Engender blog

Engender statement on the weaponisation of violence against women and girls

We are increasingly alarmed at the way women’s rights and safety are being weaponised to demonise minorities across the UK. This kind of distortion of the facts only causes harm to individuals and communities and does nothing to end violence against women and girls.  

As Engender, we want to add our voice to calls for action against the spread of hate and misinformation, and for protection and safe and legal routes to be provided for people fleeing war and crisis to the UK. We also want to express our solidarity with racialised and other minority communities who are being made to feel unsafe by hate speech, incitement of violence and far-right protests, including here in Scotland. 

Men’s violence against women and girls is endemic in our society and is caused by gender inequality. Spreading inaccurate and hateful rhetoric only generates more violence and creates a distraction from the political commitments that are needed to address it. Improvements to our social security system, investment in childcare, social care, education, housing and community resources, are the things that make a real difference to women. 

The false and racist narratives these groups are promoting ignore the fact that violence against women and girls is most commonly perpetrated by someone close to the victim. Last year, the UN reported that the home is the most dangerous place for women, with 60% of women killed by men globally in 2023 dying at the hands of a partner or family member. Two out of every five people arrested during far-right riots in summer 2024 had previously been reported to the police for domestic abuse.

Racism, Islamophobia and anti-migrant attitudes play a major role in the increased risk of violence that women of colour, asylum-seeking and refugee women face.  

The UK’s asylum and immigration systems compound this harm, particularly through the brutal No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) condition, which increases women’s risk of gender-based violence and restricts access to support, including refuge accommodation.

Invitation to Tender: Equal Representation 2025/26 Candidate Research.

Engender’s Equal Representation in Politics Project aims to help create a Scotland where there is sustainable equal representation of women in all their diversity in politics, ensuring women’s perspectives shape decision-making, reducing gender inequality, and creating better outcomes for women and society.

The project seeks to create change by encouraging all those who hold power to shape the political landscape, including political parties, councils, government, and parliament, to take action to increase the representation of women and improve levels of diversity among women’s representation.

We are seeking a consultant:

• To review and collate a list of women MSPs who have publicly stated that they intend to stand down before the Holyrood 2026 elections.
• To review and collate the reasons given publicly by these MSPs for reaching the decision to stand down.
• To compile a list of candidates for each major party for the Holyrood 2021, broken down by protected characteristic where possible.
• To compile a list of candidates for each major party for the Holyrood 2026, broken down by protected characteristic where possible.
• To create and circulate a survey, and analyse and collate findings, of all women MSPs standing down on the factors that influenced their decision.

The deadline for tenders to be submitted is 5pm, Monday 15th September.

Please find all the details and how to apply, here.

Engender launches report on women’s experience of the election process 

Today, Engender has launched a new report: Women’s political journey: Exploring the election process and women’s experiences of abuse, exclusion and bias, including vital recommendations for improvement. Find out more about the report below.

“Someone said to me [during the election] and I quote, ‘we can’t win here with someone who looks like her.” 

The political arena is becoming increasingly hostile, especially for women and marginalised women.

Engender’s new report ‘Women’s Political Journey’ explores the candidate journey—from preparing to stand as a candidate, including all the interview and vetting processes, to being elected and what happens after.  

There is still an image of the ideal candidate as white, middle-class, able-bodied, and male. For anyone who falls outside these categories, this means being prepared for additional barriers.  

Our report shows that over 70% of respondents to a question on forms of abuse reported experiencing online harassment or trolling during their campaign. Only 11% felt “very safe” during their campaign period.

A survey respondent told us:

“I have been spat on, shouted at, abused and physically shoved countless times.”  

Sexist bullying is a persistent problem within some branches and local parties, with findings indicating that disabled and minoritised women may be at increased risk. These experiences can cause women to question their positions and political futures. It is widely recognised that social media presents significant risks for women in politics, with Black and minority ethnic women at greatest risk. 

57% of our survey respondents felt that positive action measures (PAMs) like quotas or all-women shortlists are ‘resented’ by some party members who feel their use is unfair or unnecessary. As has been reported to us, white men especially refuse to make space for other groups if it means sharing their privilege. Others reported only tokenistic acceptance of PAMs, reducing the ultimate impact of measures.  

