Engender blog

Everything you need to know about the gender commitments in the Holyrood 2016 manifestos

With Scotland going to the polls on Thursday, it is an exciting week for the political nerds amongst us. At Engender HQ we will be eagerly number crunching the proportion of women returned as MSPs and mapping the outcome in terms of pre-election commitments to women’s equality.

Of course, now that all political parties have released their manifestos, we already know what is on the table. Last week we published this detailed gender summary of promises from the main political parties, in relation to our own Gender Matters manifesto and other directly relevant issues for women.

On the whole we are pleased to see a range of gender equality issues addressed by the majority of parties. Unsurprisingly, some of our calls remain missing, especially where these are radical or structural in nature, but there are a number of notable highlights.

Gender Equality Bill

We called for a Gender Equality Bill to drive gender issues up the political agenda and create accountability in areas where the pace of change has been incredibly slow. Scottish Labour, the Scottish Greens and the Women’s Equality Party have all committed to publishing such a Bill over the course of the next parliament, with RISE including an Anti-Sexism Bill as one of its big ticket policy items.

Quotas

With relevant powers reserved to Westminster, political parties themselves are currently ‘gatekeepers’ to equal representation in Scottish politics. It’s therefore very heartening that the SNP, Labour and Greens have used their manifestos to formally back the Women 50:50 campaign. The campaign (and Engender’s manifesto) calls for measures to ensure that women are 50% of candidates in national and local elections, and 50% of public board members. Power to set gender quotas for public boards is coming to Holyrood, and both the SNP and Greens have committed to legislation that would set these at 50%.

Where does Scotland stand on women's equality?

As we edge closer to the Scottish Parliamentary elections, here at Engender we are rounding off our manifesto focus with a week on women’s rights. Last year the UN celebrated ‘Beijing +20’, the twenty year anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. As a signatory to the UN Convention on women’s rights (CEDAW), the UK is obliged to report against twelve thematic pillars for action. As many of these areas are devolved to the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Government is also bound to advance women’s rights under its terms.

Guest Post: 2016 - A new opportunity for Scotland

With the upcoming Scottish parliament elections Carla McCormack, from The Poverty Alliance, examines what devolution for Scotland could mean in terms of improved social security.

Guest Post: I care about……

Guest blog from Claire Cairns, coordinator of Coalition of Carers in Scotland

With the Scottish elections being held on the 5^th of May, Scotland will soon be gripped by election fever.

Party manifestos will be unveiled and candidates and campaigners will aim to convince us that their party holds the solutions to the issues that matter most to us.

We know that health, education, the economy and employment will all feature at the top of the agenda. People will weigh up what each party has to say and inevitable ask themselves the question ‘How will this effect me’

But I hope that with this election people will also be asking themselves – ‘What sort of society do I want to live in?’ ‘How does it respond to people when they need support? What happens when someone develops a serious health issue, gives birth to a child with a disability or becomes a carer for a loved one? What happens when you get older and need help with everyday living?