Engender blog
Feminist action against Trump
Next week on 20th January Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the President of the United States of America.
Given statements made during the election campaign, many are understandably worried about what a Trump presidency may mean for women's equality, the fight against racism, LGBTQI rights, religious freedoms, violence, climate change, migrant rights, international relations, democratic freedoms and many more vital issues.
Here, we outline some of the things happening in Scotland (and the rest of the UK) which you might want to get involved in.
Please note that we do not endorse these events (except our own, of course!), and would encourage women considering attending to think about the organisers and messaging of any action, and to ensure you feel safe and comfortable in attending. Where appropriate, we have linked to further information to consider before getting involved.
Guest Post: Challenge Poverty Week: Food for thought from EaRN’s consultation event, A Platform for Positive Change
Guest blog from Roseanna Macdonald, Equality and Rights Network (EaRN)
Well it’s over halfway through Challenge Poverty Week and we are fresh off the back of our consultation event to address poverty and inequality in Edinburgh and surrounding areas (read the first blog about it here). We had a mix of representatives from public services, third sector workers and interested individuals attend, as well as a guest speaker from Fairer Scotland to tell us about the initiatives the Scottish Government is taking to create more equal Scotland by 2030.Guest Blog: Intersectionality
In this week's guest blog post Richa Okhandiar writes about her experience of intersectionality in Scotland.
When I first came across the concept of intersectionality – it blew my mind.
I became actively interested in feminism around the age of 15 through being influenced by my older sister, discovering riot grrl and kickass role models in music and art who challenged gender norms a la Kathleen Hanna, Brody Dalle, and Carrie Brownstein. It was a complete age of discovery – I loved that there was this movement that accepted women as people who could be talented, thoughtful, screw-ups and genuine bad asses. Feminism and I just clicked, we were meant to be, it was fated.
There was always one drawback for me – all of the feminist icons I would read about, see in music and be heralded as role models were pretty much always white. It was always a bummer that I never saw anyone that looked like me or that my experience as a women had to be drawn from the Western, middle class part of my identity rather than the second-generation Indian born person born and raised in the UK. Even when I went to university and continued my education into feminism it became evident that the vast majority of accessible mainstream writing was all from one perspective. So I'll say it again, when I first came across intersectionality – it blew my mind!
UN Special Rapporteur's appraisal of sexist UK causes stramash
If you've caught a newspaper, TV news report, or spent any time on social media over the last few days, you cannot have failed to notice the storm of protest that greeted Professor Rashida Manjoo's determination that there was sexism going on in the UK.
Professor Manjoo is the UN's Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, an independent and unpaid position with a mandate to identify the causes and consequences of violence against women within a state, and make recommendations for its elimination. The Special Rapporteur reports to the Human Rights Council.
Launching our joint paper on gender and 'welfare reform'
Today Engender is launching a joint position paper on gender and ‘welfare reform’, in collaboration with Close the Gap, Scottish Refugee Council, Scottish Women’s Aid, Scottish Women’s Convention and Zero Tolerance.
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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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