Engender blog

Exploring the impact of Covid-19 on women's equality in Scotland

Over the past eighteen months, we’ve seen how the inequalities that existed before Covid-19 have been magnified and intensified by the pandemic. Covid-19 has disproportionately impacted women both at work and at home, with UN Women estimating that the impact for women’s equality could mean a rollback of 25 years of progress on women’s rights.

Women in Scotland face a reduction in paid work both due to increased caring responsibilities and being concentrated in industries hardest hit by the pandemic like hospitality and nursing, which also places women at increased risk of exposure to Covid-19. There is a widening gender gap in unpaid work as women are expected to pick up the slack created by widespread reduction in social care packages, made even more difficult by the persistent inadequacy of social security provision, which has been further compounded by the recent £20 cut in Universal Credit.

Throughout the past year, we’ve joined with organisations across the 4 nations of the UK including Close the Gap, the UK Women’s Budget Group, the Fawcett Society, Women’s Equality Network Wales and the Northern Ireland Women’s Budget Group in a polling project to collect survey data on the impact of Covid-19 on women, funded by the Standard Life Foundation and the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. We’ve also worked with Close the Gap to produce joint reports highlighting what this data tells us about the impact of Covid-19 on women in Scotland specifically.

Recruiting for Engender's Executive Director

Today we have launched the recruitment to find Engender’s new Executive Director.

The Executive Director is the most senior role at Engender and represents the organisation with dynamism and a high degree of professionalism. They are a passionate advocate for women's rights and equality in Scotland and beyond as part of a global intersectional feminist movement.

The Executive Director has overall responsibility for Engender’s strategic direction and policy development, working closely with the Board and staff team, providing leadership, vision, and sound financial management. They are an ambassador for Engender and ensure a high public profile for the organisation externally, building and maintaining excellent relationships with a wide range of stakeholders and driving the development of programmes and fundraising.

All of the details about the role of Executive Director and how to apply can be found here.

The Engender board have been working with an external recruitment consultant to ensure that we are doing all we can to find the right fit for Engender, and running a process which is feminist, flexible, transparent, and reflects the competing pressures on women’s lives. We actively welcome applications for part-time, job-share or other flexible working arrangements.

While the loss of Emma will always be felt, we are hopeful that we will find the right person or people to guide Engender through the next phase of our work for intersectional feminist policy making in Scotland. In the meantime, our managerial team of Catriona Kirkpatrick, Eilidh Dickson, Jill Wood and Alys Mumford are continuing to take on additional duties as our Interim Leadership Team. You can find individual contact details for them here https://www.engender.org.uk/content/staff/, or continue to get in touch via info@engender.org.uk.

Where are the women in Scottish Government plans for a National Care Service?

Care is one of the key areas of women’s inequality in Scotland, with women representing the majority of service users, the vast majority of the social care workforce, and the majority of unpaid carers. Care continues to be undervalued and underpaid, precisely because of its long association with ‘women’s work’ and outdated gender norms.

Yet the Scottish Government’s Consultation on a proposed National Care Service for Scotland seems to completely ignore this fact, failing completely to consider gender in their proposals. Equality is not embedded in their plans, and the consultation document does not take into account women’s lives and experiences. The Government has not even published an equality impact assessment as part of the consultation, which would have highlighted the disproportionate impact that failures in social care have on women. In order to be effective, impact assessments should be done as early as possible to actually inform the development of policy.

Climate Change is a Feminist Issue

Over the next two weeks COP26 is taking place in Glasgow, where governments will negotiate actions and rules for addressing climate change.

We all know that climate change is a feminist issue, particularly because the effects are already being felt disproportionately by women and communities of colour across the world. If you want to find out more, Gal-dem’s new series ‘It’s Happening Now’, explores the effect of the climate crisis and campaigns for change to address its effects on marginalised communities in the UK and around the world. They are publishing a series of articles during, and beyond, COP26 which you can access here.