Our economy

The largest poverty indicator that no one's talking about

Blog – Oct 6, 2023

Cost of Living: Fight Against Poverty is a Fight for Gender Equality

Blog – Jul 3, 2023

Close the Gap and Engender joint submission to the Scottish Government consultation on Building Community Wealth in Scotland

May 12, 2023: Close the Gap and Engender have developed a joint response to this consultation on Building Community Wealth in Scotland. Our organisations are clear that if new Community Wealth Building duties, guidance, and engagement are to be successful in achieving intended outcomes, gender and equalities approaches must be mainstreamed from the outset of their development.

Date of publication: May 2023.

Engender response to the Scottish Government’s Equality Evidence Strategy 2023 to 2025 consultation

Jan 12, 2023: Engender welcome this opportunity to respond to this consultation on Scottish Government’s Equality Evidence Strategy 2023-25. The use of equality evidence needs to be understood as foundational and critical to ensuring equitable and evidence-based decision-making. It is relevant across all policymaking and has the potential to help create transformational improvements in equality outcomes, minimise bias in policymaking and subsequent harms caused to equality groups, as well as systemic change in how our society operates with benefits across communities.

Date of publication: October 2022.

The cost of living crisis and women: read our new report

Blog – Nov 16, 2022: Today Engender has released a report setting out how the deepening cost of living crisis will have a devastating impact both on different groups of women in Scotland, and on women's equality as a whole.

Scottish Government’s Emergency Budget Review runs the risk of making women’s lives worse

Blog – Oct 12, 2022

Engender response to the Scottish Government Equality, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee call for views on the impact of human rights budgeting

Sep 29, 2022: Engender welcomes this opportunity to comment on the committee’s pre-budget scrutiny and its focus on human rights budgeting. Within this, it is crucial that the committee interrogate the ways in which the Budget cumulatively impacts on the human rights of women and men as part of a cross-portfolio approach throughout the Scottish Parliament. There is no area of policy whereby women and men do not have different experiences or differential access to power, resources, and safety. Budgets are not neutral. They often reenforce these inequalities, but in fact present an opportunity to account for and address them according to political and public policy goals

At times of crisis equality and human rights budgeting are more vital than ever, to ensure that policy and spending responses are targeted here needed the most. This must include an intersectional gender analysis. The impact of the pandemic is ongoing for women, girls and gender equality in Scotland. Now this will be compounded and deepened by the cost of living crisis, causing catastrophic harm to women, particularly those who live with multiple discrimination and inequality.

Date of publication: September 2022

Engender Parliamentary Briefing: Cost of Living Crisis

Sep 13, 2022: This is a briefing for MSPs on the cost of living crisis ahead of the Scottish Government Emergency Budget Review. The escalating cost of living crisis will result in untold harm in Scotland, particularly for women, other oppressed groups and those living with multiple inequalities including Black and minority ethnic women and disabled women. It will deepen gender inequality at a time when women continue to experience the egregious fallout of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Date of publication: September 2022.

Engender submission of evidence to the Scottish Parliament Finance and Public Administration Committee call for views on its pre-budget scrutiny 2023-24

Aug 26, 2022: Engender welcomes this opportunity to comment on the Committee’s pre-budget scrutiny and, in particular, its focus on the impact of the cost of living. Current spiralling inflation is highly gendered, and it is imperative that the Committee interrogate the ways in which the Budget cumulatively impacts on women and men as part of a cross-portfolio approach throughout the Scottish Parliament.

Date of publication: August 2022.

A Gender Audit for the Scottish Parliament

Blog – Feb 11, 2022: Following the announcement today that there will be a gender audit of the Scottish Parliament, our Policy and Parliamentary Manager Eilidh Dickson reflects on what this means.

Gender Edit of the Scottish Budget 2022-2023

Dec 10, 2021: This gender edit of the Scottish Budget 2022 - 2023 compiles all references to women, gender and issues with implications for gender equality which appear in the document.

The Budget was introduced by Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Kate Forbes MSP on the 9th December 2021. This year’s focus was using Scotland’s finances to “tackle the climate emergency, support economic recovery and reduce inequalities.” Key announcements made in the run up to the Budget included a doubling of the Scottish Child Payment to £20. In her announcement, the Cabinet Secretary emphasised the limits of additional Covid-19 funds from the Treasury and stated that recovery measures had been incorporated into existing budget lines.
This gender edit examines the Budget in sequence, with emphasis added by Engender.

Date of publication: December 2021

Engender Response to the Call for Views on the Aims and Principles of the Scottish COVID-19 Public Inquiry

Oct 8, 2021: Engender welcomes this opportunity to comment on the Aims and Principles paper that will shape Terms of Reference for Scotland’s Inquiry into Covid-19. Over the past eighteen months we have undertaken extensive work on the impact of the pandemic and of public policy responses on different groups of women and on structural gender inequality. We have seen a widely recognised rollback on women’s rights and equality in terms of health, care, financial security, employment, violence against women and housing. Within this, specific issues and even deeper impacts have manifested for Black and minoritised women, young women, disabled women, unpaid carers, mothers, pregnant women, LGBTI women, and women with insecure immigration status, amongst other groups who experience intersecting forms of oppression and discrimination. The extent of these gendered impacts and the long-term implications for women and girls are as yet unknown.

Date of publication: October 2021.

