Kirstein Rummery: The key step we must take to bring women equality

First paragraph: My 13-year-old daughter and her friend got their first unsolicited dick pic this week. She also had a disagreement with a boy who then slammed her against the wall. It felt like a rite of passage that no girl should have to go through, but all girls do. I did my Outraged Feminist Tiger Mum thing, insisted we report it, gave her the whole spiel about how she doesn’t have to put up with that. My daughter is, of course, a much cooler feminist than me. She’d already reported it and spoken to the boys in person in No Uncertain Terms. As she does taekwondo and can kick a hole in a wall, I am fairly sure neither of them will do it again. But what emerged that was shocking to me was that the dick pic sender – who was also only 13 – did this because he genuinely thought this was how, in the online text-savvy age, you flirted with girls you liked. The violent boy thought it was OK to slam my daughter into a wall because he was “angry”.https://www.thenational.scot/news/17724195.we-need-to-teach-girls-and-boys-to-become-feminists-to-end-discrimination

Scotland can help the UK fix its disastrous system of benefits for disabled people

First paragraph: The new powers that look set to be devolved to Scotland include major changes for disability policy. Until now, Holyrood’s involvement in this area has been restricted to the NHS and social care – and the latter only indirectly through local government funding, since Scotland’s 32 local authorities make their own decisions about exactly what social care they will offer to disabled people.  Access this article on The Conversation website: https://theconversation.com/scotland-can-help-the-uk-fix-its-disastrous-system-of-benefits-for-disabled-people-3686

Once again, Britons are mostly being asked to vote for men

First paragraph: It is nearly 100 years since the first woman was elected to the UK parliament. Constance Marckievicz, a suffragette and socialist, won the seat of Dublin St Patrick’s for Sinn Fein in December 1918. She later became one of the first women in the world to hold a cabinet position as minister for labour in the newly seceded Irish Republic between 1919 and 1922.https://theconversation.com/once-again-britons-are-mostly-being-asked-to-vote-for-men-3952

Ignoring disabled people and carers could cost parties thousands of votes

First paragraph: There are 11m disabled adults eligible to vote in the UK. So given that the Conservatives only won 2.1m more votes than Labour in 2010, but ended up as the party of government, it’s curious to see the main parties failing to reach out to this group. If either of the main parties attracted disabled voters with the right promises, it could take them a long way to gaining an overall majority.https://theconversation.com/ignoring-disabled-people-and-carers-could-cost-parties-thousands-of-votes-4005

Ofcom got it wrong: it's time to listen and learn from fringe parties

First paragraph: The UK’s broadcast regulator Ofcom recently released a draft ruling that the Green party lacks sufficient support to qualify as a major party. This could give mainstream media the excuse they were searching for to overlook the Greens in much of their coverage of the 2015 UK election. Yet given that the contest is likely to yield another coalition government, it is now more important than ever to create a space for fringe parties in our nation’s political discourse. Access this article on The Conversation website: https://theconversation.com/ofcom-got-it-wrong-its-time-to-listen-and-learn-from-fringe-parties-3603

Campaigning for the female vote in the Scottish independence referendum: Comparing women for independence and women together

The 2014 Scottish independence referendum campaign saw a surge of campaigning activity from groups on both sides of the debate. The mainstream elements of the campaign were criticised for not bringing enough attention to women's issues, and so Women For Independence (WFI) and Women Together (WT) were created in order to try and alleviate these concerns. This paper aims to compare the two organisations to ascertain whether or not they can be classified as part of wider social movements. Utilising data from the Scottish Political Archive at the University of Stirling, as well as face-to-face interviews and email conversations with activists from both groups, this paper explores the organisational structures and framing strategies of the two groups, as well as the opportunities and constraints they faced when it came to achieving their goals. Whilst WFI can be classified as a Social Movement Organisation operating within both the pro-independence and women's movements, WT cannot be classified in this way and simply existed as a useful campaigning label during the independence referendum. WFI still continues to exist as a healthy, autonomous entity that, should a second independence referendum be called, will be in a strong position to campaign for the female vote and overturn the persistent gender gap that exists in support for Scottish independence

The Theory and Practice of Welfare Partnerships: The Case of the Cultural Sector

Partnership working in the welfare state has moved from the margins to the mainstream in terms of achieving policy objectives. Drawing on interdisciplinary theoretical and empirical developments in the field, this article presents a framework for analyzing welfare partnerships that give precedence to the issues of trust and interdependence. This article presents findings from a study of local authority museum services in Scotland, England and Wales to test this framework. A series of case studies revealed that partnerships have been driven by a number of factors including policy, power, funding and people. Partnerships could gain services credibility, but trust and interdependence were compromised by conflictual and unequal relationships. Partnerships were often short term, lacked ongoing maintenance plans and limited by their type of funding. The article proposes that further analysis of the level of individual agency at ground level be considered when thinking about partnerships in the cultural sector

If Westminster delivers, Scotland will have one of the world’s most powerful devolved parliaments

First paragraph: It seemed like a poisoned chalice when Lord Smith of Kelvin was handed the task of chairing a cross-party commission to advise on devolving further powers to Scotland afterSeptember’s referendum. There waswidespread concernthat the tight timetable would mitigate heavily against citizens being meaningfully involved, leading to a wholly political process that did not reflect the values and aspirations of the Scottish electorate. Access this article on The Conversation website: https://theconversation.com/if-westminster-delivers-scotland-will-have-one-of-the-worlds-most-powerful-devolved-parliaments-3477

What Works in Improving Gender Equality

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. This book provides an accessible analysis of what gender equality means and how we can adapt best practice in care policies from other countries. It provides realistic feasible policy solutions, the role of individuals, families, communities, the market and the state, and the difficulties in different policy contexts