Engender blog

Women, Scotland & Inclusion: Barriers to disclosure and support in an island setting

This International Women's Day we're overjoyed to share with you four guest blogs from women across Scotland who are making meaningful steps towards women's equality. The theme of IWD this year is #InspireInclusion, & we asked our bloggers to talk about the communities and campaigns happening across the country.

Zelda Bradley is the Service Director, Specialist SV Advocacy and Support Practitioner for Orkney Rape and Sexual Assault Service (ORSAS).

“Orkney is the complete package, boasting a rich heritage, landscapes, beaches, wildlife, thriving food and drink sector, world leading energy innovation and a lifestyle that is second to none!”

The Orkney “brand” is lucrative, it supports jobs, a rural idyll and an aspirational lifestyle. Alongside the positive statistics, there are challenges facing our remote, rural island communities in relation to housing, hidden poverty, gender-based violence, substance misuse and access to services.

All the things that positively bind our community together also create barriers to disclosure and accessing support. People rely on one another’s goodwill. We are at school, studying, working, and socialising together. There is a transparency to island living that can’t be escaped. Everyone has a lineage through their family, where we live, our role and where we fit into the fabric of island life. This is true if we were born here or arrived on the last ferry.

We are great storytellers still. Every tale starts with a genealogy, a placing of people in context in a web of familiarity. Every woman I spoke to in the early days of developing ORSAS had a story about casual misogyny and sexual violence that was normalised; “Surely you won’t be busy” then “I hope you’re not busy” followed by a disclosure.  

We have a community memory that spans back over a hundred years that preserves women & children’s lives, their triumphs and sorrows. If abusers think that their bad behaviour has been forgotten because it was not prosecuted, they are mistaken.

Revealing that one of us harmed another has serious consequences. It makes survivors visible and vulnerable. It challenges the cohesion of the community and the construct that we are all safe here with the people we know. If the community narrative says her experience is unthinkable, survivors are silenced, they fear they won’t be believed. If those that disclose are shamed by the proximity of those that harmed them, does it hinder anyone else coming forward? If the media reports the graphic detail of charge sheets, which boost circulation, does that foster trust in the court process?  

This is why our centre is visible and accessible, grounded in the community. This is why we campaign, educate, and agitate. Because sexual violence is a cause and consequence of inequality.

Our Equality Hub, with a shop front on the main street hosts displays on equality, feminism, and human rights. Looking through our windows you see our staff at their desks. This is a safe, welcoming space, and we are holding hope for everyone coming through our door.

For Betty Corrigall and my aunt Barbara, missing for 80 years, and many like them. For every farm servant girl scared to work in the byre with the men. For every woman that shared her story and those that could not. For everyone who accepted a lift and whose trust was betrayed. All those “peedie birds” are being remembered and celebrated now, their voices echo through the work of Tak_A_Stand.

Guest posts do not necessarily reflect the views of Engender, and all language used is the author's own. Bloggers may have received some editorial support from Engender, and may have received a fee from our commissioning pot. We aim for our blog to reflect a range of feminist viewpoints, and offer a commissioning pot to ensure that women do not have to offer their time or words for free.

Interested in writing for the Engender blog? Find out more here.

Women, Scotland & Inclusion: Half of humanity is waiting for you

This International Women's Day we're overjoyed to share with you four guest blogs from women across Scotland who are making meaningful steps towards women's equality. The theme of IWD this year is #InspireInclusion, & we asked our bloggers to talk about the communities and campaigns happening across the country.

Azita Jabbari is a policy lead working in Scotland and a member of Every Woman Treaty, a coalition of more than 3,000 activists in 147 nations advancing a new Optional Protocol on violence against women and girls connected to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) based on its General Recommendation 35. This article expresses her personal opinion, where it is also supported by Every Woman Treaty.

As an Iranian woman coming to the UK—the "developed" world—a few decades ago, it was fantastic to experience more women's rights. But over time, I became aware of multiple occurrences of violence against women and girls (VAWG).

It compelled me to research the possible roots of VAWG, and I found misogynistic attitudes dating back thousands of years.

An innocent reader might think that VAWG only happens these days in "undeveloped" countries. But I've come to understand that this violence exists across all nations and all religions.

The UK National Police Chiefs' Council reports shocking levels of VAWG: "A woman is killed by a man every three days in the UK." Moreover, in the year ending March 2022, sexual offences recorded by the police had risen by 32 per cent, the highest annual figure recorded in England and Wales, including the highest recorded annual numbers of rape.