Engender submission of evidence to the Social Justice and Social Security Committee call for views on its Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2022/23

Oct 7, 2021: Engender is grateful for the opportunity to provide evidence to the Committee in support of its pre-budget scrutiny for 2022 – 2023. Our submission focuses on the transformative potential of gender budgeting in the realisation of women’s equality and the need for gender to be strategically analysed across subject committees including, but not only, the Social Justice and Social Security Committee.

Date of publication: October 2021.

Engender submission of evidence to the Scottish Parliament Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee call for views on its Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2022/23

Sep 27, 2021: Engender welcomes this opportunity to comment on the Committee’s pre-budget scrutiny. It is imperative that the Committee interrogate the ways in which the Budget cumulatively impacts on women and men as part of a cross-portfolio approach throughout the Scottish Parliament. There is no area of policy whereby women and men do not have different experiences or differential access to power, resources, and safety. Budgets are not neutral, but present an opportunity to re-enforce these inequalities or to account for them according to political and public policy goals.

Date of publication: September 2021.

Gender Edit of Scotland's Programme for Government 2021-2022

Sep 8, 2021: This gender edit of A Fairer, Greener Scotland: Programme for Government 2021-22 compiles all references to women, gender and issues with implications for gender equality which appear in the document.
The programme for government sets out the Scottish Government’s legislative and policy priorities for the coming parliamentary year. This year’s programme focuses on the continuing Covid-19 pandemic and recovery, a national mission to eradicate child poverty across Scottish Government priorities and the climate crisis.

Date of publication: September 2021.

Submission to the Advisory Council: Development of the National Strategy on Economic Transformation August 2021

Aug 24, 2021: This joint submission from Engender and Close the Gap provides evidence to the Advisory Council ahead of the development of the National Strategy for Economic Transformation. The ongoing Covid-19 crisis has resulted in a rapid, and unprecedented shift in the economic landscape in Scotland. One of the implications of this has been to further highlight and exacerbate women’s continued social, economic, labour market and political inequality. It has also underscored the impact of social security changes and cuts to public services to women’s inequality. UN Women estimates that the pandemic risks setting women’s equality back 25 years. There is therefore an urgent need to integrate gender perspectives and women’s needs into response measures and wider economic policymaking, a focus that has been noticeably absent from pandemic-related measures.

This submission outlines some general thoughts on gender and economic policymaking, including a critique of current approaches to economic development and inclusive growth. We then provide detail on specific considerations for the National Strategy, including the gender pay gap, unpaid care and automation.

Date of publication: August 2021

Engender submission to the Scottish Government on equality and socio-economic impacts of EU Exit (‘Brexit’)

May 20, 2021: This is Engender's submission to the Scottish Government on equality and socio-economic impacts of EU Exit (‘Brexit’). This submission looks at economic consequences, protections for migrant women, employment and equality protections, replacement funds, and criminal justice, and offers a series of recommendations covering funding for women's organisations and violence against women services, incorporation of women's rights, devolution of equality law, enhanced gender mainstreaming, and mitigation of No Recourse to Public Funds.

Date of publication: May 2021.

Covid-19 and Mental Health

Blog – May 14, 2021: Engender has been working with Close the Gap, and other women's organisations across the UK, to carry out some polling work to see how Covid has impacted on women's lives.

Engender and Close the Gap Joint Briefing on the impact of COVID-19 on women's wellbeing, mental health and financial security

May 14, 2021: This briefing looks at the impacts of COVID-19 on women’s wellbeing, mental health, and financial security in Scotland by analysing survey data gathered from 509 adults in Scotland and a booster sample of 401 Black and minority ethnic (BME) adults. The survey data reinforces pre-existing evidence that women have been particularly affected by rising financial precarity and anxiety as a result of the ongoing crisis. The data also highlights that young women and disabled women are being particularly impacted by the social, economic and labour market implications of the pandemic. As a result, these findings underscore the importance of a gendered economic recovery.

Date of publication: May 2021.

Engender Parliamentary Briefing: Impact of COVID-19 on Women in the Economy

Feb 10, 2021: This is a briefing for MSPs ahead of the Member's Business Session on the Impact of Covid-19 on Women in the Economy of 11th February. Engender estimates that the impact of lost productivity because of mothers’ additional childcare while schools are closed amounts to a loss £15 million a day in Scotland. There is an urgent need to reassess the approach to gender within recovery and for Scotland to properly understand and respond to the impact of the pandemic on women’s economic and other rights as we enter the next phase of the pandemic and begin to fully focus on recovery.

Date of publication: February 2021.

Gender edit of the Scottish Government Budget for 2021-2022

Jan 28, 2021: This gender edit of the Scottish Government’s Budget for 2021-2022 compiles the references to women and gender, as well as some specific areas of priority with particular implications for women and girls into one list, such as ‘Equalities’. In outlining the Budget, Cabinet Secretary for Finance Kate Forbes suggested that “The exceptional circumstances require an exceptional response” and highlighted the impacts of Covid-19 and Brexit as key concerns.

The Cabinet Secretary outlined three priorities for the Budget:

• Creating jobs and supporting and investing in a sustainable recovery;
• Responding to the health pandemic; and
• Tackling inequalities.

This gender edit examines The Scottish Government’s Budget for 2021-22 in sequence, with all emphasis added by Engender.

Date of publication: January 2021

Engender response to the Scottish Parliament Local Government and Communities Committee on the Fair Rents (Scotland) Bill

Dec 17, 2020: Engender welcomes this opportunity to respond to the Scottish Parliament Local Government and Communities Committee consultation on the Fair Rents (Scotland) Bill. We welcome the Bill and support its general principles; recognising that it represents a first step to make rent more affordable for women in the Scottish private rented sector. However, it is our view that the Bill could go further and address the widening gaps between women’s incomes and the amount women spend on rent.

