Engender blog
All of Engender’s latest news. Reports, reviews, books, articles, and information from across Scotland’s women’s sector.
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Guest blog: Childcare provision and the independence referendum (Indyref Thursday #3)
By Craig McAngus
This guest blog by Craig McAngus was originally posted on the Scottish Centre on Constitutional Change website. He is currently researching the implications of constitutional change for gender equality.
The 18th of September is fast approaching and the two main campaigns are stepping up their efforts to try and shore up their own vote whilst appealing to the undecided. One particular group that has been catching the attention of both the psephologists and the campaigns alike is women. Still more likely to be undecided, the women of Scotland have become a key group of voters that may yet hold the key to the result we wake up to (or stay up for) on the 19th of September. The Scottish Government has been accused by its opponents of trying to lure women into voting Yes with policy ‘bribes’ such as extended childcare and alleged ‘token gestures’ like bringing more women, namely Shona Robison and Angela Constance, into the cabinet. However, advocates of Yes argue that Scotland can become a more gender equal place after independence through measures such as ‘transformational’ childcare. However, little is known about what voters think about these issues.
Guest blog: Indyref, women and poverty (Indyref Thursday #2)
By Angela O'Hagan
In the run-up to our event on 'gender equality, the referendum and beyond', we'll be publishing a weekly blog to correspond with our 'Scotland's futures' briefing papers series. This week, guest blogger Angela O'Hagan considers implications in terms of women's poverty.
Will women be poorer in a post-Referendum Scotland? Will independence or devo-max put a stop to the onward march of women’s - and men’s - poverty in Scotland?
As ever, the answers are in part up to us and the decisions we make on 18 September and the pressure we put on politicians now and after the vote, to act for change and for the alternatives that are possible.
Refugee Women's Strategy Group, Umoja Inc, and Engender launch reports on gender and asylum
In June 2014 Engender, Umoja Inc and the Refugee Women’s Strategy Group (RWSG) held an event as part of Refugee Week in Glasgow. The aim of this event was to come together to celebrate refugee women in Scotland and launch two pieces of work that seek to capture the experience of asylum seeking women: the RWSG’s Speak for Yourself report and Engender’s briefing paper on gender and the asylum system.
Speak for Yourself is the product of 100 interviews with asylum seeking women. It identifies some of the critical issues that asylum seeking women face, including access to work, education, housing, and health. Women also spoke about the challenge of the asylum process itself.
Indyref, women and the labour market (Indyref Thursday #1)
In the run-up to our event on 'gender equality, the referendum and beyond', we'll be publishing a weekly blog to correspond with our 'Scotland's futures' briefing papers series. First up is women and the labour market by Engender's Director, Emma Ritch.
Women in Scotland experience a vastly different workplace from men. Women work in different jobs, earn lower wages, experience the bulk of sexual harassment, have a precarious place in male-dominated organisations and sectors, and are vanishingly unlikely to end their careers around a boardroom table.
The scale of the differences is so enormous as to be almost invisible: it fills the vision of women as they grapple with the everyday ordinariness of balancing work, friends, and family life. The inequalities have developed a different veneer since the 1950s, but many of the changes have been superficial. Some of the key indicators of inequality, like who works part-time, have barely flickered in generations. In some places in Scotland, we’re even recreating the typing pool, as public bodies make ‘efficiency savings’.
Getting to grips with women and work can be a technical minefield, with overlapping policies, sets of statistics, and legal structures in play. So what should we all be thinking about when we cast our ballots on 18 September?
Scottish women's sector welcomes Equally Safe
A joint statement from Engender, Rape Crisis Scotland, Scottish Womenʼs Aid, Scottish
Womenʼs Convention, White Ribbon Scotland, Womenʼs Support Project and
Zero Tolerance
In June 2014 the Scottish Government and COSLA launched Equally Safe: Scotlandʼs strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls. This statement to welcome Equally Safe has been jointly produced by key voluntary sector organisations working across Scotland to tackle gender inequality and male violence against women and girls. These organisations are Engender, Rape Crisis Scotland, Scottish Womenʼs Aid, Scottish Womenʼs Convention, White Ribbon Scotland, Womenʼs Support Project and Zero Tolerance.
The launch of Equally Safe is an important step in taking forward work to tackle violence and abuse. We welcome the continued commitment to support interventions, as well as the explicit acknowledgement that preventing violence against women is dependent upon reducing gender inequality in the broadest sense. This strategy makes it clear that all sectors of society have a responsibility to actively work towards preventing male violence and that prevention and equality measures must be embedded across all sectors.
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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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