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Guest Post: Mainstreaming Spotlight - Scottish Women's Budget Group

To mark the release of Engender's new report, What Works for Women: Improving gender mainstreaming in Scotland, we're sharing how mainstreaming is important to the work of some of Scotland's equalities organisations. Here, Sara Cowan from the Scottish Women's Budget Group talks about how mainstreaming is a vital component of creating a gender equal economy.

What Works for Women: Improving Gender Mainstreaming in Scotland Spotlight: Scottish Women's Budget Group "Gender mainstreaming through government and local authority budget decisions across all areas of public funding is a vital component to building a gender equal economy."

Why is gender mainstreaming important to your organisation?

Women and men use public services differently – they have different life experiences and face different economic realities and challenges. Women are often disadvantaged by policies that do not recognise these different experiences. Gender mainstreaming is important to us to redress this balance when decisions are made across a range of public services.

What area(s) of mainstreaming are you focused on?

We’re concerned with how public finances are spent and how budgetary decisions can work to reduce gender inequality. Gender mainstreaming through government and local authority budget decisions across all areas of public funding is a vital component to building a gender equal economy.

If you could snap your fingers and change one thing to make gender mainstreaming happen, what would it be?

Comprehensive equality impact assessments would be conducted for all budgetary decisions by local and national Government.

Where can people find out more about your work on mainstreaming?

Find out more about our work and become a member online here. We're also hosting two 'Introduction to Gender Budgeting' webinar sessions, one on 10th December from 9.30am-11.30am, and another on 15th December from 7pm-9pm - you can sign up for whichever session works best for you here.