Engender blog
Making women safer in Scotland: the case for a standalone misogyny offence
Today Engender has released a report calling for misogyny to be considered as a criminal offence in Scotland in order to challenge the epidemic of harassment and abuse facing women and girls.
The Scottish Government is currently reviewing the law around hate crime in Scotland, and is deciding between introducing a ‘gender hostility’ aggravation - adding gender or sex to the list of characteristics already covered by hate crime legislation- and the creation of a standalone offence. Our report shows that a ‘gender hostility’ aggravation will not solve the problem of misogyny, and may in fact undermine existing policy designed to tackle domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women.
For example, a gender aggravation
might be applied to one incidence of domestic abuse, but not another,
meaning that one would be treated more seriously by the court. This is
inconsistent with feminist analysis, echoed in Equally Safe, Scotland’s violence against women strategy, which says that gender inequality is inextricably linked with violence.
Why There Aren’t Always Two Sides to Every Story
Here at Engender we receive frequent requests to go on the radio, TV or in front of a live audience to ‘debate’ feminist issues.
To discuss whether the pay gap really exists, whether a video of shirtless men doing yoga is proof of ‘reverse sexism’ in Scotland, or whether it’s unfair that women are now allowed to play golf.
We tend to refuse these requests, and are subsequently charged with failure to represent feminist arguments, failure to take advantage of an opportunity to reach a wider listenership, or simply allowing sexist views to go unchallenged. We argue that to partake in a debate which shouldn’t ever be a debate in the first place is a far more dangerous failure.
Guest Post: Why the dialogue on street harassment needs to remain open
Lindsay Linning is a MSc student at Edinburgh University in Sociology and is currently preparing her dissertation on gender-based street harassment, as well as working in conjunction with Hollaback! Edinburgh. Here she writes on her experiences of street harassment and the results of a recent Hollaback! survey.
Opening the Pandora's box of women and festivals
With the furore over Glastonbury festival's women-only space dying down, find out about Scotland's first women's music festival
On July 16th 2016, Pandora Fest will launch Scotland's first and only Women's Music Festival, supporting women musicians and celebrating female musicianship across all genres. Taking place at DunCarron Medieval Fort in Carron Valley near Falkirk, the festival aims to redress the gender imbalance inherent within the music industry.
'In 2015 - the major festivals displayed a massive gender imbalance. Of the 87 acts that were announced, 78 were all male, 3 were female and 6 were mixed groups. That, was an 89.6% all male line up!' The Guardian Newspaper Music Section by Alexandra Pollard, Feb 2015
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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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