Engender blog

Guest blog: Women for Independence (Indyref Thursday #8)

This week's final indyref Thursday is a double page special from two former politicians who have been out on the campaign trail. They describe what they believe their vote will mean for women.

Carolyn Leckie is a former Scottish Socialist Party MSP for Central Scotland.

When I was in the Parliament I got into trouble. For weeks I’d been trying to ask Jack McConnell about the nursery nurses. Nursery nurses who, as women, were deeply skilled but disgracefully paid and striking for better. I’d managed to secure a member’s debate but despite repeated attempts, I was not allowed to ask Jack if he supported them. So, I made a point of order and was overruled. So I stayed standing for the nursery nurses who were thronging the Royal Mile in their hundreds outside. I was chucked out. But I was glad to join the women outside, who were protesting at a parliament that had no control of employment law, equalities, wages or trade union legislation.

Guest blog: Women Saying No (Indyref Thursday #8)

This week's final indyref Thursday is a double page special from two former politicians who have been out on the campaign trail. They describe what they believe their vote will mean for women.

Maria Fyfe is a former Labour MP for Glasgow Maryhill

I know women who are voting Yes because they want a fairer and more equal society. I completely agree with their aim, but where is the capacity to achieve it? It doesn’t happen just because enough people put a cross against Yes on a ballot paper. We can all be emotionally aroused by stirring speeches. But one of the wisest pieces of advice I ever heard was, “Never mind what politicians say. Look at how they spend the public’s money and then you know what they really care about.” I could add to that, what they tax and who gets tax cuts.

Women and indyref: lessons from a constitutional cafe

It has become received wisdom that the independence referendum has provoked a public discourse so febrile and uncontained that some kind of peacebuilding will be necessary through September and October this year.

You wouldn't know if from our latest constitutional cafe, which took place last Saturday in the Scottish Youth Theatre in Glasgow. The event brought together women from both Women for Indy and Better Together with practitioners from Scottish Women's Aid, Electoral Reform Society, and Scottish Women's Aid to talk about women's equality and indyref, and where we go afterwards in realising women's equality.

Guest blog: Women and work: what next? (Indyref Thursday #7)

In the run-up to the referendum, we'll be publishing views on women's equality and Scotland's constitutional futures. This week, Close the Gap development officer Lindsey Millen writes on the implications of the referendum for the women and work.

After months of campaigning, discussion and debate, what is arguably the biggest political event of a generation is almost upon us. With just over two weeks to go until the referendum, Close the Gap launched a new working paper ‘Women and work: What comes next in a post-referendum Scotland?’ at a Constitutional Café event with Engender, Electoral Reform Society Scotland, and Scottish Women’s Aid last Saturday. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the implications for women and work in the context of the independence debate, to describe what needs to happen to effect positive change, and to identify the levers that are available in the event of either outcome.

We already know women face a multitude of barriers and inequalities in the labour market. The gender pay gap remains stubbornly high at 13% in a labour market characterised by persistent occupational segregation, with women clustered into low-skilled, low-valued, and low-paid work at one end of the scale, and denied access to the top roles at the other. Women overwhelmingly shoulder the burden of care, for children, older people and disabled people, and often find themselves faced with downward occupational mobility on returning to work after maternity or other care leave.