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IMPROVING THE POSITION OF WOMEN IN SCOTLAND: AN AGENDA FOR ACTION

SECTION ONE

SETTING THE SCENE - THE POSITION OF WOMEN IN SCOTLAND TODAY

The position of women in Scotland

Inequality between women and men is both a widespread and persistent feature of contemporary Scottish society. In general women have:

• less access than men to income, earnings, pensions and material resources such as cars or housing;
• less access to time that is their own and not spent on caring for other people or on paid or unpaid work;
• less access to political power and to decision-making across a range of public bodies; and
• they have a 1 in 5 chance of experiencing domestic abuse during their lives.

The factors that contribute to this inequality are complex and inter-related, and as a consequence there are often no easy or quick means of reducing inequality. Not all women experience the same degree of inequality though discrimination and prejudice can still affect women whatever their social status and earning power. Social and economic disadvantage, problems associated with living in rural areas, and other types of discrimination and prejudice such as racism, ageism, homophobia, or discrimination against disabled people, affect both women and men, but tend to have a greater impact on women because of the underlying gender inequalities and sexism that permeate Scottish society.

Women of all ages, backgrounds and class may find that being a woman is all that it takes to experience discrimination, to be stereotyped, to be overlooked in the selection and recruitment to senior positions and decision making bodies or to be one of the one in five who during their lifetime is the subject of domestic abuse.

If a woman is a lone parent without adequate access to childcare, she cannot access work or education easily. Her chances of earning are thereby lessened and her low income may mean poverty now and in old age. She may live in a deprived area or a rural area and have less access to services. Her poverty and life experience may mean that she is more prone to ill-health. And if she is from a minority ethnic community, and may not have English as her first language, and/or is a disabled person and/or is a lesbian, her exclusion may be compounded.

We cannot tackle underachievement, alienation, deprivation and poverty if we do not also deal with issues of confidence and aspiration and vice versa. So the strategies we adopt to tackle the women's agenda have to take into account all the areas that impact on women's lives. There has to be a holistic approach and a commitment to mainstream gender equality. There has also to be an acknowledgement of the pivotal role of women in the lives of others. For example policy makers tackling child poverty need to understand the issues of women's poverty.

Dealing with many of the issues facing women will require changes in the behaviour and attitude of both men and women.

Changes in gender relations have of course been occurring, but these have often been very slow. For example:

• women gained access to Higher Education over a century ago, but participation of women and men in equal numbers and equality of attainment has only been achieved in recent years, and there are still significant differences between genders in the subjects studied.
• women obtained the vote in 1918, but there is not yet equal representation of women in most political institutions in the UK, the Welsh Assembly being the outstanding exception with 50% women members, and the Scottish Parliament achieving 39% women's representation.
• women began to campaign for equal pay in the late nineteenth century. It took till 1970 for legislation to be passed, but equal pay has still not yet been achieved.
• women received statutory protection from discrimination in the workplace under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 but they are still concentrated in low paid jobs and are under-represented in senior positions in most sectors.

Key statistics

(All figures are for Scotland unless its says otherwise)

What women say the issues are

Since 1998 the Women in Scotland Consultative Forum (WISCF) has brought together a wide range of women's organisations to discuss policy priorities with Ministers and civil servants. Among the key issues consistently raised and discussed, and where women's organisations would like to see action on gender equality are:

• violence against women
• social inclusion and poverty
• employment and training, particularly equal pay and low pay
• childcare
• education
• decision-making in political and public life.

All of these issues have been on the agenda of women's organisations for a considerable period of time, and all of them have been discussed by the Group. There is a broad consensus about the areas where change is most needed, and that there is still a long way to go to achieve gender equality in Scotland. To make change happen a clear agenda with specific policy goals is needed.

We have also mentioned earlier in this report newer issues that have not yet been the subject of widespread discussion or research but which we think should be. Recent research ² about the impact of devolution also points to the need for:

• effective monitoring of gender mainstreaming and progress towards gender equality;
• more effective communication between Scottish and English/GB/UK counterparts;
• targets for increasing women's representation in senior decision-making positions in politics, the civil service, public and economic life;
• resources and capacity building for the women's sector; and
• tackling any backlash against gender equality.