Very few parties are consistently collecting equalities monitoring information on prospective candidates. This is vital when it comes to ensuring candidate diversity and proportionate representation of Scotland’s communities. 

Equal Representation Development Officer Noomi Anyanwu states: 

“Abuse, lack of support, and biases were reported widely among our survey participants and interviewees. Nearly 30% would not recommend candidacy to underrepresented groups. It’s understandable considering what women must endure to make it as politicians, but we don’t want to settle for this.” 

“Change needs to happen, so we urge political parties, governments, councils, and other stakeholders to implement measures and commit to equal and diverse representation. I want to see at least 50% women in our parliaments—for that to happen, we need to see a real culture change first.” 

Read the full report including vital recommendations for action here.

Joining Up Policymaking to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls

At Engender, one of our areas of focus is preventing violence against women and girls (VAWG) before it gets the chance to occur. This approach, known as primary prevention, focuses on tackling the root cause of violence, gender inequality, by embedding gender-sensitive thinking into every area of public policy.

Through our Delivering Equally Safe project, we explore how different areas of public policy can prevent violence from occurring. We believe that to truly move the needle on VAWG, we need more than good intentions. We need policy professionals across sectors to work together. That’s why, in 2024, we brought over 50 policy professionals from 30 different organisations together for our first Primary Prevention and Policymaking Conference.

Our first conference showed just how vital cross-sector collaboration amongst policy professionals is to embedding primary prevention. Fast forward one year, and we were delighted to be joined by policy professionals from across Scotland in Glasgow in March to reflect, share the findings of our recent research, and look ahead. It was a chance to share knowledge, build relationships, and spark real momentum.

Where We Are a Year On...

At this year’s event, Hannah Brisbane, our Delivering Eqaully Safe Policy Officer, kicked things off with a deep dive into the Delivering Equally Safe (DES) project. Her presentation unpacked what some of the key components of a primary prevention approach in policymaking, including:

• Equal representation across all levels
• Intersectional gender analysis
• Designing policies that actively promote women’s safety

Hannah also shared reflections from the previous year’s conference, noting that attendees had expressed a sense of pride in Scotland’s world-leading approach to addressing VAWG but were frustrated that budgets and capacity did not match the scale of the challenge we face.

Good Practice and Missed Opportunities

Following last year’s conference, we commissioned research to find out more about local primary prevention approaches in Scotland, and we’re delighted to share the report produced by independent research consultant Kathryn Ramsay with you now.

The report highlights several structural barriers to primary prevention work across local areas, including:

• a lack of authority for VAWPs,
• a lack of funding and resources for existing work and
• insufficient priority given to prevention work by leaders. Kathryn also shared other challenges beyond these, including
• the poor implementation of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), the
• lack of reliable measures of progress with prevention and
• the use of potentially confusing terms and jargon

In Kathryn’s research, numerous interviewees highlighted existing Equally Safe programmes (Equally Safe at School, Equally Safe at Work, and Equally Safe in Practice) as good practice happening locally on primary prevention. These initiatives are real-world examples of how prevention can be embedded into different areas, and it’s interesting to note that these good practice examples were designed and delivered by women’s sector organisations.

Reflections

We asked attendees at this year’s conference to reflect on what enables them to take a primary prevention approach, and what gets in the way. Not surprisingly, funding and capacity came up as one of the most common barriers to implementing primary prevention. However, many attendees also noted the potential for funding and capacity to be vital enablers when provided adequately and sustainably.

Other key enablers included:

• Gender expertise and competence
• Intersectional thinking
• Networks like the the National Violence Against Women Network, the Authentic Voices Network and the Safer, Sooner Domestic Abuse network

It’s clear to us that there is a strong appetite for cross-sector collaboration, and that people want to work together to build policies that prevent violence before it starts. While opportunities exist to facilitate this collaboration, Kathryn’s research shows that some of these are not reaching their full potential.

What’s Next?

We’ll be using the findings from Kathryn’s report and from the sessions throughout this year’s conference to push for meaningful change in relation to the implementation of primary prevention in Scotland. We’ve created a conference report that explores what was shared in workshop sessions on gender mainstreaming, VAW in politics and public life, a public health approach to preventing VAWG, and applying a primary prevention lens to public policy.

Read the conference report here.

Read Kathryn’s research report here.