Date of publication: December 2020.

Engender Parliamentary Briefing: Equalities and Human Rights Committee Debate: Valuing the Third Sector

Dec 1, 2020: This is a briefing for MSPs ahead of the Equality and Human Rights Committee debate on Valuing the Third Sector on 1st December 2020.
We welcome the opportunity to share a small glimpse of the impact the women’s sector has had in Scotland ahead of the parliamentary debate initiated by the Equality and Human Rights Committee on Valuing the Third Sector. We also highlight the role of the women’s sector in Scotland in delivering equality and human rights priorities and to reflect on issues raised by the Committee’s report in respect of sustainability and impact during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Date of publication: December 2020.

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

Blog – Dec 1, 2020

What Works for Women: improving gender mainstreaming in Scotland

Nov 23, 2020: Gender mainstreaming is a strategic approach to tackling systemic gender inequality. It was the central recommendation within the UN’s ‘Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action’ in 1995,1 in response to the limitations of policy approaches that are specifically aimed at women. Gender mainstreaming stems from the understanding that gender inequality is socially constructed, and that the sexism inherent to our institutional structures and decision-making must be actively targeted. It aims to ensure that issues around women’s equality are incorporated into the design and delivery of all public sector activity, such that consideration of gender is routinely used to shape policy and practice throughout government and public bodies.

This paper reviews the history of legal mainstreaming duties in Scotland, implementation of its principal mainstreaming policy - the public sector equality duty - and international best practice in gender mainstreaming. It subsequently draws conclusions regarding reform of PSED and recommends new action on mainstreaming by Scottish Government.

Date of publication: November 2020

Engender response to the Commission on Social Justice and Fairness consultation on Discussion Paper 2: Reform of Social Care

Oct 23, 2020: Engender welcomes this opportunity to comment on the discussion paper put forward by the Commission on Social Justice and Fairness. We believe that reform to care services must start from understanding the effects of low pay, undervaluation and low investment from a gender perspective before it develops effective solutions. We do not consider ourselves best placed to comment on the detail of proposed reforms to the delivery of social care in Scotland nor to conclude at this stage whether a national care service could be all or part of the solution. We have therefore approached this consultation with the aim of highlighting the significant gendered considerations that must underpin any reforms.

Date of publication: October 2020.

Engender submission of evidence to the Scottish Parliament Social Security Committee inquiry on the role of Scottish Social Security in Covid-19 recovery

Oct 15, 2020: Women are twice as likely to rely on social security for all or part of their income than men due to a greater risk of poverty, gendered experiences of the labour market which push them into poorer paid and insecure employment, the impact of men’s violence and deeply-ingrained norms around the provision of care and childcare.

Engender is acutely aware of the scale of impact the Covid-19 pandemic presents to women and to inequality in Scotland and we do not underestimate the challenges of meeting the various demands this will place on Scottish and UK public services. However, we are strongly
of the view that the principles of Scottish social security require it to build on existing commitments to meet new and expanding needs. While we are concerned about the adequacy of the system as a whole to respond to the huge and complex dangers to women’s equality and risk of poverty, there are specific groups for whom there is evidence of building need and opportunity for policy-makers to react in the more immediate term.

Date of publication: October 2020.

Engender and Close The Gap joint response to the Scottish Government’s Proposal to Set Missions for the Scottish National Investment Bank

Oct 13, 2020: Close the Gap and Engender have been engaged in the development of the Scottish National Investment Bank for nearly three years. During that time we have worked with Scottish Government and MSPs to ensure the inclusion of important provisions which require the Bank to mainstream gender equality into all of its functions alongside accountability mechanisms to ensure the Bank prioritises equality in its lending and employment policies.

Based on the proposal document and consultation questions, we are unclear as to how the missions will further women’s equality in Scotland nor how the need to address women’s inequality was integrated into design of the proposed missions.

Date of publication: October 2020.

Engender Parliamentary Briefing: Recognising the Importance of Family Caregivers

Sep 30, 2020: This is an Engender briefing for MSPs ahead of the Scottish Parliament Opposition debate on Recognising the Importance of Family Caregivers on 30th September 2020. In June 2020 Engender published our paper Gender and Unpaid Work, which summarises the evidence on the gendered allocation of unpaid care for older and disabled people as well as childcare, housework, and household management. It describes how the Covid-19 lockdown has affected these patterns and analyses how they must be taken into account in planning for economic and social recovery.

We therefore welcome the timing of this debate in Parliament and the opportunity to highlight how changes to paid and unpaid social care present an opportunity to advance women’s equality, wellbeing and rights.

Date of publication: September 2020.

‘Knowing Me; Knowing You: Is this the best we can do for cohabiting couples?

Blog – Sep 24, 2020

Engender submission of evidence to the Equalities and Human Rights Committee call for evidence of the impact of Covid-19 on equalities and human rights as part of its pre-budget scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s Budget for 2021-22

Sep 21, 2020: This is a submission of evidence to the Equalities and Human Rights Committee call for evidence of the impact of Covid-19 on equalities and human rights as part of its pre-budget scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s Budget for 2021-22 We welcome the focus of the Equality and Human Rights Committee this year on the social and economic recoveries from Covid-19 and ensuring that there is sufficient scrutiny of how revenue raising and spending relates to these outcomes within and outwith the Budget process.

