Engender blog

The mental health gap for women in Scotland

Women’s social, economic, cultural and political inequality with men undermines good mental health and wellbeing in a wide range of ways, including the impacts of gender stereotyping, medical misogyny and racism, and of course the disproportionate impact that austerity, Covid-19 and the cost of living crises have on women's mental health.

Recently Engender was invited to speak to civil servants working in the Scottish Government's Mental Health Strategy and Co-ordination unit, about the ways in which women's ineqaulity and mental health intersect. Here are some of the things we spoke about.

Tell us your experiences of pregnancy and maternity during Covid-19

We know that the COVID-19 pandemic, and the subsequent public health measures, had a disproportionate impact on women. Just one of the ways this is true was the impacts on women accessing fertility treatment, those who were pregnant or trying to conceive, and on people giving birth.

Engender and the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE) want to hear about your experiences of pregnancy or trying to become pregnant during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this survey is to gather information about experiences of maternity and pregnancy services in Scotland during COVID-19. This survey will be used to support our work on the COVID-19 independent inquiry and our work to improve women’s health and wellbeing.

Engender’s shadow report to CESCR: a key tool for promoting a gender-sensitive incorporation of ICESCR and improving women’s lives in Scotland

For many years women's equality advocates have been campaigning for the incorporation of CEDAW into Scots Law, but that isn't the only UN Convention which is key for the protection of women's equality and rights. This final blog from student Beatriz Morganti Brandão‎ sums up her work to explore how the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights can be used to protect women in Scotland.

For my final post, I want to share the main findings from the research report I prepared as part of my placement with Engender. Broadly speaking, the report aims to support Engender’s mission of enabling women’s rights in Scotland. Specifically, given the Scottish Government’s recent commitment to incorporate the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR or the Covenant) into Scots Law, the report focused on preparing a draft of Engender’s shadow report for the upcoming review by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) of the UK Government’s seventh periodic report on measures taken to implement ICESCR, which includes Scotland-specific information. The idea is that, through this shadow report, Engender attracts international scrutiny over the economic, social and cultural rights-situation for women in Scotland, and influences a gender-sensitive incorporation of ICESCR that actually improves women’s lives in the country.

Gender inequality in sickness and in health

Engender recently produced a briefing for the Scottish Parliament's Health, Social Care and Sport Committee about women's health inequalities. You can access the full briefing here, where we talk about the need for good quality data (of course!), the way that other structural forms of oppression impact on women's health and wellbeing, and provide recommendations to close the health gap. This blog focuses on the role that gender plays in women's health inequalities.

Systemic gender inequality has an enormous impact on health. Although women’s life expectancy exceeds that of men, women spend longer living with disability and ill health, and more women than men in Scotland live with a long-term health condition. Health issues that disproportionately affect women, or affect women differently to men, have historically lacked funding and professional focus, meaning that women’s health needs are not equally prioritised and understood across health services and more broadly.