Engender blog
Apply now for our Board Pioneer Programme
Want to get involved in feminist governance and see how a board works? Find out more about our pilot Board Pioneer Programme in this blog.
Today we’re opening applications for Engender’s Board Pioneer Programme, a one-year opportunity to develop the skills and experience of someone who is interested in getting involved in feminist governance and finding out how a board works.
Our Board Pioneer will attend Engender’s board meetings over the course of a year, including our AGM, and get the chance to share their knowledge and expertise with our board, as well as building their networks within the women’s movement and contributing to Engender’s work for women’s equality in Scotland.
See the full advert and apply online here
Cost of Living Crisis: The hidden cost of politics
As part of our blog series on the cost of living crisis, activist and campaigner Laura Moodie explores the hidden costs of participating in politics during the cost of living crisis, and the challenges this creates for achieving equal representation for women at all levels of politics.
For International Women’s Day this year, I had the joy of meeting with a group of fantastic Green women in the amazing Ayrshire Women’s Hub. Despite the dark and chilly night - with snow hinted at by the weather forecast - by the time the meeting started in earnest, we’d had to bring in extra chairs to fit everyone in.
Making it Happen for 2027: Transforming Local Democracy for Women
Today Engender, Elect Her and Women 50:50 are launching a campaign to build a future where women’s equal representation in councils is realised. “Making it Happen for 2027: Transforming Local Democracy for Women” is a call to action aimed at all of those who have the power to shape this outcome – including councils, councillors, government, political parties and the news media.
At the May 2022 election, the number of women councillors increased from 29 per cent to 35 per cent, an increase of just 6 per cent. Women have long been excluded within Scotland’s local councils, and although we do not have the data we need to clearly understand the diversity of our representatives, what we do know tells us that Black and minority ethnic women, disabled women and LBTI women experience this exclusion on even greater scales. For instance, Scotland’s capital city has only one woman of colour councillor, despite being one of the most diverse areas of the country. And, despite the small increase in the number of women councillors nationally, Women 50:50 have found that if this rate of change is allowed to continue, we will not see gender equality in our local councils until 2037.
Why we need data to achieve equal representation in politics
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Today we’re publishing the last in a recent series of blogs from the Equal Representation Coalition looking at the state of equality in our politics at the moment, discussing their work in tackling barriers to participation, and exploring the crucial role that accurate data plays in achieving equal representation in our councils and parliaments and why we need more of it.
Here, Engender’s Equal Representation Development Officer Jessie Duncan has a round-up of what key issues we’ve covered in the series and why gathering data is vital to achieving equal representation.
In the run-up to the local elections taking place today, we’ve been publishing blogs from members of the Equal Representation Coalition, which Engender is part of and which brings together organisations from across the equalities sector in Scotland with shared goals around improving access to politics for people from underrepresented groups in order to achieve equal representation in our councils and parliaments They’ve been writing about the pressing need for more diversity within our councils and beyond; their work tackling barriers to participation in politics; and the importance of transparency in representation in order to understand whose voices are being heard – and crucially, whose aren’t.
We know that diversity of representation – that is, representation which actually reflects the communities we live in – leads to richer policy development, more informed decision-making and contributes to a healthy democracy in which people know they are valued. It’s something we should all be striving for.
However, this version of representative democracy is far from our current reality, particularly when it comes to councils.GUEST POST: Women’s Representation in the Scottish Local Council Elections 2022: What We Know So Far
Today we're publishing the next in a series of blogs from the current student placements Engender is hosting from the University of Strathclyde Applied Gender Studies and Research Methods course.
In this post, Rowan analyses women's representation in the upcoming local council elections, and explores issues around uncontested wards, re-standing rates, and press coverage of the elections. You can read Rowan's first blog here.
With the local council elections just around the corner, it is a good time to reflect on what we know so far before people across Scotland head to the polls. As part of my ongoing research and placement with Engender I have analysed a number of areas related to the upcoming elections including candidate selections, re-standing rates among incumbent councillors, and press coverage. This blog will address each of these areas in turn.
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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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