Engender blog

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.

Feminist Publishing: An interview with Laura Waddell

In this blog, Engender interviews publisher and writer, Laura Waddell about feminism and publishing. Here, Laura discusses the work of Tramp Press, sexism in publishing, why it's important to platform writers such as Mona Eltahawy that reject 'girl-boss feminism’ trends, and the gender, race, and class disparities in publishing and literary reviewing.

Laura Waddell is a writer of fiction and narrative non-fiction; UK Publishing Director of Tramp Press; and a critic, book reviewer and cultural commentator on television, print and radio. You can find a full bio on Laura's website here, and she tweets under @lauraewaddell.

Tramp Press famously took a ‘sexists need not apply’ stand in refusing to consider any manuscripts addressed only to ‘Dear Sirs’ or listing only male influences – why is it important to you to challenge sexism as a publisher?

The statement Tramp’s co-founders Lisa Coen and Sarah Davis Goff made with that was a huge draw to me when I went to Tramp Press two years ago. I’ve worked for very big and very small publishing houses, and what I really wanted at that point was to work somewhere that aligned with my values.

There’s a straightforwardly practical purpose to the 'Dear Sirs' ban. Publishing is an industry where attention to detail is crucial and this rule cuts out a lot of time wasters. There’s a correlation between misogynist assumptions and uninspiring writing, and being observant is also crucial!

But also, a publishing contract is a business agreement, and who wants to work with someone who can’t imagine women in a position of authority? In the past, when I was younger, there were many times I had to grit my teeth, such as when aspiring writers would wrongly assume male colleagues were decision makers and ignore the women in a room. I enjoyed walking away from those situations. The three of us at Tramp Press are at a point in our careers where we are able to reject that behaviour and craft a feminist way of working which has served us well.

Ultimately, though, challenging sexism is deeply personally important to all of us, not just some corporate goal. It’s actually about our place in the world. I’m interested in publishing for some of the same reasons I’m interested in feminism: freedom of expression, self expression, and working to promote those who have something to say about living freely, authentically, artistically and imaginatively in the world.

‘Feminist’ books and publishing have seen a huge rise in popularity over the last few years following the Trump presidency and #MeToo movement, alongside a proliferation of ‘lean in’, girlboss-your-life type books aimed at a similar market. What stands out for you as some of the best recent feminist writing and how does it challenge that repackaging of the status quo?

Just last week we published Mona Eltahawy, who explicitly rejects corporate ‘girlboss’ trends. She says: “Feminism should terrify the patriarchy. We need fewer road maps towards a peace treaty with patriarchy and more manifestos on how to destroy it. The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls is my manifesto.” She has the kind of boldness that lights a fire in others, a real fierceness, and draws on her international perspective from life in Egypt, experiencing the Arab Spring, and now living in North America.

One book I think a lot about is Zeba Talkhani’s My Past is a Foreign Country, a feminist memoir of growing up with the expectations on girls of Saudi Arabia, and later forging her own path into the world. It was a really fascinating, and also beautifully written, look at the dynamics of feminism and family, country, and selfhood.