Engender blog

5 Things You Should Know About The Scotland Bill

As the House of Lords begins to debate the Scotland Bill, this seems as good a moment as any to pause and provide an update on our thoughts about what happens next. The press coverage of the Lords’ reflections over the past couple of days has principally focused on the fiscal framework. The Lords is almost palpably frustrated at being asked to debate some of the detail around the transfer of powers without sorting out the money stuff first.

The Lords’ plan is to push the Bill back to the Commons and demand that the UK Government and Scottish Government sit down together and reach agreement on all things fiscal before the Bill can go any further.

Scottish Green Party Elections - Female Co-Convener Q&A

On the eve of the close-of-poll for the Scottish Green Party internal elections, Engender put some questions around women's equality to the two contenders for the post of Female Co-Convener.

Rather than electing one leader, as many other political parties do, the Scottish Green Party has one male and one female co-convener. Up for the female co-convener position are incumbent Maggie Chapman (MC), former Edinburgh City Councillor and top list candidate in the North-East region for Holyrood 2016, and Zara Kitson (ZK), co-convener of the Glasgow and West of Scotland branch, and former co-convener of the Scottish Young Greens.

Guest Post: Why Reclaim the Night Still Matters, and Why You Should Come

Guest post from Anna Ritchie Allan, Chair of Glasgow Rape Crisis Board of Directors. This post first appeared on the Rape Crisis Glasgow blog as is published here with their permission.

Next year marks the 40^th anniversary of Glasgow Rape Crisis Centre. Perhaps the women who came together in 1976 thought that this would all be sorted by now. That women and girls would be living their lives, free from sexual violence.

And yet here we are, still living with the everyday threat, or reality, of rape and sexual assault. Still fighting a culture which blames women for being raped, and which normalises violence against women. Still challenging the notion of ‘stranger danger’, when the vast majority of women are raped or sexually assaulted by someone they know. Still trying to change a criminal justice system that is failing to provide justice to survivors.

Challenge Poverty Week: Gender Matters in Care

Last week, Engender and the Centre on Constitutional Change held a conference in Glasgow. Called 'Gender Matters: Equality and Inclusion through Care', it explored the issues of both childcare and long-term care, and examined how progressive care policy could help Scotland towards achieving gender equality. Becca, a participant from the Information Service has put together this great infographic of what was discussed.