Our submission focuses on our concerns about the extent to which women and girls have been considered in the development of economic recovery plans. We need to see additional substantive commitments to realising women’s economic equality or women will be further pushed behind.

Date of publication: September 2020.

Engender and Close The Gap Joint Response to the Scottish Parliament Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee’s inquiry into the Scottish National Investment Bank’s Draft Missions

Sep 17, 2020: Close the Gap and Engender have been engaged in the development of the Scottish National Investment Bank, and we have welcomed the establishment of the Bank as it holds enormous potential to tackle women’s economic inequality.

This joint response concerns the contents of the Proposal to Set Missions for the Scottish National Investment Bank and the dearth of information pertaining to gender equality and both Ministers’ and the Bank’s equality obligations. Based on the proposal document and consultation questions, we are unclear as to how the missions will further women’s equality in Scotland nor how the need to address women’s inequality was integrated into design of the proposed missions.

Date of publication: September 2020.

Gender Edit of Scotland's Programme For Government 2020-2021

Sep 2, 2020: This gender edit of The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government compiles all references to women, gender and issues with implications for gender equality which appear in the document.

This year’s Programme for Government comes amid the Scottish Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and ahead of the Scottish Elections in 2021. Considerable focus is given to protecting jobs and adjustments or investments in the health and social care system. The Government announced four new Bills to be introduced and the continuation of Bills already introduced ahead of the dissolution for the election next year.

Date published: September 2020.

Engender response to the Scottish Law Commission Aspects of Family Law Discussion Paper on Cohabitation

Aug 27, 2020: This document is a submission in response tot he Scottish Law Commission Aspects of Family Law Discussion Paper on Cohabitation.

Engender’s primary interest is in ensuring that women are not disadvantaged by cohabitation. A system which presumed that equitable asset sharing, or independence of finances did not have long term consequence would not reflect the available evidence. We therefore suggest that any reform to the law be focused on the circumstances of the relationship and the ongoing intentions, responsibilities and practical finances of the parties throughout, with the aim of responding to advantages and disadvantages from the perspective of a fairness principle that allows for ongoing circumstances to be considered, in the same way that s.9 of the Family Law (Scotland) Act treats divorcing couples.

Date of publication: August 2020.

Engender response to the Scottish Labour Party consultation “Time to Care About Care”

Aug 19, 2020: This is a response to the Scottish Labour Party consultation "Time to Care About Care".

Engender believes that there is an important conversation to be had about the future and long-term provision of a social care system that is genuinely universal and equitable and meets individual needs. Gender cannot be excluded from this work, and there is a need to consider how revaluation of care work and skills can deliver better conditions for people, mainly women, who provide care, both paid and unpaid.

Date of publication: August 2020.

Engender Parliamentary Briefing: An Implementation Plan for Economic Recovery

Aug 12, 2020: This is an Engender briefing for MSPs ahead of the Scottish Government debate on an Implementation Plan for Economic Recovery on 11th Agust 2020. Over the past six months Engender has sought to highlight the multitude of ways in which Covid-19 and our response to it will impact on women’s lives, rights and equality with men. We are especially cognisant of the mounting evidence around women’s rising economic inequality due to the pandemic and national and devolved response planning.

This parliamentary briefing calls on Scottish Government to go further to ensure that economic recovery also closes the gap between women and men. We urge Scottish Government to scale up its ambition and the necessary action to deliver a meaningful economic (and social) recovery for women that not only responds to the threat of deeper inequality as a result of Covid-19 but actively realises women’s economic rights and revalues women’s work.

Date of publication: August 2020.

Engender and Close the Gap response to the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery report

Jul 24, 2020: The differential impact of Covid-19 on women and men has been well-rehearsed. Engender and Close the Gap have issued multiple briefings making the case for a gendered response to Covid-19, advocating for the use of gender-sensitive sex-disaggregated data in developing policy interventions, and analysing the impact on women’s labour market participation. We also worked with other national women’s organisations to develop nine principles for a gender-sensitive economic recovery. These principles recognise that women’s equality is a precondition of a wellbeing economy, and we published a supporting paper exploring how Covid-19 might be an inflection point in gendering Scotland’s approach to inclusive growth. We submitted all of this information to the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery (AGER).

Despite this advocacy, and widespread media coverage of some of the gendered issues around Covid-19’s economic effects, AGER’s report is not gendered. Despite the profoundly gendered nature of the crisis, which has impacted female-dominated sectors and substantially increased women’s unpaid work, the report barely mentions these as concerns. Its analysis does not integrate these gendered issues and nor is there any evidence of them in the recommendations it has produced. Consequently, Scottish Government will need to pay particular attention to taking a gendered approach within its response if it is to avoid redistribution of jobs from women to men being a feature of ‘recovery’. Without mitigation, actions for recovery based on AGER’s report will worsen women’s economic position, and widen income and wealth gaps.

Date of publication: July 2020

Women & Unpaid Work: the impact of Covid-19 on women's caring roles

Jul 17, 2020: Women’s equality cannot be realised while women still have do so much more childcare, care for older and disabled people, and housework than men. Covid-19 has exposed the extent to which women shoulder the majority of this unpaid work, and are assumed to be available to pick up the slack during a crisis. Doing unpaid work pushes women into poverty, with women four times more likely than men to give up employment because of multiple caring roles. It also stops women studying, doing community work, and even using local services. The ongoing impact on Covid-19 will also hit women hardest, with social care services withdrawn, delays to school reopening, and reductions in services by charities. Yet despite its overwhelming importance to women’s lives, unpaid care work rarely features in legislative or policy discussions.

