Engender blog

Gender matters in the criminal justice system: 5 years of progress?

Ahead of an event tonight at the Scottish Parliament, Engender's Policy Manager Emma Trottier reflects on the five years since the publishing of a report by the Commission on Women Offenders, and asks where Scotland stands on the issue of women in the criminal justice system.

When we look at the criminal justice system, it can be hard to know where to begin. It’s immense. We have the police, crown office, sentencers, the prison service, and community organisations, who all play a role in building and maintaining a just, peaceful and safe society. To slightly narrow our focus, we’re looking at women in the criminal justice system. In particular, we’re looking back over the last five years to see whether we’ve progressed in supporting women through and out of the criminal justice system.

Postcard from Brussels: Feminist Economics and the European Women's Forum

Notes on minimum income, universal basic income and gender tax justice

Guest Post: #GE17 - Lorna Slater, Scottish Green Party

Women's representation in politics is incredibly important. Only 33.9% of Scottish MPs elected in the last Westminster General Election were women. In the run up to the 2017 General Election on June 8, we'll be hosting a series of blogs from women involved in political campaigning. Today's blog is from Lorna Slater, an engineer and candidate for the Scottish Green Party in the Edinburgh North and Leith constituency.

#GE17: What's in it for women in Scotland?

Here at Engender, Kate and Emma T have been poring over the political party manifestos to see what commitments are being made to advance women’s equality in Scotland.

Guest Post: #GE17 - Nighet Nasim Riaz, Scottish National Party

Women's representation in politics is incredibly important. Only 33.9% of Scottish MPs elected in the last Westminster General Election were women. In the run up to the 2017 General Election on June 8, we'll be hosting a series of blogs from women involved in political campaigning. Today's blog is from Nighet Nasim Riaz, who recently stood as a candidate for the SNP in the Glasgow City council elections.

Guest Post: #GE17 - Pam Duncan-Glancy, Scottish Labour

Women's representation in politics is incredibly important. Only 33.9% of Scottish MPs elected in the last Westminster General Election were women. In the run up to the 2017 General Election on June 8, we'll be hosting a series of blogs from women involved in political campaigning. Today's blog is from Pam Duncan-Glancy, who is standing as a candidate for Scottish Labour in Glasgow North.

Guest post: Abortion in Scotland - The facts behind the figures

Juliet Swann is a policy and parliamentary consultant, Engender board member, and an expert on all things to do with participation in democracy. Here she takes a look at the facts behind recently reported polling figures on attitudes towards abortion in Scotland:

Guest Post: #GE17 - Kirstein Rummery, Women's Equality Party

Women's representation in politics is incredibly important. Only 33.9% of Scottish MPs elected in the last Westminster General Election were women. In the run up to the 2017 General Election on June 8, we'll be hosting a series of blogs from women involved in political campaigning. Today's blog is from Kirstein Rummery, who is standing as a candidate for the Women's Equality Party in Stirling.

10 questions for Damian Hinds on the 'rape clause'

Today Engender, along with Scottish Women's Aid and Rape Crisis Scotland, have written to Damian Hinds, Minister of State for the Department of Work and Pensions asking ten questions about the implementation of the so-called 'rape clause'.

Engender joins equalities organisations working together to improve political representation

Today, along with organisations working for equality for women, disabled people, black, minority ethnic people and the LGBT community in Scotland, we're delighted to announce a joint project aimed at increasing diversity within Scottish politics. With funding from the Scottish Government, organisations Engender, Inclusion Scotland, BEMIS, the Council for Ethnic Minority Voluntary Organisations (CEMVO), Stonewall Scotland, the Equality Network and the Women 5050 campaign will work to enable political parties to remove the barriers that stop underrepresented groups from taking part in politics as party members, activists, party staffers, and as elected representatives.

UK General Election 2017: Priorities for women’s rights and equality

The ‘family cap’ and ‘rape clause’: where do we go from here?

Scottish Women’s Aid, Rape Crisis Scotland, and Engender statement on the ‘rape clause’, ‘family cap’ and the UK general election

Our joint UK Parliament petition to scrap the ‘family cap’, including the ‘rape clause’, reached over 20,000 signatures in just its first weekend. This demonstrates the huge strength of feeling on this issue from people across the UK. In Scotland we have seen two large demonstrations, and statements of support from the leaders of four political parties, including First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

5 things you can do to help call on the UK Government to scrap the 'family cap' and 'rape clause'

This week, we've released a special edition of #FridayFeministFive focusing on our campaign calling on the UK Government to scrap the abhorrent ‘family cap’ and ‘rape clause’. Here we list 5 simple things you can do to help.

#ScotSocialSecurity and why we need gender-balanced experience panels

Emma Trottier is Engender’s policy manager, and leads our work on social security. Since March, Emma has been blogging about the key issues at the heart of the debate about Scotland’s new social security system. Here, she talks about why Scotland needs gender-balanced experience panels.

Guest post: Explaining Secondary Legislation and the 'rape clause'

Juliet Swann is a policy and parliamentary consultant, Engender board member, and an expert on all things to do with participation in democracy. Here she takes a deep dive into the mechanics of the secondary legislation surrounding the 'family cap' and 'rape clause':

5 things you need to know about the 'family cap' and 'rape clause'

As the 'rape clause' and 'family cap' continue to hit the headlines, we've produced a brief rundown of just what exactly is going on. What is the ‘rape clause’?

In order to understand the so-called ‘rape clause’, first you need to know about the ‘family cap’. This is part of UK Government changes to social security (known as ‘welfare reform’ ) that limits child benefit and child tax credits to the first two children in a household. Families will not receive child tax credits or the child element of Universal Credit payments for third or subsequent children.

Guest Post: Why the dialogue on street harassment needs to remain open

Lindsay Linning is a MSc student at Edinburgh University in Sociology and is currently preparing her dissertation on gender-based street harassment, as well as working in conjunction with Hollaback! Edinburgh. Here she writes on her experiences of street harassment and the results of a recent Hollaback! survey.

Guest Post: Gender matters in refugee policy

Dr Sophie Cartwright is a former volunteer at the Unity Centre in Glasgow and a regular contributor to BrightGreen. Here she writes on why 'safe return review' and deportation is cruel and dangerous - and will disproportionately impact women and girls who have fled gender-based violence.