Engender blog

Challenge Poverty Week: Women's employment support

This week is challenge poverty week, so it’s a great chance to look at a whole host of issues which affect women. One huge factor which pushes and keeps women in poverty is access to jobs, and the employment services which support women into work.

Guest Post: Challenge Povery Week: Women’s poverty and ‘austerity’ in the UK

Guest post by Professor Kirstein Rummery, University of Stirling and Engender board member. This post first appeared at www.challengepoverty.wordpress.com

Policies in the post 2010 Coalition government were dominated by the spectre of the 2008 private sector financial crisis, which by 2010 had turned into a global recession reducing economic production and seeing rises in unemployment. The UK in common with other G20 countries initially adopted a fiscal stimulus approach (quantitative easing) which slowed the recession but led to a sharp rise in the budget deficit to 11.6 % in 2009-10 the highest since 1945.

Guest Post: Challenge Poverty Week: Tackling Poverty and Inequality with Edinburgh’s new Equality and Rights Network (EaRN)

Guest blog from Roseanna Macdonald, Equality and Rights Network (EaRN)

Challenge Poverty Week is here, and it couldn’t arrive soon enough. It will come as no surprise to those working on issues including employment, equality and welfare that poverty is set to rise in coming months and years; currently an estimated 1 in 5 children are living in poverty in Edinburgh. Questions need to be asked (and answered) about how to tackle the growing numbers of people living in poverty, the harmful stigmas and stereotypes associated with poverty and how poverty connects with – and often deepens – other inequalities.

With these questions in mind the Edinburgh-based Equality and Rights Network (EaRN) is holding its first solo public event, A Platform for Positive Change, on the 21^st October to explore how the Network can be used to tackle poverty and inequality and effect positive change. As a new member-based project, EaRN’s aim is to be a platform for people and communities experiencing discrimination, poverty and inequality to influence policy and practice surrounding equality and rights by sharing their lived experiences. A Platform for Positive Change is an opportunity for public services, third sector organisations, community groups and individuals to identify how EaRN can achieve this aim. Through interactive workshops and discussions, we will be asking participants to identify common priorities between various equalities groups, what role EaRN can play in tackling poverty and inequality, and practical steps the Network can take towards this in coming months.

It is our belief that positive change in the twin landscapes of poverty and inequality can only truly come about through public services engaging directly with those that use, and are affected by, their services. A Platform for Positive Change is the first step towards improving this engagement in Edinburgh; the actions that will come from this event will serve as a basis for EaRN’s future activities. So if you are affected by poverty and/or inequality, or work with people affected, we want to hear your voice in this engagement!

A Platform for Positive Change will be held at Out of the Blue Drill Hall on the 21^st October from 9.30-13.30. Click here to find out more about this event.

Engender calls for a progressive law for Scotland.

With the news that control over abortion law is due to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament, Engender is calling for a progressive approach to abortion that reflects the fact that it a health issue that also underpins women’s autonomy and equality with men.

In July, Engender was one of several organisations to sign a joint statement urging caution over the devolution of abortion as part of the Scotland Bill. We are not opposed to the devolution of abortion to Scotland, but were concerned that the haste of the Smith process and the Scotland Bill itself may lead to a reduced timetable for discussing the content of any abortion law. We are disappointed that engagement with civil society, and the women’s sector, did not form part of the UK Government’s decision-making in seeking to amend the Scotland Bill.

Despite the flaws in the process, we are now keen to work with women’s and equalities organisations, trade unions and all political parties to ensure that abortion law in Scotland adequately reflect the needs and priorities of women in Scotland. Internationally, abortion law-making can be a highly politically charged process. We must take this opportunity to ensure that Scotland gets this right the first time, and that we create abortion laws with women’s dignity, autonomy, and wellbeing at their heart.