This report highlights the impact of Covid-19 on women's caring roles, and makes recommendation for how Scottish Government can measure, value, and reduce women's unpaid work.

Date of publication: July 2020

GUEST POST: A recovery plan which works for women also works for the planet

Blog – Jul 10, 2020

Gender and Inclusive Growth: making inclusive growth work for women in Scotland

Jun 3, 2020: Over recent years, Inclusive Growth is a term that has become more prominent in the policy, development and academic arenas as the uneven distribution of the benefits of growth becomes more and more apparent. Increasing economic inequality within countries has led to new approaches to macroeconomic policy that recognise the benefits of ensuring that countries not only grow the size of their economy but ensure
that inequality is addressed. Economic inequality between men and women is an example of where the benefits of economic growth have not traditionally been shared equally among groups in society.

Gender inequality has long been recognised as a drag on economic growth and closing the employment gap between men and women has
been a key goal of successive development agendas. As feminist economists have long since argued, traditional measures of growth have ignored unpaid work which often takes place within the household and is disproportionately done by women, which reinforces gender unequal access to economic resources and prosperity. As it is currently conceived, Inclusive Growth agendas are not adequately gendered and run the risk of exacerbating gender inequality in the distribution of economic growth.

This joint paper from Engender and Close the Gap has been authored by Emily Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Economics at Glasgow Caledonian University.

Date of publication: June 2020

Scotland’s economic recovery will fail if it doesn’t think about women’s equality

Blog – Jun 3, 2020

Gender & Economic Recovery

Jun 2, 2020: The economic downturn precipitated by Covid-19 is different from that caused by previous shocks. It is likely to have a particularly harsh impact on hospitality, retail, and care sectors that are female dominated and dominated by Black and minority ethnic workers. At the same time, services that enable women, and especially disabled women’s, labour market participation, including nurseries, schools, and social care, will need to operate differently to avoid exacerbating the pandemic.

If Scotland’s traditional ways of thinking about the economy won’t work then we need to adopt some new approaches. The following principles develop Scotland’s existing commitment to inclusive growth. They are a set of ideas, challenges, and calls that are rooted in evidence. They describe features of an economy that works for women as well as men. They put care and solidarity at its heart. They will create better jobs, better
decision-making, and a more adequate standard of living for us all.

This joint paper from Engender and Close the Gap sets out nine key principles for an economic recovery which will work for women.

Date of publication: June 2020

Engender Parliamentary Briefing: Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill

Feb 21, 2020: Engender is clear that menstrual care is a women’s health issue, and that barriers to accessing essential products have a negative impact on women and girls’ access to education, work, leisure activities and their wellbeing. The Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill establishes a principle of universality, and a minimum legal duty to establish an ‘opt-in’ universal scheme for access to period products in very broad terms, which must be seen as a floor rather than a ceiling. Engender categorically supports this aspiration.

This parliamentary briefing sets our why we are calling on MSPs to support the Bill at Stage One, and agree the principle that everyone who needs access to products to manage their period has a right to access them in Scotland on a free and universal basis.

Date of publication: February 2020.

Engender response to the Social Security Scotland Draft Equality Outcomes Consultation

Feb 14, 2020: This document is a response to the Social Security Scotland Draft Equality Outcomes consultation. We are concerned that the draft outcomes put forward in this consultation do not take sufficient cognisance of women’s experiences and lives and are therefore insufficiently targeted to address inequalities in access to social security in Scotland.

Date of publication: February 2020.

Gender edit of the Scottish Government Budget 2020-2021

Feb 12, 2020: This gender edit of the Scottish Government’s Budget 2020-2021 compiles all references to women, gender and issues with implications for gender equality which appear in the document.

The Budget was introduced by Public Finance Minister, Kate Forbes MSP, who noted that the Budget for 2020-2021 would follow a “bespoke” Budget process, agreed with the Finance Committee due to the delayed UK Budget to 11 March. The Minister stated that the budget represented the best estimate of minimum level of funding that will be available to the Scottish Government using provisional forecasts.

Date of Publication: Feb 2020

GUEST POST: New legislation puts gender equality at the heart of the Scottish National Investment Bank

Blog – Jan 28, 2020

Joint Close the Gap and Engender Briefing on Proposed Stage 3 Amendments to the Scottish National Investment Bank Bill

Jan 21, 2020: Ahead of the Scottish Parliament Stage 3 proceedings of the Scottish National Investment Bank Bill, we have joined with Close the Gap to publish a briefing outlining some key amendments that will enable the Bank to fulfil its potential with regards to gender equality.

Date of publication: January 2020.

Gender Edit of General Election 2019 Manifestos

Dec 4, 2019: This document is a ‘gender edit’ of the manifestos published by political parties in the run up to the snap General Election on 12th December; it pulls out relevant commitments from the manifestos of each of the six largest political parties standing in the General Election in Scotland. The edit includes direct references to ‘women’, ‘sex’, ‘gender’ and ‘equality’, as well as manifesto commitments covering a wide range of policy areas and services of interest to women and which are highly relevant to women’s daily lives. This summary does not offer analysis or critique of policies and commitments.

Date of publication: December 2019.

