Effective government policies for advancing equality for women and girls: international evidence review

Introduction

This report presents the findings from a Scottish Government commissioned evidence review of policies that international governments have delivered to advance equality for women and girls. The focus of the review was on providing the Scottish Government with timely, robust information on policies which advance equality for women and girls to inform the first equality strategy for women and girls and the subsequent delivery plan. The emphasis was on policies that would be feasible and effective in the Scottish context.

Background

The Scottish Government has committed to developing an equality strategy for women and girls, which will be developed in partnership with the First Minister’s National Advisory Council on Women and Girls (NACWG) and the Empowering Women Panel (EWP). The NACWG was established in 2017 to provide advice on what’s needed to tackle gender inequality in Scotland. It champions positive progress and policies where these are making a meaningful difference to women and girls’ lives. It is supported by the EWP, a group of 20 women, girls and non-binary people, with a range of backgrounds and experiences from across Scotland, who do not normally have the chance to talk about what matters to them.

A high-level strategy, which will outline a vision and goals for a gender equal Scotland based on the views of women and girls, is planned for publication. This will be followed by an action focused delivery plan, underpinned by a robust measurement and accountability framework. The delivery plan will build on work that is underway and will set new short- to long-term actions to meet the goals and vision set out in the strategy. Both the strategy and delivery plan will be intersectional, prioritising women and girls who experience multiple and compounding inequalities.

To develop the strategy and delivery plan, insights will be sought from women with diverse lived experience and the organisations that represent them, focusing on women and girls who face multiple and compounding inequalities and marginalisations. Evidence from academics and experts will be reviewed or commissioned, including this review of international examples of successful actions to advance equality for women and girls.

Overall aim of the review

The primary research question for the review was: What are examples of effective policies that governments have delivered to make significant advancements to equality for women and girls from countries such as Scotland? It sought to understand:

• what policies are successful in advancing gender equality?
• how these policies work and how success is supported (what institutions or approaches are in place)?
• whether these policies may be applicable to Scotland given potential contextual differences?

The focus was on countries that have higher levels of gender equality than Scotland, as measured by evaluation outcomes or country-comparative tools such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Social Institutions and Gender Index Dashboard,^[1] or that have improved gender equality significantly in recent years.

The research team was asked to look particularly at priority policy areas that had been identified by the NACWG, EWP and women and girls and the organisations that support them, early in the development of the strategy. These included: the economy; social care and childcare; structures and systems; education; and leadership and representation. The policy areas of women’s health and violence against women and girls (VAWG) were out with the scope as there are existing Scottish Government strategies in place to address these issues.

The research team was supported by a Research Advisory Group (RAG) made up from members of the NACWG and the Scottish Government’s Gender Equality and Equality and Social Justice Analysis Teams.

Approach

Search strategy

The review was a desk-based exercise that looked at existing publications from government, academia and third sector that provide evidence of the impact of policies that aim to advance equality for women and girls. The focus was material published within the last 10 years.

An initial literature search was based on the key words and phrases: gender policies; gender equality; equality for women and girls; government approaches to gender equality; international countries similar to Scotland; evaluation; impact assessment; and gender strategy. It was carried out in August 2025 and generated a list of 159 papers and reports for further consideration.

In addition to reviewing each of these evidence sources, the team used snowballing/citation searching, following up on reference lists, and did a search of both grey literature and a range of international/national websites related to gender equality.

Inclusion criteria

The research team developed a set of parameters/inclusion criteria for use in considering any policy examples found. These related primarily to the country from which any example was being taken, with a focus on a degree of transferability to a Scottish context. The criteria included that the country from which any policy example was taken is a functioning democracy with a mixed/social market economy. Other considerations were topic/policy area specific, and included population size, the division of powers between national, regional and local government institutions, and having a state-led education system. The research team were also cognisant of whether possible examples related to a reserved matters policy area or to one that is devolved to the Scottish Parliament.

It was agreed that the focus would be on looking for recent or current policy examples, with 2015 set as a target cut-off date. However, there would be an option to look further back if required (due to lack of more current examples) or beneficial (because an interesting/successful initiative was particularly relevant to the Scottish context).

There was also consideration of what success might look like and possible indicators of success. The latter included that:

• external/independent evaluation had been positive or had identified positive aspects/potential in the policy example
• internal, published performance data, or an interim evaluation, identified or suggested initial success

In terms of what success might look like, the research team considered whether:

• the policy had delivered/is delivering the policy aim or objective(s) intended
• if the policy/approach is at a relatively early stage, whether the available evidence suggests it is likely to have a positive impact; for example, whether the proposed policy/approach has drawn on positive impact evidence from elsewhere to help formulate the aims and intended outcome

Long and short list development

Based on the outputs from the search, the research team developed a long list of 22 possible examples to be included in the final report. The research team then met with the project’s RAG to review the long-listed examples.

The research team and the RAG agreed which of the examples would be taken forward.^[2] The group also decided on some regrouping of the remaining examples, leaving 14 examples to be taken forward. Five overarching policy areas were agreed, with the example case studies included and some other, more contextual items included in the introductory sections.

The potential to look for a small number of additional examples relating to policy areas not covered by examples in the longlist was also discussed.^[3] This has resulted in the addition of two further policy examples, bringing the final number to 16 examples.

Limitations and observations about the review process

As noted above, this piece of work was not a fully comprehensive review of all policies related to gender equality but was a targeted exercise focused on looking for examples of effective policies that governments have delivered to make significant advancements to equality for women and girls from countries such as Scotland. The literature search identified a considerable and fascinating body of evidence, some of which has been used to frame the context in which examples sit. However, much of the material was focused on issue/problem identification and/or discussion of possible solutions. Examples of actual policy initiatives were comparatively limited in their number.

The research team did not focus solely on looking for examples from those countries most frequently used as comparator countries for Scotland (e.g. the Nordic countries, Canada, New Zealand etc.) and aimed to look as far afield as helpful. However, the majority of examples found, and those subsequently included within this report, were from Western European countries.^[4]

Under each policy area, the report presents a brief overview of the current context within Scotland. However, the examples may have similarities to, or overlap with, work already ongoing in the Scottish Government or elsewhere across Scotland. Where this is the case, it is hoped that the examples may both reinforce the importance of the work underway and help inform future activity.

Some of the examples found related to policy areas where matters are reserved to the UK Government. These examples have been included as possible areas for future discussions or joint working between the Scottish and UK Governments.

Finally, please note that the terminology and language used within the examples may reflect that used within the research reports or other documentation from which the example was taken. There may be occasions where this terminology does not reflect that otherwise used currently in Scotland.

Report structure

The main body of the report sets out each of the policy areas being covered in turn, as follows:

• Gender focused budgeting and procurement
• Work and employment
• Education
• Planning and service design
• Justice system

Each chapter gives an overview of the context, before setting out one or more examples of policy approaches or initiatives from other countries. These examples are listed in the table below.

Please note that the text relating to the specific examples may draw extensively on the main source documents referenced or may have been edited for brevity and/or based on the focus of this report.

The report concludes with a short section setting out the reflections of the Craigforth team.

National policy examples