< Previous | Contents | Next >

Social Focus on Women and Men 2002

Introduction

This Social Focus publication is the second in a planned series of social statistics publications. The first, Scottish Social Statistics 2001 provides a broad picture of ten key social policy areas in Scotland. This publication focuses on the gender issues, highlighting where data are available, the differences between women and men in areas such as population, housing, income, health, the labour market, education, crime, and social participation. It is not exhaustive and does not attempt to provide commentary and analysis of the causes and solutions to the differences it illustrates.

The experience of men and women differs across a range of policy areas and the development of accurate data on these differences is essential if inequalities are to be addressed.

Many in our communities still experience poverty, exclusion, discrimination, difficulty in accessing services, diminished opportunities in the labour market, abuse, and under-representation in decision making. The reasons for these are many, varied and often complex. The solutions are not always clear and certainly not easy or ready-made.

The approach that the Scottish Executive has taken to tackle discrimination and disadvantage is outlined in the document 'Equality Strategy: Working Together for Equality' which was published in November 2000. The central thrust of the strategy is the integration of equality principles from the outset into the everyday work of the Executive. This mainstreaming approach has been adopted because it is widely recognised as a key tool for the delivery of public policy objectives on equality and the effective delivery of public services.

Policies are for people and everyone is different. Policies and practices that do not take account of or reflect the diversity of the people at whom they are directed may be deficient.

One of the important analytical tools for mainstreaming equality and in particular gender equality, is the collection, collation and dissemination of disaggregated statistics and other mapping data. We need to develop robust and reliable data and information if we are going to deliver the changes to improve the diverse lives of people in Scotland. The Executive remains grateful for the impetus given to this by Engender and those involved in the production of the Gender Audits and to those women's organisations and academics who long argued the value to the policy process of such information.

The Executive has made a number of advances in the development of better gender statistics:

• A seminar was held with users of equality statistics on 29 January 2001. The seminar was designed to help inform and advise the Scottish Executive of gaps in the information and problems with accessing the information that exists. A report is available from the Central Research Unit, Scottish Executive.
• A Board has been established within the Executive to consider statistical information. Equality statistics will be part of the concerns of the Board and will be specifically addressed within the Social and Welfare Scottish Statistics Committee.
• A guide to sources of equality statistics was produced last year and has been updated in 2002. This guide is intended for users of equality statistics and is intended to help them find the necessary information to inform decision making and carry out data analyses. In addition to bringing together data sources it also gives some guidance on how the available data are to be used and interpreted.
• Scottish Household Survey provides information on the characteristics, composition and behaviour of Scottish households and the adult population. A special bulletin of the Scottish Household Survey was published in January 2001 that compared men and women by analysing gender disaggregated data collected by the survey.
• The Scottish Executive published a statistical profile of men and women in March 2001.
• Improved collection and disaggregation of data across different policy areas.

The Executive recognises that there is still much to improve in this area but is committed to making progress. This progress is essential for the Executive to be able to develop its mainstreaming work. In particular, improved data and research will allow the Executive to conduct gender impact assessments of its policies and to look at the policy assumptions underlying spending.

Accessible data and research are also central to increasing the transparency of Executive decision-making processes and to allowing as broad a debate as possible on Executive policies and priorities.

In the future it is intended to continue this series of Social Focus publications, and areas such as age, and the relationship between urban and rural have been identified as possible themes.

In line with all statistical publications produced by the Scottish Executive, Social Focus on Women and Men 2002 is available on the internet at www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/sfwm.
The web version is similar to that of the Scottish Social Statistics 2001 and contains some interactive elements including a quiz.

Given the high-level nature of the information contained within this publication, some users may wish to access more detailed data. Contact details for the chapter authors and key data providers have been provided at the end of each chapter, along with a reference section containing useful reference websites and publications.

We hope that you find this an informative, useful and interesting publication.

< Previous | Contents | Next >