Engender blog

GUEST POST: Sex, Relationships and Parenthood – A Network Supporting Young Women and Girls with a Learning Disability

In this guest blog, Yvonne Kerr, Programme Manager in Sexual Health and Blood Born Viruses at NHS Lothian, discusses the national Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood and Learning Disability / Additional Support Needs Network.

Engender’s report, Our Bodies Our Rights, found that a lack of knowledge and access to information acts as a barrier to disabled women’s reproductive rights because of a huge knowledge gap regarding disabled women’s reproductive, sexual and maternal health. It also found that access to inclusive and targeted sex and relationships education for disabled young women and girls is also almost entirely absent from mainstream and specialist education.

We therefore recommended that “Scottish Government, Education Scotland and local authorities should work together to create a national network of RHSP workers specialising in disability who can share good practice across Scotland”. We are very pleased to be members and to work with Yvonne and others to help organise the secretariat for the Network to advocate for girls and young women’s rights in RSHP education. We asked Yvonne to write a blog about her work in this area.

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Covid-19 and Mental Health

Engender has been working with Close the Gap, and other women's organisations across the UK, to carry out some polling work to see how Covid has impacted on women's lives. We published the our first findings from this study - focusing on the impact on women with childcare responsibilities - back in March and you can read it here. Our next report looks at the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on women's health.

This week marks Mental Health Awareness Week, in a year which has seen women's mental health be challenged like never before. The bereavement, trauma and isolation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, combined with the massive increase in unpaid work done by women including home-schooling, stepping in where social care visits were stopped, and emotional support for friends and family, has impacted on all of our mental wellbeing.

As part of our work for a gendered recovery, we carried out a survey on the impacts of COVID-19 developed alongside Close the Gap, the UK Women’s Budget Group, Fawcett Society, Women’s Equality Network Wales, and Northern Ireland Women’s Budget Group. The survey was carried out by Survation between 18-27 February 2021 across the four nations in the UK.

GUEST POST: Gender-Based Violence Policies at the Local Authority Level Part 2

Today we're publishing the next in a series of blogs from two student placements Engender is hosting from the University of Strathclyde Applied Gender Studies and Research Methods course. These blogs explore women's representation and decision-making around women's equality in local authorities across Scotland. You can see other blogs in the series here.

In 2020 Jennifer Robinson graduated with an honours degree in Society Politics and Policy from the University of the West of Scotland. She is now undertaking a Masters in Applied Gender Studies and Research Methods with a particular interest in feminist disability studies. She has previously written for the Glasgow Women’s Library and you can find her tweeting about feminism and disability on twitter @JenRobinson95.

As part of my Msc Applied Gender Studies and Research Methods I am undertaking a placement with Engender to research gender equality within Renfrewshire Council and Edinburgh Council. In my previous blog post I explored Renfrewshire council’s gender-based violence policies and funding decisions. In my final blog post I will outline Edinburgh Council’s Domestic Abuse Housing Policy, their council budget and transport policies.

GUEST POST: Exploring how local authorities use Equality Impact Assessments

Today we're publishing another post in the series of blogs from two student placements Engender is hosting from the University of Strathclyde Applied Gender Studies and Research Methods course. These blogs explore women's representation and decision-making around women's equality in local authorities across Scotland. You can see other blogs in the series here.

Katie Young graduated from the University of Glasgow with a degree in English Literature in Summer 2020, and is now studying a Master’s degree in Applied Gender Studies and Research Methods at the University of Strathclyde. She is passionate about women’s fiction and empowering girls and young women to fight for gender equality in Scotland through volunteering with Girlguiding, and tweets under @katieeey.

Following on from my last blog post on Equality Impact Assessment guidance in West Dunbartonshire and Argyll and Bute councils, I’ve been thinking about what Equality Impact Assessments aim to do, how we can use Equality Impact Assessments as a tool to hold local authorities to account to ensure they consider the impact of gender on their policies and procedures, and what might have to be done to improve equalities work within local authorities. By thinking about policy and procedures in a way that is more gender-sensitive, local authorities are not only able to carry out work that is mindful of and meets the needs of the women and those with other protected characteristics in their communities, but also raise the profile of equalities work in the local authority more generally and highlight the difference that this can make to the lives of local people.