Engender blog

GUEST POST: WHT the ****

During this 16 Days of Activism On Violence Against Women - and with high profile #metoo stories appearing in the courts and the media - we continue to hear stories of harassment and abuse of women and girls. This guest post, from an author who wishes to remain anonymous, explores the issues of power, privilege, and 'wandering hand trouble'.

Back when I was a young woman, when it was described as ‘wandering hand trouble’ (WHT) for short, we were taught that sexual assault and harassment were just what happened.

It would happen more if you were to pluck your eyebrows, wear a choker, or hoik your skirt up above your knees. If you wore American Tan 60 denier tights, you was ‘asking for it’. We didn’t really know what we were supposed to be asking for, especially when we wore knee-length cotton socks on top of the tights.

It was just another of the great mysteries when my mother would say, ‘don’t let your father see you wearing that,’ and which made me feel funny inside because I didn’t know why not.

GUEST POST: When childcare isn’t affordable, we all pay for it

Katie Dickerson is a New Yorker raising two strong little girls in Glasgow. She is passionate about advocating for the rights of working mothers. You can follow her on Twitter @Katie_Popple for jokes about parenting small children and rants about gender equality.

Here she blogs for Engender about why childcare costs are still a major barrier to women's equality.

I’ll admit it - when I decided to have a second child, I didn’t crunch the numbers first.

I thought about how nice it would be for my older daughter to have a sibling, and how complete my family would feel once there were four of us in it. I was so wrapped up in the warm fuzziness of it all that I didn’t consider how expensive this new kid would be.

My oldest had been attending nursery four days a week, so I was used to eye-wateringly high childcare bills. But it was only when I calculated the childcare costs for two children under five that it really hit me - nursery fees could financially ruin my family.

GUEST POST: Brexit - a risk to women's equality, or an opportunity to reshape gender mainstreaming in economic development?

In the week which has seen a further Brexit extension, we host a guest blog from Leanne Wilson, PhD Candidate at the WiSE Research Centre for Economic Justice at Glasgow Caledonian University. Leanne is feminist economist researching the effectiveness of gender mainstreaming as a strategy for advancing gender equality, specifically within the European Structural and Investment Funds and economic development policies in Scotland. You can find Leanne over on Twitter @LeanneWilson82

'Gender mainstreaming' has been an integral strategy for gender equality within the European Structural Investment Funds (ESIF) since the 2000-2006 funding period. Therefore, with Brexit looming and the risk of losing the strategy in economic development policies there is an urgency to assess its effectiveness. Gender mainstreaming was endorsed by the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women and has continued to be the strategy of the EU in many of their policies. The UN define gender mainstreaming as “the (re)organisation, improvement, development and evaluation of policy processes, so that gender equality perspective is incorporated in all policies at all levels and at all stages, by actors normally involved in policy-making”.

It is contested as a strategy as it has been widely debated by feminist researchers for its ability to transform structural inequalities. It is argued that it involves two different structures, ‘gender equality’ and the ‘mainstream’ which are conflicting, and in some instances competing, frames. However, I fear that leaving the EU will derail any success it has had, and therefore I want to highlight any learning from the experience in Scotland which will ultimately inform successor funding. This blog discusses my early research findings and opinion on the success of the Scottish implementation of gender mainstreaming in economic development polices and, therefore, the implications post-Brexit.

Guest Post: Why we must support women to make their own contraceptive choices

Alison Scott is a sexual health consultant with a focus on socially excluded women and chair of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (Scotland). Here, she continues our blog series looking at Long Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC) and why choice must be at the heart of women’s reproductive healthcare.

Having trained in obstetrics and gynaecology, I made the decision to move into sexual health around 18 years ago. My boss in sexual health at the time (a formidable force of nature who thought nothing of asking me if my fourth pregnancy had been planned!) was also a woman who had no tolerance of fools but advocated for those who she felt had no voice. At one of our first clinics, we were discussing contraceptive options. She gave me a phrase which I have stolen and used repeatedly when teaching others. “If she doesn’t choose it, she won’t use it”.