Engender blog
Marking 10 years since the Christie Commission
A decade ago saw the report from the Christie Committee, a ground-breaking inquiry which aimed to usher in a new era in public sector delivery in Scotland. To mark 10 years since the release of the report, our Executive Director Emma Ritch joined sector leaders in a special edition of Third Force News magazine to reflect on the Commission and progress made on its recommendations.
Christie finished its work just after the public sector equality duty came into being, and its critical focus on prevention really aligns with the duty.
So much of the inequality that women experience comes from laws, policy, programmes, and institutions that have missed the opportunity to get it right for women in the first place. Everything from transport systems to parks to health services are designed around the preferences and needs of boys and men. The consequences are dire: women in Scotland have less say in their communities, less power, less safety, and fewer resources.
The Christie report didn’t mention women at all but it did recommend that equality be integrated into the National Performance Framework. It also called for the public sector equality duty to be tooled to establish partnership working on reducing discrimination and advancing equality, and for public bodies to gather sufficient equality data to inform service design. We see relatively little evidence that any of this has been realised. Only two of the 81 NPF indicators relate directly to women and girls. The public sector equality duty has been a damp squib in terms of making change happen.
Posted on June 28 2021 at 12:18
Can the DWP's proposed changes to Universal Credit deliver for women?
Our Policy and Parliamentary Manager Eilidh Dickson looks at the proposed changes to the implementation of Universal Credit and the impact these changes are likely to have on women in receipt of the credit.
It used to be that “a week was a long time in politics”, but these days, major developments seem to occur daily. It's no surprise then that November 2018 already seems like a very long time ago. But that's how long Amber Rudd MP has been in post as Cabinet Secretary for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).
For years, UK Government Ministers have been doggedly committed to the Universal Credit. They've pursued it without regard for the serious concerns from recipients and organisations like Engender. Expectations that a new Minister at the DWP would change track now were low, despite her assertion that she was ready to listen and "learn from errors".Posted on February 8 2019 at 12:14
What's in it for women? Scottish Government Budget 2019-2020
Our Policy and Parliamentary Manager Eilidh Dickson has collated a gender edit of the Scottish Government Budget for 2019-2020, released at the end of 2018. You can read the gender edit here, and in this blog she breaks down the implementation of new budget processes and the potential impact of Brexit:
This year’s Scottish Budget is a little different. For one thing, it’s the Budget that’s come at the Brexit crunch point, where constitutional and economic uncertainty is at its peak. The Finance Minister, Derek Mackay, has been clear that in the event of ‘no deal’ he’ll have to take another look at the spending plans to respond to contingency costs and possibly deliver a supplementary budget.
Posted on January 18 2019 at 13:48
Dear Social Security Committee, Let's talk about split payments of Universal Credit
On March 1, the Social Security Committee of the Scottish Parliament met to discuss the Social Security (Scotland) Bill, and we were encouraged by the brief discussion on split payments of Universal Credit.
Posted on March 16 2018 at 08:44
Gender equality and the Sustainable Development Goals
A few weeks ago, the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations asked our Policy and Parliamentary Manager, Emma Trottier, to write a short blog about the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Specifically, the SDG concerning gender equality and its link to the rest of the goals. Here she sets out what needs to happen for the goal to become a reality.
For those unfamiliar, the fifth of the 17 SDGs commits member states to achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. By 2030. Or 15 years from the time the SDGs were agreed to in 2015. Ambitious, isn’t it?
Posted on December 14 2017 at 11:19
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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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