editorials denouncing the glacial rate at which the gap is narrowing. A couple of columnists may even take a swing at some particularly egregious examples of workplace discrimination, before the whole subject is unceremoniously bundled into an archive folder to wait for the next pay gap news release.

So why is there such fleeting, insubstantial coverage of this most pressing of gendered concerns? Why are we not having a grand conversation about women and work?

Shared Statement of Ambition on Social Care launched

Scotland’s social care support system is in crisis. It’s failing disabled people and carers and the way Scotland funds it is not working.

That’s Engender's view, along with coalition of 16 Scottish organisations, representing disabled people and older people, women, care providers and paid and unpaid carers and the voluntary sector, who are calling for urgent action by national and local government and policymakers. Others including academics, trade unions, politicians, local authorities, care providers and professionals also share their concerns on the future of social care funding.

Opening the Pandora's box of women and festivals

With the furore over Glastonbury festival's women-only space dying down, find out about Scotland's first women's music festival

On July 16th 2016, Pandora Fest will launch Scotland's first and only Women's Music Festival, supporting women musicians and celebrating female musicianship across all genres. Taking place at DunCarron Medieval Fort in Carron Valley near Falkirk, the festival aims to redress the gender imbalance inherent within the music industry.

'In 2015 - the major festivals displayed a massive gender imbalance. Of the 87 acts that were announced, 78 were all male, 3 were female and 6 were mixed groups. That, was an 89.6% all male line up!' The Guardian Newspaper Music Section by Alexandra Pollard, Feb 2015

Guest Post: A letter to women of the UK from your European sister

Guest blog from Mary Collins, European feminist and social justice advocate

Dear Sisters of the United Kingdom

As D Day approaches, I appeal to you to vote YES to REMAIN in the European Union (EU).

The EU, with all its flaws, has been instrumental for women’s rights and gender equality since the treaty of Rome in 1957. From a very narrow focus on equal pay – which I concede has yet to be achieved – the feminists of Europe have successfully pushed the boundaries to ensure that all policies are designed and implemented through a gender lens (gender mainstreaming). And yes, I concede again that the gender revolution has yet to take place.