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.
Guest Post: Women, Westminster, and the media
Guest post by Juliet Swann, Campaigns and Research Officer at the Electoral Reform Society in Scotland.
Working for ERS Scotland I am often asked to comment on women and political life and the equal representation of women. I am also often asked to speak or chair events, and often I have been approached because I am a woman.
This was explicitly the case in three general election events I participated in last month. The first was a Common Weal Edinburgh North and Leith hustings, where they were keen to have the debate chaired by a woman. Equal representation came up in the discussion, not just for women but also for other under-represented groups such as BME and people with disabilities.
A Widening Gap - new report shows women bear the brunt of welfare reform
Since 2010, £26 billion worth of cuts have been made to benefits, tax credits, pay and pensions. 85% of this has fallen on women’s incomes.
To coincide with the Welfare Reform Committee’s Inquiry on Women and Welfare Reform, Engender, together with Close the Gap, Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Scottish Refugee Council and Scottish Women’s Aid, have today launched a report examining the impact of welfare reform on women in Scotland.
Guest Post: To succeed we must achieve equality
Guest post by Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, SNP candidate for Ochil and South Perthshire.
We need to do all we can to encourage more women to get involved in politics. Although we now have a respectable number of globally important political leaders who are women – I’d strongly argue we need more. And, in particular, women remain woefully underrepresented in the House of Commons.
It is hard enough raising your head above the parapet into politics as a woman, but as an Asian woman I feel it’s even more of a challenge. If privileged enough to be elected, I could be the first Scottish black and minority ethnic woman parliamentarian. It is quite incredible that this be the case in 2015.
Guest Post: A politics by and for women
Guest post by Sarah Beattie-Smith, Westminster Candidate for the Scottish Green Party in Edinburgh North and Leith
If this general election campaign will be remembered for one thing, it’s the role played by women and by Scotland in a political culture that was utterly unprepared to share the stage with either. Whether it’s a London based media waking up to the fact that Nicola Sturgeon exists (and that she happens to lead a country) or whether it’s a generation of voters seeing Green Party of England and Wales leader Natalie Bennett, Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood and Nicola Sturgeon breathing life into this election and challenging the austerity consensus, it’s clear that politics has changed. As Lesley Riddoch, put it recently, what we’re seeing is “the end of the Big Man and the start of the assertive woman as the preferred model for political authority”.
Scottish Women’s Rights Centre launched
The Scottish Women’s Rights Centre was launched on 22nd April at the University of Strathclyde. The event was a great success and resulted in many agencies contacting regarding the new service.
The SWRC offers free legal information and advice to women survivors of gender based violence. It is a partnership project between Rape Crisis Scotland, the Legal Services Agency and The University of Strathclyde Law Clinic. The project is funded until September 2016 by the Scottish Government through the Scottish legal Aid Board and by Foundation Scotland until 2017. The project is overseen by a specialist Advisory Group and is co-ordinated, on a part time basis, by Katy Mathieson of RCS Helpline.
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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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