The role of the Scottish Executive, the Scottish Parliament and local authorities

Since 1997 government has shown a much stronger commitment to gender equality. Improvements since then include the introduction of the national minimum wage, better rights to maternity leave, parental rights to request flexible working, and action to tackle child poverty. The Scottish Office began a process of consultation with women and started to build up staff resources on gender and other equality issues. With devolution in 1999 the Scottish Executive established the Equality Unit, and launched its Equality Strategy in November 2000. In the UK government there is a dedicated Women and Equality Unit, and the devolved administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland have also created equality policy units and put strategies in place. In recent years, Scottish local authorities have also increased their work on equalities issues and the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 will increase it further, particularly through the new Community Planning and Best Value duties.

The Scottish Executive

The Scottish Executive regards gender equality as an integral part of its Equality Strategy ³. This strategy covers a wide range of groups and equality issues, and such a challenging agenda has been difficult to push forward across all groups simultaneously. On the one hand much progress has been made in developing working relationships with a range of groups, in particular minority ethnic organisations, lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender organisations, and disabled people's organisations (particularly through work on the European Year of Disabled People 2003); on the other hand many women's organisations feel that the Executive has not focussed enough on gender equality and that the initial momentum has not been sustained. There are significant and persistent gender inequalities still existing in Scotland today, and it is recognised that many individual women and women's organisations are frustrated at the slow rate of progress and are impatient for change. The recent statements by Ministers that this should be remedied and action taken to develop both an agenda for action and strengthen women's organisations has therefore been welcome.

Women's lives in Scotland are affected by policies of both UK and Scottish governments, and sometimes both levels of government need to work together to make change happen. As yet these relationships are not always clearly established.

The Scottish Parliament

The respective remits and roles of the Parliament and the Executive have not always been clear to the general public. In some respects the Executive and Parliament have worked together, but there has also been tension between the two because of the Parliament's responsibility to scrutinise the actions of the Executive, and to criticise or modify these if it thinks fit. It has not always been clear to women's organisations who to approach to raise policy concerns.

Within the period of the first Scottish Parliament from 1999 to 2003, many mechanisms and strategies for the promotion of gender equality have been put in place. This has involved the creation of new institutional machinery and working relationships between government at different levels, between the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive, and between women's organisations and the Parliament and the Executive. Developing this set of complex new relationships has often made progress very slow.

One of the founding principles of the Scottish Parliament is equality of opportunity. The Parliament has a standing Equal Opportunities Committee, and such parliamentary structures, and features such as 'family-friendly' working hours, make the Scottish Parliament a different kind of institution from Westminster (which despite recent improvement does not yet have family-friendly hours). Women also argue that in the main they work differently, supporting constructive committee work, and are less confrontational than men.

In the first Parliament just over 37% of MSPs were women. This increased to 39.5% in May 2003. Though the goal of 50:50 is still to be achieved the significant level of women's representation has given a higher profile to women's issues. Women across political parties argue that they have made a difference. They have shaped policy on areas such as domestic violence, sexual offences, women's and men's health, childcare, free personal care for older people, and the repeal of section 2A (thus removing constraints to the discussion of sexual orientation in schools). Gender perspectives have also been introduced to other policy areas, including enterprise, transport, rural development and environmental issues. Several Acts have included a duty on public service providers to promote equality of opportunity ⁴, for example, Acts on education, care, housing, local government, and mental health. The first Act that was put forward by a Parliamentary Committee was the Protection from Abuse (Scotland) Act 2001, which gives greater protection to women at risk of violence from partners or former partners.

A key achievement of both the Scottish Executive and the Scottish Parliament is action against domestic violence, with significant improvements in service provision, enhanced protection through legislation, and prevention work and awareness raising campaigns. On the other hand gender issues are not always as prominent as they might be, and opportunities have been lost to point out how policies are particularly beneficial to women, for example, the introduction of free personal care.

Local authorities

Local authorities deliver a wide range of services to their residents including schools, libraries, leisure centres, parks, local transport, planning, housing and social work services. Many local authorities have dedicated staff working to mainstream equal opportunities throughout the authority's work either in a dedicated equality unit or as part of the work of the Chief Executive's office.

The Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 is likely to increase local authorities focus on equal opportunities. It has three core elements:

• a power for local authorities to advance the well-being of their area and/or persons in it;
• statutory underpinning for Community Planning through the introduction of a duty on local authorities and key partners; and
• a duty to secure Best Value (i.e. delivering continuous improvement in a local authority's performance).

