Engender blog

Constitutions work wrap-up

The referendum and subsequent invigorating deadlines set down by the Smith Commission have been keeping us policy types busy these past few months.

Tomorrow we will be publishing our submission to the Smith Commission on further devolution and, although we will continue to engage with latter stages of the process, this will draw a close to our Scotland’s Futures advocacy and engagement work. Here, then, is a quick look at what the final stages of the project have entailed and how this links to future plans.

Smith Commission: problems and possibilities for women's equality

The Smith Commission website is as spare as a fledgling campaign website. It serves as an indicator of the hasty birth of the Commission itself; set up in a scramble following the independence referendum No vote.

Smith's purpose can't easily be aligned with its timescale. After a season of weighing the possibilities of independence, in which participation has flourished across Scotland, the brevity of the Commission's timetable means a return to the old ways. The political parties have already made their submissions, and civil society has only another couple of weeks to contemplate the powers it would see transferred to Holyrood and make its case. Awkwardly, the deadline for civil society submissions is the same as the date that the UK Government command paper will be published.

Engender's response to the indyref result

Scotland has decided, 55% to 45%, to remain part of the UK and not to be an independent country.

The implications of this are unfolding in real time, and we have already heard from politicians from across the political spectrum at Westminster this morning about a process to review and enhance Scotland's devolution settlement.

Engender has been neutral throughout the referendum campaign, but we have created space for our members and women in Scotland to discuss different constitutional futures. We know that amid the flourishing of democratic participation that this campaign has provoked, has been a heartfelt desire on the part of many to realise women's equality in Scotland.

We will be taking part in any process accessible by us to discuss the devolution settlement. We will involve our members in the detail, but will advocate for the following things:

• Women's equal participation in discussions and structures that determine any new settlement.
• Discussions in which gender is considered as a factor, whether that is in considering the implications for new powers on care and childcare, on women's unpaid work, on women's political representation, on violence against women, on women's labour market equality, or on women's human rights.

We would like to congratulate our members who have campaigned for a Yes or No, Thanks vote. You have engaged women and girls, and all of the people of Scotland, in ways that we hope will not be undone.

Guest blog: Women for Independence (Indyref Thursday #8)

This week's final indyref Thursday is a double page special from two former politicians who have been out on the campaign trail. They describe what they believe their vote will mean for women.

Carolyn Leckie is a former Scottish Socialist Party MSP for Central Scotland.

When I was in the Parliament I got into trouble. For weeks I’d been trying to ask Jack McConnell about the nursery nurses. Nursery nurses who, as women, were deeply skilled but disgracefully paid and striking for better. I’d managed to secure a member’s debate but despite repeated attempts, I was not allowed to ask Jack if he supported them. So, I made a point of order and was overruled. So I stayed standing for the nursery nurses who were thronging the Royal Mile in their hundreds outside. I was chucked out. But I was glad to join the women outside, who were protesting at a parliament that had no control of employment law, equalities, wages or trade union legislation.