Engender blog
All of Engender’s latest news. Reports, reviews, books, articles, and information from across Scotland’s women’s sector.
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Making the law work for women: investigating feminist interventions via strategic litigation
Engender is really pleased to be working with University of Edinburgh Law School student Jess Robinson on a project exploring what value strategic litigation could have in creating better legal outcomes for women.
Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Jess graduated in Justice and Transformation from the University of Cape Town in 2018. Her research focused on the testimonies of women during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the gendered dimensions of peacebuilding and memory projects. She has since worked with Human Rights based youth projects based predominantly in Delft and Blue Downs, where GBV workshops were a primary focus. Feminism is a lens which she uses through all of her work.
Here she sets out what strategic litigation she will be looking at and what the project aims to explore.
Towards a New Common Chapter
Since spring this year, Engender has been involved in the 'Towards a New Common Chapter' project coordinated by the Centre for Cross Border Studies. Here, our policy and parliamentary manager Eilidh Dickson looks at our international work and our work on the project so far.
Engender’s work across the UK, Europe and internationally is a vitally important aspect of the feminist policy and advocacy work that we do.
Progressing women’s rights and equality in Scotland often depends on the learning and experience we can gather from our sisters across the women’s sector, both nationally and through international networks such as the UK Joint Committee on Women and the European Women’s Lobby (EWL), the largest umbrella body of feminist organisations in Europe. So often, challenging the root causes of gender inequality demands the same or similar actions wherever we are, and being able to rely on and show solidarity as women’s organisations is crucial in amplifying our work.
Can foreign policy ever be truly feminist?
Margot Wallström certainly believes it can, and proudly declared she was setting Sweden on the path to a ‘feminist foreign policy’ in 2014.
Despite this, her resignation announcement last week, after 5 years as Sweden’s foreign minister, didn’t mention her feminism and instead described her role as ‘promoting Sweden's security and prosperity in the world’. In reality this has meant a focus on arms exports and a regressive migration policy. Both things you would be hard-pressed to describe as feminist, but her description misses out her other work on sexual violence, on nuclear disarmament, and in defence of women’s rights.
Engender joins forces with over 85 civil society organisations to express concerns about no-deal
Today Engender has joined forces with over 85 organisations from across the UK in expressing our shared and serious concerns about the impacts a no-deal Brexit will have on civil society. Collectively, we have called on the Prime Minister to urgently engage with civil society to address the risks that leaving the EU without a deal on the 31st October presents.[1]
Signatories of the letter have serious concerns that a no-deal exit will be a direct threat to the peace process in Northern Ireland, result in regression of rights and standards, uncertainty about the future, and about the lack of adequate engagement and support from the Government.
RSSDownloads
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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