Scottish Government

TOWARDS AN EQUALITY STRATEGY
GRASSROOTS CONSULTATION WITH WOMEN IN SCOTLAND

SUMMARY

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INTRODUCTION

In January 2000, the Scottish Executive published a consultation paper - 'Towards an Equality Strategy'. This set out the Executive's commitment to equality and the main principles and proposals around this work. A key issue was how to ensure effective consultation, communication and participation of people with an interest in equality. Respondents outlined the barriers they faced and how these could be tackled. A report of responses was published in June 2000. To learn more about improving participation, the Scottish Executive ran three events in August 2000 to discuss the issues in more detail, face to face, with people with direct experience and expertise of discrimination and exclusion.

Three 'Grassroots' events were arranged, one with women, one with disabled people, and one with people from minority ethnic communities. The events were aimed at increasing the range and number of people in contact with the Executive, giving more people a chance to be involved in how policy is made and put into practice. The Executive and its partner agencies took steps to make the events as inclusive as possible, including support for travel, childcare and personal support costs, access audits for all venues and provision of Plain English Crystal Mark documents and alternative formats and communication support. Feedback from the events pointed out what further steps needed to be taken to address barriers to participation and this was an important aim of the events - to learn more about making consultation accessible to all.

Making the events happen required a lot of hard work from participants, facilitators and partner agencies. Their commitment and assistance helped make the events a successful and effective way of hearing what different groups wanted to tell us. We learnt a lot.

This is a brief summary of the day for consultation with women. A full report of the event is available, on request, from the Equality Unit.

THE SPEAKERS

The day began with brief introductory talks followed by a series of workshops and was chaired by Valerie MacNiven from the Scottish Executive. She began by saying that the Executive saw the Grassroots events as a starting point in the process.

Morag Alexander - the Equal Opportunities Commission

Morag outlined the work of the Equal Opportunities Commission. It is responsible for sex equality and has a statutory responsibility for the elimination of discrimination on the grounds of sex and marriage, the promotion of equality and the review of legislation. Whilst equality legislation is reserved to Westminster, one of the 4 key principles of the Scottish Parliament is equality of opportunity. The Scotland Act also has provision for the Parliament to encourage equality in devolved areas which include enterprise, health and housing. The Equal Opportunities Commission can challenge discrimination in key areas through its legal powers and by using its networks to ensure that information and good practice are shared across sectors. It works a lot with key partners. An event like this is an example of good practice.

There are 6 priority areas for the Equal Opportunities Commission:

• Equal Pay
• Sex stereotyping
• Work/life balance
• Women into political and public life
• Legislative framework
• Mainstreaming equality

Jackie Baillie, Deputy Minister for Communities

Jackie Baillie thanked everyone for agreeing to share their expertise and for their work in helping the Executive develop the Equality Strategy. She said that whilst there is a lot to do, this is a unique opportunity to bring about change. The Parliament has agreed to embed equality into all its work and with 37% of MSPs being women, they can bring their experience to bear.

Amongst the issues facing women in Scotland are discrimination, exclusion, poverty and inequality. Too many women are on low pay and women tend to take most responsibility for childcare. Domestic abuse affects many women and there are also important issues around health, education, housing and transport where women's needs are not fully considered. Women are also under represented in public life and on decision making bodies.

The Executive and the Parliament are determined to address equality and although responsibility for legislation on equal opportunities rests with the UK Government, the Scotland Act allows the promotion of equality. The Programme for Government states a commitment to equality; the Equality Unit was set up in September 1999 and the equality strategy is being developed. Consultation showed broad support for the draft strategy.

There are several key themes:

• support for mainstreaming
• the need for partnership
• the establishment of communication and dialogue
• training and awareness raising
• improving the statistical and research base
• the need for a clear action plan and targets for monitoring

The strategy will aim to integrate equality into policy at all stages from design to delivery, legislation and budgets. The Scottish Executive will promote good practice as an employer and actively promote equality; guidance and training will be provided on this. Work is also needed to increase the number of women in public appointments, to raise public awareness and to look at better communication and consultation. The Executive wants to be an exemplar and take a leading role in all its activities. It will look to equality groups, including the Women in Scotland Consultative Forum, to support its work.

The strategy is not just rhetoric: there is a strong commitment to equality and plans and progress will be reported on. The Executive will report annually to the Parliament and to the people of Scotland. Making progress needs partnership working. Today's consultation is about hearing women's views on the Executive's proposals and looking at ways of improving consultation and communication. By working together we will work towards a Scotland where tolerance, respect and understanding are valued and where everyone can participate free from discrimination and prejudice.

Question and Answer Session

Can the speakers say more about increasing women's political representation?

Morag explained that it wasn't always clear whether some of the ways proposed for balancing candidate lists were lawful. There were also other issues relevant to women, including what happened when they got into Parliament. There were problems with the whole system. Jackie said that what sustained many MSPs was the support they got from other women in the Parliament and in the community.

THE WORKSHOPS

There were 6 workshop sessions all of which considered two sets of issues. Everyone received a feedback form to allow for further comments. This report covers issues raised in workshops and on feedback forms with no attempt to decide whether any point was more or less important than any other.

