Engender blog
Tell us about your experiences of workplace sexual harassment
Over the past year, Engender have been thinking about what needs to change to eradicate sexual harassment at work. Now we are asking women in Scotland to tell us about their experiences of sexual and sexist harassment in the workplace.
We outlined our approach to this project in a blog post in April 2021, which has included convening an Expert Working Group to generate policy recommendations aimed at preventing and better responding to harassment; commissioning a literature review on anonymous reporting of sexual harassment; and engaging with women with lived experience of harassment.
Women’s experiences of sexual harassment in Scotland
Harassment tends to be normalised in the workplace and beyond, meaning that many women doubt that their experiences are serious enough to report, or that they happened at all. Behaviours constituting harassment tend to be minimised, with the suggestion being that women have invited it in some way or that it is harmless ‘banter’. Of course, this is never the case.
Tackling sexual and sexist harassment in the workplace
Engender is working to explore how we can prevent sexual and sexist harassment in the workplace and improve outcomes for victim-survivors as part of a project funded by grant-making charity Rosa. Here, our Policy Officer Mariah Kelly gives an overview of the scale of the issue and the work of the project:
GUEST POST: Being a Black Woman in Scotland: A Unique and Complex Experience
In this guest blog, Aleisha Omeike writes for Engender about the need to recognise the unique experiences of Black women. Follow Aleisha on Twitter at aleisha_omeike.
CN: this piece references and quotes racist language and slurs.
In this piece, I have shared some of my opinions and observations being a mixed-race woman (White Scottish and Black African) in Scotland. The experience of Black (and minority ethnic) women in Scotland is a unique and complex one. I have chosen to discuss two of the most under addressed of these experiences, including the ongoing trauma and detrimental influence racist abuse can have on women of colour and the hypersexualisation of Black women.
With the large engagement in the Black Lives Matter Movement, I hope that Scotland can begin implementing the change so desperately needed to start improving Black women's experiences.
GUEST POST: WHT the ****
During this 16 Days of Activism On Violence Against Women - and with high profile #metoo stories appearing in the courts and the media - we continue to hear stories of harassment and abuse of women and girls. This guest post, from an author who wishes to remain anonymous, explores the issues of power, privilege, and 'wandering hand trouble'.
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Back when I was a young woman, when it
was described as ‘wandering hand trouble’ (WHT) for short, we were
taught that sexual assault and harassment were just what happened.
It would happen more if you were to pluck your eyebrows, wear a choker, or hoik your skirt up above your knees. If you wore American Tan 60 denier tights, you was ‘asking for it’. We didn’t really know what we were supposed to be asking for, especially when we wore knee-length cotton socks on top of the tights.
It was just another of the great mysteries when my mother would say, ‘don’t let your father see you wearing that,’ and which made me feel funny inside because I didn’t know why not.
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.
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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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