Engender member numbers and activities: FOI release

Information requested

How many members (total, corporate and/or individual) Engender (a body funded by the SG) has now, or has had in any year from 2015 onwards.

How far activities undertaken by Engender have involved any sort of public engagement and if so, involving what numbers of people.

Response

Addressing your request for information held by the Scottish Government on how many members (total, corporate and/or individual) Engender (a body funded by the SG) has now, or has had in any year from 2015 onwards, the Scottish Government holds copies of Engender’s Annual Reports covering this period which document the Board membership for Engender. Engender appointed 12 Board members in 2015 and, according to their annual reports, have maintained 12 Board members in every year since. The Annual Reports also contain Engender’s staff members each year:

In 2014/15 Engender had 4 staff members.
In 2015/16 Engender had 7 staff members.
In 2016/17 Engender had 7 staff members.
In 2017/18 Engender had 7 staff members.
In 2018/19 Engender had 7 staff members.
In 2019/20 Engender has 10 staff members.

Engender’s Annual Reports are available publically and can be found in their publications tab on their website under activity reports. The Scottish Government are also aware, from these reports, that Engender do offer other membership options to the public, however, the Scottish Government do not hold any information on the number or make up of these members.

You also requested any information that the Scottish Government holds on how far activities undertaken by Engender have involved any sort of public engagement and if so, involving what numbers of people. The Scottish Government hold some information on activities undertaken by Engender which have involved public engagement, this information is documented in the table below.

- Name of event/activity
- Date of event
- Attendees/participants
- Notes

Gender Matters: Equality and Inclusion through Care
October 13, 2015
Total attendees unknown however 45 delegates were expected

Fairer Scotland: Employment support focus group
October 28, 2015
10
Further information can be found at: https://www.engender.org.uk/content/events-past/45-fairer-scotland-employment-support-focus-group/

Fairer Scotland: Unpaid care focus group
October 20, 2015
Information not held
Further information can be found at: https://www.engender.org.uk/content/events-past/44-fairer-scotland-unpaid-care-focus-group/

Employability focus group
September 8, 2015
Information not held
Further information can be found at: https://www.engender.org.uk/content/events-past/39-employability-focus-group/

Our Bodies, our choice report
2013-2015
Information not held
Engender, Inclusion Scotland and Scottish Disability Equality Forum engaged with the public to inform their ‘Our Bodies, our choice’ report

West Lothian project
2015-2016
Information not held
Engender partnered with Skills Development Scotland to deliver the West Lothian project to tackle occupational segregation in Modern Apprenticeship programmes

Scottish Government Consultation on Social Security in Scotland: Focus Groups with women
12 September, 14 September and 24 October 2016
46 women across the 3 events
Further information can be found at: https://www.engender.org.uk/content/publications/1610-social-security-engagement-events.pdf that list details of these events. These events were part of a wider programme of events in partnership with Scottish Women’s Aid, the Refugee Council and Carers Scotland.

Local Government elections workshops and conference
planned
Information not held
Progress reports note work to organise these workshops and conference.

Consultation with disabled women in relation their experiences of reproductive and parenting services
Information not held
Information not held
The Scottish Government provided funding for a project which included 2 discussion events, 7 focus groups, 2 round tables and a conference.

Engender Conference - Scotland's Feminist
September 8, 2017
Information not held

Gender pay gap strategy engagement project
Information not held
Information not held
While several events were run by Engender and Close the Gap, only one, in Glasgow, involved any public engagement.

Representation of the people act 1918 podcasts
Early 2019
500 downloads per episode anticipated
Funding application to produce 3 publically available podcasts.

Celebrating 25 years of engendering change
June 27, 2018
140 attendees expected
Attendees will include Engender staff, MSP's and supporters and those from the wider women’s and equalities sectors in Scotland.

Disabled Women's Conference - our bodies our choice
November 6, 2018
50 attendees expected

Carers Scotland Engender
October 12, 2019
12 attendees

Anniversary of 'Our Bodies our choice' parliamentary reception
December 11, 2019
Information not held

Engender conference
January 17, 2020
100 attendees expected

Anniversary of 'Our Bodies, Our Rights' Parliamentary Reception
March 10, 2020
80 expected

In addition, progress reports provided by Engender to the Scottish Government include mention of the following activities that may include public engagement:

• Engender hosted an event on Tuesday 9th October 2018 as part of the Edinburgh World Justice Festival, looking at abortion rights around the world with speakers discussing the situation on the island of Ireland, Poland, and here in Scotland.
• Working in partnership with Take One Action Film Festival, Engender screened films and hosted debates on issues such as, women’s political representation, women in the media and Violence Against Women with new audiences in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness.
• A Bella Caledonia article about Engender’s report on disabled women’s reproductive rights, ‘Our Bodies, Our Rights’, and a guest piece by Elspeth Wilson on long-action reversible contraception for the On The Engender blog were shortlisted for the 2019 Write to End Violence Against Women Awards. Elspeth’s piece won an award for best blog at the ceremony in December 2019.
• Engender reported to the Scottish Government that they now have over 2,600 likes on Facebook and over 11,000 Twitter followers. These numbers may have changed since they were reported to the Scottish Government on 20 February 2020.
• Engender provide a Friday Feminist Five, a weekly newsletter to members.
• Engender have had media coverage on issues including; UK-wide abortion decriminalisation (CommonSpace), Declaration of women’s sex-based rights (The Scotsman & CommonSpace), Period poverty legislation at Holyrood (The Scotsman), Misogyny as a standalone offence (Third Force News and the National),Gender balance in the Scottish courts (the National) and Sex & Power in Scotland 2020 (the Herald).
• Engender spoke at the March for Choice organised by the Scottish Irish Abortion Rights Campaign outside the Scottish Parliament.
• Undertook a ‘Menopause Matters’ survey gathered experiences from women in every local authority in Scotland.
• Engender reported to the Scottish Government that they spent the first part of 2020 working on aspects of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), holding events across Scotland, producing a survey on women's equality in Scotland.
• Engender have produced a range of podcasts, in addition to those documented in the table.

It may also be useful to note that further information on Engender’s events, podcasts and other activities involving public engagement can be found on their website.

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