Engender blog

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.

One last chance to scrap the rape clause

Scottish women’s organisations make final appeal to House of Lords to scrap the 'rape clause'

Today, Engender are calling on a little-known House of Lords committee to re-examine the so called ‘rape clause’ which limits tax credits and the child element of Universal Credit to two children unless a third or subsequent child was the result of rape. In a letter to the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee of the House of Lords, we've joined with Rape Crisis Scotland and Scottish Women’s Aid, to challenge the basis of the legislation itself, and the manner in which it was covertly passed using a procedure that avoided parliamentary debate.

Review: Nasty Women, edited by 404ink

#ScotSocialSecurity and language

Emma Trottier is Engender’s policy manager, and leads our work on social security. Over the coming months she’ll be blogging about the key issues at the heart of the debate about Scotland’s new social security system. Here, she talks about the importance of language.

#MakingWorkVisible as it happened on #IWD2017

A snapshot of the day as we launched #MakingWorkVisible

Sex & Power in Scotland

What do women want from local councils?

Help us to make women's work visible this International Women's Day

SUCCESS: Scottish Government commits to individual payments of Universal Credit