Investing in Women, Transforming Communities: Our Manifesto for Holyrood 2026

Engender is proud to share our manifesto for the 2026 Scottish Parliament election:

‘Investing in Women, Transforming Communities.’

For over 30 years, as Scotland’s intersectional feminist policy and advocacy organisation, we’ve worked to secure women’s social, political, and economic equality.

We’re asking Scotland’s political parties and candidates to commit to taking vital steps to improve the lives of the most marginalised women in our communities.

Our vision for the next parliament is bold but achievable: a Scotland that leads globally on gender equality and stands as a beacon for human rights.

 

 

Our manifesto calls on all political parties and candidates to commit to policies that will transform women’s lives, particularly those who are most most marginalised and minoritised in our communities.

We believe that if the next Scottish Government shapes its policies and investment to meet the needs of the most marginalised women in Scotland, then our whole society will benefit.

To secure this vision we need the next Parliament to be bold and ambitious in achieving a fairer and more equal Scotland.

Our manifesto outlines 10 priority areas of action:

1.

Create a ‘Women’s Equality Fund’ designed to provide targeted crisis financial support for marginalised groups of women, with a focus on unpaid carers, women with experience of domestic abuse, women with No Recourse to Public Funds, and disabled women.

2.

Address the misogynistic design of our social security system and ensure an adequate level of support to meet the rising cost of living, including work to: 

• Mitigate the two-child limit. 

• Increase the level of the Scottish Child Payment to £55 by the end of the next Parliament. 

• Introduce individual payments of Universal Credit. 

3.

Improve the Carers Support Payment, increasing its value and extending access for young carers, older carers, those in education and employment, and those with multiple caring roles. 

Introduce multi-year pilots of the ‘Minimum Income Guarantee’ by 2029, with a focus on unpaid carers, regardless of age, employment and education status. 

4.

Safeguard reproductive rights in Scotland through modernisation of abortion law by removing it from the criminal justice system and replacing the Abortion Act 1967 with a health and human rights-based framework.

5.

Invest in the next phase of a Women’s Health Plan, focusing on improving outcomes for marginalised women and closing the significant health divide experienced by women impacted by poverty. 

6.

Create a new action plan to tackle women’s homelessness and housing insecurity in Scotland that ensures that women’s specific needs are addressed in all key housing policies and strategies. 

7.

Reform the Scottish Specific Duties of the Public Sector Equality Duty in co-production with equalities organisations, delivering new regulations in place within the next parliamentary term. 

8.

Designate childcare and social care as crucial growth sectors and recognise the care economy as key infrastructure in economic policy, including in Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET). 

9.

Create a new fund targeted towards women and underrepresented groups in politics to overcome barriers to political participation. 

10.

Commission a third phase of the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls and fully implement the Council’s recommendations to date.

We know that when we invest in women’s social, political and economic equality, everyone benefits.

Yet, when we speak to women and girls, they tell us that change is not happening fast enough. Far too many women in Scotland report that their lives are increasingly impacted by financial insecurity, that the disproportionate burden of caring responsibilities they carry continues to go unrecognised and undervalued, and that their fundamental rights increasingly feel at risk.

Without urgent action, existing inequalities will deepen.

By 2027, the most economically marginalised women in the UK are projected to have endured a 21% reduction in living standards since 2010, with single mothers, Black and Asian women, and disabled women particularly impacted.

The 2026 Holyrood election is an opportunity for Scotland to build a more equal future. The next Scottish Government must be bolder and braver in defending equality and transforming women’s lives. We want to see MSPs from every party work together across the chamber to ensure that policy and public investment deliver real change for those in our communities who need it most.

Gender inequality is not inevitable. Together, we can ensure that Scotland not only leads the way on gender equality but also becomes a place where every woman can thrive. We ask for your support to make the 2026 election a hopeful moment of change for all women.

Read our full manifesto here.