Engender blog
All of Engender’s latest news. Reports, reviews, books, articles, and information from across Scotland’s women’s sector.
We would love to hear from other feminists around Scotland. Check out our guidelines for more information on how you can blog for us.
GUEST BLOG: Giving birth during the pandemic
We've been working with the ALLIANCE and The Health and Social Care Academy to gather information about experiences of pregnancy and maternity services during Covid-19 from women across Scotland. Alongside our work, we're sharing a series of guest blogs reflecting on those experiences. Here, Barbara Flynn shares her experience of giving birth in the summer of 2020.
In March 2020, when lockdown was imposed, I was six months pregnant with my second child. Overnight, my thoughts went from, ‘I think I’ll book a pregnancy massage’ to, ‘will our lives ever return to normal?!’. I also went from eagerly anticipating my midwife appointments to agonising about having to go into hospital to give birth – the last place, it seemed, that anyone wanted to be now! As our street is near one of the main thoroughfares to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, ambulances speeding past became a familiar background noise, each one a grim reminder of my own impending trip to hospital.
GUEST BLOG: Economic Abuse and the cost of living crisis
As part of our guest blog series on the cost of living crisis, researcher Jenn Glinski explores how the current rise in costs is impacting victim-survivors of economic abuse.
Content warning: This blog discusses different forms of domestic abuse and their impact.
The current cost of living crisis and the difficult decision to ‘heat or eat’ is one that victim-survivors of economic abuse are all too familiar with. However, unlike the government-imposed crisis that the rest of the country has been subjected to, the daily cost of living crisis victim-survivors experience is deliberately forced upon them by their abusive (ex)partners. Experiencing economic abuse prevents you from accessing the basic essentials in life, such as your money, food, and clothes, limiting your financial freedom and life choices. There is, therefore, serious concern that the current cost of living crisis will exacerbate the financial harm caused and force women to stay with abusive partners for longer.
Delivering Equally Safe: Challenging and eradicating violence against women
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To mark the annual 16 Days of Activism campaign, our Policy Officer for Engender's Delivering Equally Safe project, Hannah Brisbane, shares some background on our briefing for MSPs on the importance of primary prevention in challenging and eradicating men's violence against women.
We are currently in the middle of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. This annual campaign runs from the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on the 25th of November until the 10th of December, which is Human Rights Day.
GUEST BLOG: Pregnancy in lockdown: Leaving joy out of it
We've been working with the ALLIANCE and The Health and Social Care Academy
to gather information about experiences of pregnancy and maternity
services during Covid-19 from women across Scotland. Alongside our work,
we're sharing a series of guest blogs reflecting on those experiences.
Here, Kirsty Kinloch talks about the uncertainty surrounding Covid-19 and pregnancy in 2020.
The Coronavirus pandemic, lockdowns and restrictions changed the whole experience for those who were pregnant during 2020 and 2021. It’s an anxious experience in normal times, but add a deadly virus, the removal of your entire support system and healthcare restrictions, and you’ve got a recipe for worry. When I think back over my pregnancy and the early life of my daughter, I am sad to say that the overwhelming feeling is one of disappointment.
Women's and Human Rights organisations restate support for Gender Recognition Reform Bill
Women's and human rights organisations in Scotland, including Engender, have written to the UN Special Rapporteur for Violence Against Women and Girls restating their support for Scotland's Gender Recogntion Reform Bill.
We wrote to Ms Alsalem detailing why they do not share concerns she expressed about the Bill. In our letter we state:
"We see the paths to equality and the realisation of human rights for women and trans people as being deeply interconnected and dependant on shared efforts to dismantle systems of discrimination."
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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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