Engender Parliamentary Briefing: Universal Credit

Nov 20, 2019: This is a briefing ahead of the Scottish Labour Debate in the Scottish Parliament on Universal Credit on 20th November 2019. Parliament Member's Business Debate on Charities, Scotland and Holyrood on 30th October 2019. We fully support ending and substantively reforming the elements of the UK ‘welfare’ system which are having a harmful impact upon women across Scotland. This briefing sets out the particular concerns and impacts of universal credit, the two-child limit and the benefits cap.

Date of publication: November 2019.

Joint Close the Gap and Engender Briefing on Proposed Stage 2 Amendments to the Scottish National Investment Bank Bill

Nov 19, 2019: Ahead of the Scottish Parliament Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee consideration of the Scottish National Investment Bank Bill at Stage 2, we have joined with Close the Gap to publish a briefing outlining some key amendments that will enable the Bank to fulfil its potential with regards to gender equality.

Date of publication: November 2019.

GUEST POST: When childcare isn’t affordable, we all pay for it

Blog – Nov 7, 2019

GUEST POST: Brexit - a risk to women's equality, or an opportunity to reshape gender mainstreaming in economic development?

Blog – Nov 1, 2019

Engender submission of evidence to the Scottish Parliament Equalities and Human Rights Committee call for evidence on delivery of national equalities and human rights priorities as part of its scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s Budget for 2020-21

Sep 26, 2019: This document is a response to the Scottish Parliament Equalities and Human Rights Committee call for evidence on delivery of national equalities and human rights priorities as part of its scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s Budget for 2020-21.

Engender welcomes the focus of the Equality and Human Rights Committee this year on ensuring that there is both adequate resource to deliver equality and human rights outcomes in Scotland and sufficient scrutiny of how revenue raising and spending relates to these outcomes within and outwith the Budget process.

Date of publication: August 2019.

Budgeting for Equality

Blog – Sep 25, 2019

Engender Parliamentary Briefing: Scottish National Investment Bank Bill Stage 1 Debate

Sep 25, 2019: This is a briefing ahead of the Scottish Parliament Stage 1 Debate on the Scottish National Investment Bank Bill. Engender welcomes this Stage 1 debate on the Scottish National Investment Bank Bill and this opportunity to highlight the potential for the Investment Bank (the Bank) to make a substantial impact on women’s equality. We emphasise the wealth of international evidence that gender equality is a necessary precursor to economic growth in our support for the creation of the Bank. However, for the Bank to deliver meaningful outcomes for women the Bill must enable it to translate Scotland’s ambitions for inclusive growth into gender-competent strategy and execution through firm requirements on its face.

Date of publication: September 2019.

Engender Response to the European Commission: Public consultation on Gender equality in the EU – current situation and priorities for future

Jun 4, 2019: This is an Engender response to the European Commission's public consultation to gather opinions of different actors of the current situation of gender equality in the EU and priorities for the next five years.

Date of publication: June 2019.

Engender response to the Scottish Government consultation on disability assistance in Scotland

Jun 3, 2019: Engender has been engaged on work around gender and social security since the 2010 programme of Welfare reform and over that period we have sought to highlight the ways in women, who are twice as likely to rely on social security for their income, have been systemically and grotesquely disadvantaged by reforms.

We therefore welcome this opportunity to respond to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the future of devolved disability assistance within Social Security Scotland. In the UK, women are a small majority of disabled people and, as a group, disabled women are amongst the very hardest hit by welfare reform.

Date of publication: June 2019.

Engender submission of evidence to the Scottish Parliament Economy, Energy, Jobs and Fair Work Committee Call for Evidence on the Scottish National Investment Bank Bill

May 6, 2019: Engender welcomes this opportunity to provide evidence to the Committee in relation to the Scottish National Investment Bank Draft Bill. We believe that the National Investment Bank (the Bank) can make a substantive impact on women’s equality, provided that it can translate Scotland’s ambitions for inclusive growth into gender-competent strategy and execution. There is now a wealth of international evidence that gender equality is a necessary precursor to economic growth, and Scotland’s economic strategy restates this. However, if the Bank is to address the structural issues underlying women’s economic inequality it must integrate gender equality into every element of its organisation and work.

Date of publication: May 2019.

Engender Briefing: Pension Credit Entitlement Changes

Apr 2, 2019: 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 is concerned that the rule changes have attracted little attention and no gender analysis.

Date of publication: April 2019.

Celebrating Scotland's Gender Pay Gap Action Plan

Blog – Mar 14, 2019

Making Work Visible is back – and we need your help!

Blog – Feb 14, 2019

What's in it for women? Scottish Government Budget 2019-2020

Blog – Jan 18, 2019

Engender Gender Edit of the Scottish Government Budget 2019-2020

Jan 17, 2019: This document is a ‘gender edit’ guide to the Scottish Government Budget 2019-2020. It provides excerpts which refer directly to women and gender, but also captures sections on equalities and social justice where women and girls in Scotland would be directly impacted.

Date of publication: January 2019.

Engender Submission to the Scottish Parliament Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee Call for Evidence on the South of Scotland Enterprise Bill

Jan 7, 2019: Engender is grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee’s Call for Evidence as part of its Stage 1 consideration of the South of Scotland Enterprise Bill. We believe the creation of a South of Scotland Enterprise Agency (SoSE) brings with it opportunities to change the way that economic development is led in the region and shape an economy that works for both women and men, and that advances women’s equality.

Date of publication: January 2019.