Together these elements are intended to provide a framework for better, more responsive public services, promote joined-up working between all the key agencies, encourage greater community participation, achieve delivery of better quality services, and promote a culture of continuous improvement. In delivering continuous improvement in their performance, local authorities must have regard specifically to existing equal opportunities legislation.

The role of women's organisations

Access for women's organisations to the Executive has improved compared to the pre-devolution situation, and the Parliament is also accessible to women's organisations. Women's organisations in Scotland have made their views known to Ministers and civil servants through the Women in Scotland Consultative Forum (WISCF), and have given evidence to Parliamentary Committees. They have responded to consultations, and participated in policy networks supported by the Scottish Executive, such as the Social Inclusion Network, and the Race Equality Advisory Forum. They have also worked together in the development of innovative policies, such as the National Strategy on Domestic Abuse, and on engendering budgets.

Disappointment has been expressed however at the stalled development of the WISCF. Though there are some examples of women's organisations having influenced policy, many feel that politicians and officials in general are too cautious in their approach. The lack of visibility of the women's agenda is a cause of disappointment and frustration, and women's organisations would like to see the Scottish Executive take action on a range of policy issues.

The importance of developing the agenda for gender equality

Women make a contribution to Scottish society through visible and measurable means such as paid work, and through unpaid work, caring, and voluntary activities, which are harder to measure, but just as crucial to the general level of development of society and to the quality of life of its citizens. Despite this contribution, they remain under-represented in decision-making bodies in political, public and economic life. As a matter of social justice this gender imbalance needs to change. As a result institutions will be more representative and able to respond appropriately to diverse communities.

Women's contribution to economic development through paid work has been increasing over a period of several decades, and continues to do so. Yet this valuable resource of women's human capital is being under-utilised in the Scottish economy. This is because women still lose out in terms of pay, promotion, and pensions through interruptions to paid employment to undertake childcare and other caring responsibilities. Where women do not return to work investment in training is lost, and costs are incurred in recruiting new employees. Where women do return after childbirth they may do so at a lower level, and hence their skills and potential are not being realised to the full. Policies that enhance women's participation in the labour market are particularly important in the context of an ageing population and a decline in the proportion of the population of working age. Policies that support better pension provision for women are important, and a step towards reducing the incidence of women's poverty in old age.

Scotland's population is projected to change in a number of ways that are likely to make women's contribution to the economy even more important than it is now. There is likely to be a greater equalisation of women and men's life expectancy, and of their numbers in the population as a whole. The overall numbers in the population will shrink, the proportion of young people will decline, and the proportion of older people will increase. In particular there will be a big increase in the proportion of people aged 51 and over. This implies that using older people's labour more effectively in the economy will be very important, and new legislation outlawing discrimination on grounds of age in 2006 should help this to happen. At the same time the majority of new jobs created are likely to be in the service sector, and many will require communication and 'people' skills, and therefore may well open up employment opportunities for women. The proportion of mothers of under 5s in work is also predicted to continue to increase. Women's labour, whether that of working mothers, or of older women, is therefore going to be a very important resource for the development of the Scottish economy. Measures which support women's participation in paid work, whether childcare provision, support to carers of older people and other adults, appropriate training, and anti-age discrimination measures, will therefore be crucial.

There is a pressing need for women's work to be fully valued and rewarded, but also for women to be supported in the organisation of their working lives through adequate childcare provision, and flexible working arrangements. Such provision and arrangements are also beneficial to men, enabling them to balance work and family commitments differently. The contribution that women's unpaid caring work makes to society and to the economy also needs to be better acknowledged.

With respect to public services these are often not sensitive enough to the different needs of women and men or to different groups of women and men. While women make up the large majority of public service workers, they are under-represented at senior levels, often low paid, and work in an environment where changes are frequent and demanding. Their views are seldom heard in the debate about improving public services. The views of women as service users are also seldom heard. They are under-represented on decision-making bodies, and have little access to a policy making process that can have major impacts on their lives. Empowering women in public services, both as workers and as users, and listening to their views will enhance the quality of public services, and contribute to greater gender equality.

There are compelling reasons for developing the agenda on gender equality in Scotland. It will make Scotland more democratic and socially just; it will contribute to Scotland's economic success; and it will improve the quality of public services.

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