Out of the 65,251 domestic abuse incidents recorded from 2020 to 2021 by Police Scotland, in four out of five, women were the victims.

These statistics present high negative figures for a developed country like the UK. Europe has similar figures: at least two women are killed every day in the EU by an intimate partner or family member, and two in 10 women have experienced physical or sexual violence.

Across the globe, at least one in three women are raped, beaten, or assaulted, according to the World Health Organization. The situation is dire for migrant women and refugees. In 2021, the UN refugee agency reported that 1 in 5 internally displaced women have been subjected to sexual violence. Women in the UK report high levels of violence before, during and after forced migration.

Based on a report by the UK Government, women who are trafficked for sexual exploitation and domestic servitude report high levels of sexual violence. The Metropolitan police reveal that trafficked women and children are promised better lives but when they arrive in the UK, they can be forced into sexual slavery, forced marriage, and work as servants.

We Can Better Protect Women and Girls 

All of this data has made me wonder what is so "developed" about the West and their respect for human rights? What does it say if vulnerable women come to escape death or persecution and are raped or taken advantage of here? It shows us that regardless of whether a nation is labelled "developed" or "developing," regardless of a nation's belief system, women need to be protected.

On this International Women's Day, I propose a solution that is inclusive of all women. I strongly recommend that the UK support the creation of a treaty in the form of a new Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) specific to ending VAWG. This binding legal instrument would prioritize solutions to gender-based violence against women for all women in every nation through legal reform; training and accountability for police, judges, and healthcare workers; violence-prevention programs; and comprehensive services for survivors.

I was shocked to read that when the UK ratified the Istanbul Convention, Europe's regional treaty on gender-based violence, it excluded migrant women.

This year's theme for International Women's Day is "Inspire Inclusion". The UK's support of a new Optional Protocol to CEDAW would do that—show its commitment to women's rights for all women, and that it welcomes a global instrument that brings much-needed clarity and cohesion to definitions and standards across the world. 

As a longtime resident of the UK, I ask: Why not prove that we are developed by supporting the creation of a global instrument to eradicate violence against half of the world's population?

Guest posts do not necessarily reflect the views of Engender, and all language used is the author's own. Bloggers may have received some editorial support from Engender, and may have received a fee from our commissioning pot. We aim for our blog to reflect a range of feminist viewpoints, and offer a commissioning pot to ensure that women do not have to offer their time or words for free.

Interested in writing for the Engender blog? Find out more here.

GUEST POST: Critically minded? The problem of diversity in film criticism

Engender and the Equal Media and Culture Centre for Scotland have hosted student placements from the MSc in Social Research at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Strathclyde Applied Gender Studies and Research Methods course. As part of their research outputs, the students have produced a series of blogs.

In this post, Alex highlights the need for an intersectional approach to examining our cultural data and why we need more diverse voices in film criticism.

Film criticism fulfils multiple purposes. People read film reviews for suggestions on what to watch, and whether it’s worth shelling out to go to the cinema.

As a result, film reviews are also tied to a film’s financial success, its consideration for awards and whether it gets a wide release at all. Thus, critics can become “gatekeepers,” defining what counts as “good” art.

GUEST POST: Digital abuse against feminist scholars: a case study

Engender and the Equal Media and Culture Centre for Scotland have hosted student placements from the MSc in Social Research at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Strathclyde Applied Gender Studies and Research Methods course. As part of their research outputs, the students have produced a series of blogs.

In this post, Yoke explores a case study of the online backlash and digital abuse experienced by feminist researchers and scholars.

Online abuse is used as a silencing mechanism against women and other minoritised identities in the public (online) space.

Weaponising misogyny and dehumanisation techniques, perpetrators aim to push their targets outside the public sphere, to reinstate misogynistic, heteronormative dominance. These public displays of violence also serve to remind and threaten others who might want to defy misogynist, white supremacist, and heteronormative power structures. As Gosse et al. (2021) state, online abuse causes scholars and journalists to self-censor and choose ‘safe’ topics to discuss publicly in an attempt to protect themselves, thereby upholding the status quo. Indeed, research has shown that when women speak publicly about ‘controversial’ topics, such as feminism, this triggers online abuse. This is particularly a problem for feminist scholars who use social media to spread information on feminist research. These attacks must be recognised as part of a historical pattern of violent repercussions against those who defy patriarchal, white supremacist, capitalist dominance. Women have always been the target of abuse, and while the medium is new and everchanging, the intention is not.