Engender Response to the Scottish Government consultation on a Scottish National Investment Bank Bill

Oct 31, 2018: Engender welcomes the opportunity to respond to this consultation on the Scottish National Investment Bank, which focuses on the proposed objectives, purpose and governance in the anticipated Bill. Scotland’s National Investment Bank should be instrumental in shaping an economy that works for women and men, and that advances women’s equality instead of entrenching gender inequality.

Date of publication: October 2018.

Joint Engender and SWA Parliamentary Briefing ahead of the Scottish Government Building a Social Security System Together Debate

Oct 2, 2018: Engender and Scottish Women’s Aid welcome this opportunity to discuss the creation of the Social Security Charter and the importance of ensuring women’s voices are heard in the process. Since 2013 our organisations have worked together to highlight the gender-impact that women accessing social security face.

Date of publication: September 2018.

On the Engender: why gender budgeting matters

Blog – May 8, 2018

A Gender Edit of the Scottish Government Draft Budget 2018-19

Jan 26, 2018: This document is a ‘gender edit’ guide to the Scottish Government Draft Budget 2018-19. It provides excerpts which refer directly to women and gender, but also captures sections on equalities and social justice where women and girls in Scotland would be directly impacted.

Date of publication: January 2018.

Seven principles for a gender-competent Scottish National Investment Bank

Blog – Nov 20, 2017

Engender Submission to the Scottish Parliament Equality and Human Rights Committee Scrutiny of Draft Budget and Spending Plans 2017-18

Oct 24, 2017: Engender works in Scotland to advance women’s economic, social and cultural, and political equality with men. We make visible the ways in which women’s inequality impacts Scotland, and bring women together to make change happen.

We welcome the focus of the Equality and Human Rights Committee this year, as it anticipates the Draft Budget in its call for evidence. In response to the Committee’s questions on priorities and gender gaps within Budget 2016-17 and the budget process itself, we make two key points.

Firstly, we describe the way in which Scottish Government topline policy priorities around gender equality are not adequately reflected in the budget, and the consequential impact this has downstream on policy outcomes. Secondly, we describe a solution that could integrate policy priorities with the budget process, and ensure that public expenditure in Scotland was allocated in a way that reflected the needs of women and men in Scotland: adding gender budget analysis to the budget process.

Date of publication: October 2017.

Women's and Equalities Sector Response to the Scottish Government Consultation on Socioeconomic Duty

Sep 19, 2017: As a coalition of national equalities organisations, we welcome the opportunity to comment on the Scottish Government’s proposals for the socio-economic duty and the principle of the socio-economic duty itself. We commend Scottish Government for giving serious consideration to addressing socio-economic disadvantage through its ambitions for the socio-economic duty.

Date of publication: September 2017.

Scotland's Programme for Government - what's in it for women?

Blog – Sep 11, 2017

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

Blog – Jun 13, 2017

Engender Response to the Budget Process Review Group Consultation

May 3, 2017: Engender welcomes this opportunity to submit our views to the Budget Process Review Group. Scotland’s budget is a statement of our nation’s macroeconomic policy intentions, and of our spending priorities. As our understanding of the economy and the choices we make about spending both have profound impacts on women’s lives, it is vital that the budget is well gendered.

As such, Engender wishes to see gender equality analysis embedded (‘mainstreamed’) across all aspects of the Scottish budget process: in the Scottish Government’s objective setting and budget development; in parliament’s scrutiny of the budget; in civil society’s engagement with the budget and in the principles that underpin the Budget Process Review Group (BPRG) itself. We would like to see Gender Budget Analysis (GBA) undertaken by the Scottish Government at all stages of the budgeting process, and for parliament to ensure that this is taking place.

Date of publication: April 2017.

Engender Submission to the Scottish Parliament Economy, Jobs and Fair Work Committee Inquiry into the Gender Pay Gap

Mar 10, 2017: Engender welcomes this inquiry, and particularly that this work is being undertaken by the Economy, Jobs, and Fair Work Committee. The Equal Opportunities Committee, now the Equality and Human Rights Committee, has explored the question of gendered inequalities in the labour market in many different spaces, including during its scrutiny of the Budget, but the pay gap must properly be understood as an economic issue as well as an issue of equality.

Date of publication: March 2017.

Engender Response to the Equality and Human Rights Commission Consultation on its Measurement Framework

Feb 17, 2017: Engender welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) consultation on proposed amendments to its measurement framework. Beginning with an overview of the functions of the EHRC, this response proceeds with an overview of the EHRC’s previous framework and the rationale for developing the model under consultation. The response then provides an analysis of the proposed measurement framework and a set of recommendations to the EHRC.

Date of publication: February 2017.

A Gender Edit of the Scottish Government Draft Budget 2017-18

Jan 12, 2017: This document is a ‘gender edit’ guide to the Scottish Government Draft Budget 2016-17. It includes all extracts that refer directly to women and gender, and selected sections on equalities and social justice more broadly, where there are clear implications for women and girls in Scotland.

Date of publication: January 2017.

A Gender Edit of the UK Government Budget 2016

Mar 18, 2016: This document is a ‘gender edit’ guide to the UK Government’s Budget 2016. It includes all extracts that refer directly to women or gender, and selected policy announcements that have direct implications for women and girls in Scotland. Previously announced decisions, for instance exemption from the benefits cap for certain carers, or cuts to social security established in the Summer Budget and Autumn Statement 2015, are not included.

