Engender blog

Scotland's Social Security Bill can still have equality at its heart

Today the Scottish Parliament will hear from Engender that the principle of equality and non-discrimination needs to be written into the Social Security Bill if the newly devolved powers are to move Scotland towards women’s equality.

#ScotSocialSecurity and language

Emma Trottier is Engender’s policy manager, and leads our work on social security. Over the coming months she’ll be blogging about the key issues at the heart of the debate about Scotland’s new social security system. Here, she talks about the importance of language.

Shared Statement of Ambition on Social Care launched

Shared ambition

Scotland’s social care support system is in crisis. It’s failing disabled people and carers and the way Scotland funds it is not working.

That’s Engender's view, along with coalition of 16 Scottish organisations, representing disabled people and older people, women, care providers and paid and unpaid carers and the voluntary sector, who are calling for urgent action by national and local government and policymakers. Others including academics, trade unions, politicians, local authorities, care providers and professionals also share their concerns on the future of social care funding.

There’s more to Scottish sectarianism than the dominant narrative of ‘men behaving badly’

By Emma Ritch.

This article first appeared in The National on May 26th 2015.

There's a strange tension at the heart of sectarianism in Scotland, in that we talk about it a great deal but actually know very little about it. It appears to sit at a particularly slippery intersection between race and sect, and takes on a different shape across geographical areas and class identities. Surprisingly, we have only had even a tentative definition for sectarianism in Scotland since 2013. This lack of clarity about what sectarianism is and how it functions to marginalise, exclude, and discriminate against individuals only becomes fuzzier when we throw gender into the mix.

Statement to the Joint Ministerial Working Group on Welfare

Today we are publishing a joint statement to the new Joint Ministerial Group on Welfare, which was established by the UK Government command paper and draft clauses on further devolution published in January.

Downloads

Engender Briefing: Pension Credit Entitlement ChangesEngender 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 SexismEngender 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 CreditGender 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 2016Gender 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 WomenScottish 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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