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.
Common Weal: Eradicating gender inequality and violence against women
This paper was written by Lesley
Orr, Emma Ritch, Marsha Scott, and Nel Whiting in May 2014. An edited
version appears as part of the text of the Common Weal book. An expanded
version will be published as a Common Weal paper later in the year.
Let us imagine a Scotland that begins from the hope of its citizens. It is a small but spacious country, and in our imagining, we see a society nurturing the common good of every girl, boy, woman and man. It offers that secure space for living in which each and all of us are supported to grow and flourish, developing our unique potential in safe environments that cultivate interdependence but also enable freedom to explore what makes us gloriously diverse and complex human beings. This spacious Scotland exercises a politics of dignity, justice, and care, in which all are invited to participate. All of us first, for our hoped-for commonweal is animated by the spirit and practice of equality. Such a Scotland cannot tolerate gender-based violation, exploitation, or abuse.
This section of the Commonweal manifesto describes how the current gendered nature of Scottish society creates a conducive context for ongoing gender violations. These are manifest in interpersonal relations, distribution of resources, institutional operations, and cultural norms. To tackle the systemic nature of gender inequality, we make recommendations for radical transformation that will truly enable “all of us first” to become a reality.
UN Special Rapporteur's appraisal of sexist UK causes stramash
If you've caught a newspaper, TV news report, or spent any time on social media over the last few days, you cannot have failed to notice the storm of protest that greeted Professor Rashida Manjoo's determination that there was sexism going on in the UK.
Professor Manjoo is the UN's Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, an independent and unpaid position with a mandate to identify the causes and consequences of violence against women within a state, and make recommendations for its elimination. The Special Rapporteur reports to the Human Rights Council.
Event on 'welfare reform' and gender
Last week we held an event at Holyrood to discuss our paper on ‘welfare reform’ and gender. This is a joint piece of work* that tells a story about why women are penalised by this agenda in so many different ways and turns to how we might address the gender impact.
Launching our joint paper on gender and 'welfare reform'
Today Engender is launching a joint position paper on gender and ‘welfare reform’, in collaboration with Close the Gap, Scottish Refugee Council, Scottish Women’s Aid, Scottish Women’s Convention and Zero Tolerance.
Guest post: Scottish Women in Sport
The statistics are damning. While 70% of boys participate in regular exercise, reports suggest that the figure for girls could be as low as 31%, with only 12% of 14-year-old girls taking the recommended amount of activity.
The knock-on effect on long-term health, self-esteem, education, and success in the workplace suggest that something has to be done to ensure there are more opportunities for females of all ages in Scotland to embark on a more active lifestyle.
That was why the Scottish Women in Sport charity was launched at the end of 2013, with the aim of educating young girls on positive life choices, breaking down media stereotypes, creating a strong voice to lobby and raise awareness, highlight positive role models, influence decision makers and encourage increased commercial investment into all sports that include women.
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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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