We point to explicitly gendered issues, rather than providing a gender analysis of the wider content or intersectional analysis of implications for disabled women and other groups. The UK Women’s Budget Group will publish a full gender assessment of this budget on 7 April.

Date of publication: March 2016.

Engender Submission to the Scottish Parliament Equal Opportunities Committee Scrutiny of the Draft Budget and Spending Plans

Jan 25, 2016: Engender works in Scotland to advance women’s economic, social and cultural, and political equality with men. We make visible the ways in which women’s inequality impacts Scotland, and bring women together to make change happen.

We welcome the focus of the Equal Opportunities Committee on the budget process, and particularly on the way in which the equality budget process aims to realise women’s equality and equality of other protected groups.

Date of publication: January 2016.

Engender Submission to the Scottish Parliament Welfare Reform Committee Scutiny of the Scottish Government Draft Budget 2016-17

Jan 19, 2016: Engender welcomes the focus of the Welfare Reform Committee on women’s equality as it scrutinises the Draft Budget 2016-17, and this opportunity to submit evidence.

Date of publication: January 2016.

A Gender Edit of the Scottish Government Draft Budget 2016-17

Dec 17, 2015: This document is a ‘gender edit’ guide to the Scottish Government Draft Budget 2016-17. It includes all extracts that refer directly to women and gender, and selected sections on equalities and social justice more broadly, where there are clear implications for women and girls in Scotland. These include all references that directly relate to the calls we make in our Gender Matters manifesto for Holyrood 2016.

Date of publication: December 2015.

A Gender Edit of the Autumn Statement 2015

Nov 26, 2015: This is a gender edit of the Autumn Statement 2015, which pulls out all of the most gendered commitments.

Date of publication: November 2015.

Challenge Poverty Week: Gender Matters in Care

Blog – Oct 23, 2015

Guest Post: Challenge Poverty Week: Food for thought from EaRN’s consultation event, A Platform for Positive Change

Blog – Oct 22, 2015

Challenge Poverty Week: Women's employment support

Blog – Oct 21, 2015

Guest Post: Challenge Povery Week: Women’s poverty and ‘austerity’ in the UK

Blog – Oct 20, 2015

Guest Post: Challenge Poverty Week: Tackling Poverty and Inequality with Edinburgh’s new Equality and Rights Network (EaRN)

Blog – Oct 19, 2015

Guest Post: A Citizen’s Income for Scotland?

Blog – Jul 30, 2015

A Gender Edit of the Summer Budget 2015

Jul 10, 2015: This is a gender edit of the Summer Budget 2015, which pulls out all of the most gendered commitments.

Date of publication: July 2015.

Women lose in Summer Budget 2015

Blog – Jul 9, 2015

Guest Post: Plan F for feminist: An alternative to the UK government's economic 'Plan A'.

Blog – Feb 20, 2015

'Welfare' and women: an update

Blog – Nov 13, 2014

Joint Submission to the Scottish Parliament Welfare Reform Committee Scrutiny of the Draft Budget 2015-16

Nov 12, 2014: A joint submission from Engender, Close the Gap, Scottish Women's Aid and Scottish Refugee Council to the Welfare Reform Committee on their scrutiny of the Scottish Goverment Draft Budget 2015-16.

Date of publication: November 2014.

Women and the draft Scottish budget 2015-16

Blog – Oct 23, 2014

A Gender Edit of the Draft Scottish Budget 2015-16

Oct 22, 2014: A gender edit of the draft Scottish budget 2015-16. This document pulls out all of the mentions of women and gender, and descriptions of spending on programmes that are particularly relevant to women.

Date of publication: October 2014

Engender Parliamentary Briefing: Increasing Opportunities for Women Debate 2014

Aug 20, 2014: A briefing paper for MSPs in advance of the Scottish Government debate on increasing opportunities for women in the Scottish Parliament on 20 August 2014.

Date of publication: August 2014.

Guest blog: Indyref, women and poverty (Indyref Thursday #2)

Blog – Jul 31, 2014

We celebrated IWD by talking about women's equality & Scotland's futures

Blog – Mar 18, 2014

Engender pays tribute to Professor Ailsa McKay: feminist economist, sister, and friend

Blog – Mar 6, 2014

Engender and Close the Gap Joint Response to the Scottish Government Consultation on European Structural and Investment Funds 2014 – 2020 Programmes

Mar 6, 2014: A joint response from Engender and Close the Gap to the Scottish Government's consultation on the Scottish structural and investment funds programmes for 2014 - 2020.

Date of publication: January 2014.

Women Thinking Equality Series: Economics

Mar 5, 2014: This briefing paper on gender and income presents findings from Engender's 'Women Thinking Equality' project.

Date of publication: 2009.

Gender Audit Series: Income and Wealth

Mar 5, 2014: A summary and discussion of the implications of data from the Gender Audit of Statistics [Breitenbach,E. and Wasoff, F. Scottish Executive Social Research 2007] relating to care and caring prepared by S.Macpherson, Engender Associate and E. Thomson.

Engender Response to the Scottish Government Consultation on the Public Sector Equality Duty

Mar 5, 2014: Engender's response to the Scottish Government consultation on PSED.

Date of publication: November 2010.

Engender Consultation on Scottish Labour Party at Holyrood

Mar 5, 2014: The following notes were compiled following an informal discussion session, which took place on 22 September, involving a group of Engender members and inspired by input via email from others who were unable to attend that evening.

Date of publication: September 2009.