THE WORKSHOPS

The first session workshops looked at the equality strategy and barriers to it. The groups considered:

• How the strategy might be developed
• Barriers to women's involvement in decision making, getting and feeding in information and participation in public life
• The effects of the barriers

The second workshops considered:

• What changes are needed to address the barriers
• Examples of Good Practice
• The Way Forward

Discussions were wide ranging and covered many issues. Because there was a lot of overlap across the questions, the points made in both workshops and on feedback forms have been pulled together into broad categories.

Barriers to consultation and communication

Information from the Scottish Executive

The Scottish Executive should look at how it provides information and communicates with different groups. It is poor at sharing information and internal communication. Information was limited and hard to access. All leaflets should say who to contact and the processes involved, for example, the impact of consultation and other input on policy and decision making. Women wanted to know about the impact of their input, in particular where views had not been taken on board or where the Executive had gone against expert option. Information was also required on the Women in Scotland Consultative Forum and how to access the Parliament and MSPs. The WiSCF database should be maintained and made available to women's organisations.

Many said they had provided input over many years and had no feedback or seen an impact on policy or decision making. This was disillusioning and put people off becoming involved in future. The Executive should not ask for views unless it was prepared to listen. The Scottish Executive should show it values women's experience and input and recognise the expertise of front line agencies. This in turn would enhance consultation. Too much of the Executive's output was jargon. All documents should be in clear and simple language. Too much consultation was paper based. The Executive should take a more strategic and expert approach to providing and handling information.

The Executive was also criticised for not making better use of women's experience, expertise and of statistics, including those held by voluntary organisations. It was important that civil servants accepted that they were not experts in everything. In particular, the culture and gender balance within the work force meant that there was often a mismatch between how the Executive saw women's lives and the reality. Contact with grassroots women and organisations was not just about consultation but also offered opportunities for raising the awareness and knowledge of civil servants.

These changes would require a change to the organisation and its culture. Civil servants would need to change their attitudes and legislation might be required. If a mistake is made, this should be accepted and the situation re-assessed. Civil servants and other policy makers should listen to what women wanted to say. Training should be introduced at all levels of the Executive.

Effective Consultation

A process

Effective inclusive consultation is a process; a relationship needs to be built. Women should be involved from the beginning and know they will be listened to. There should be information and feedback on the impact consultation made on decision making and follow up. Responses to consultation should be acknowledged. Contact should be regular and ongoing and should take account of the needs and interests of women. Some women suggested that there should be a more equal power balance between the Executive and women. For example, women should decide who was invited to events and should determine priorities. What was needed was more of a 2 way process - not only should women come to Government but the Government should come to women. The Executive should take the time and effort to explain consultation to groups of women and make participation as easy as possible. Providing information packs was one suggestion.

Time and Resources

Resources were essential. The Executive must ensure consultation is properly resourced. In particular, at community and grassroots level. It should ensure more time is available for consultation and acknowledge the resource and other constraints on women's organisations. Time should be allowed for organisations to circulate documents amongst members and to discuss and collate a response. Grassroots organisations in particular needed resourcing to participate, to facilitate participation, for capacity building, empowerment and confidence building. The need to train grassroots organisations and communities to undertake their own research was also mentioned.

Diversity

Women stressed the importance of the needs of different groups and different skills and abilities. Diversity should encompass all, including disabled women, minority ethnic women, older and younger women, women with learning difficulties, working women and women in poverty. Strategies should be put into place to ensure that consultation reached the widest range of women, in particular the most excluded groups. It should respect and address cultural barriers and the availability of working women. The Executive should also accept that not everyone would want to be involved.

Inclusion

A number of women mentioned the importance of going beyond centrally based activists to ensure that work was done with local communities and at grassroots levels. Consultation should be ongoing and cover all Scotland's geographical and interest communities, particularly outwith the central belt. This would require capacity building and training to be built in to ensure that grassroots and excluded women could participate effectively. The Executive should make a concerted effort to reach the most excluded women and understand the barriers to participation that are created as a result of poverty and violence.

Inclusion also meant providing appropriate environments within which women felt safe and able to contribute. Several women said that strange and formal settings put many women off attending and contributing. Information should be provided in a range of formats, communication support available and other barriers tackled. Thought should be given to the timing of events, recognising different demands on women, including childcare and work commitments. Crèches should be provided as a matter of course. Expenses for travel and other costs should be provided. The Executive should go to where women are, working with communities and local organisations.

Communication

An effective relationship requires good communication. The Executive should be more creative and innovative in how it communicates with women and learn from those with expertise in the community. Attention should be paid to supporting inclusive and sensitive communication, including appropriate formats and translators and interpreters. One suggestion was that the Executive ran a newsletter for women. Wider information provision should also be considered, for example, one-stop shops. For some, IT can be useful, but access to it varies.

Mechanisms and Structures

Work with grassroots and community groups not only requires resourcing, it requires infrastructure support. This involves partnership working with Local Authorities and national and local voluntary groups and establishing various other groups to cover the ground. For example, establishing small groups based on interest, building on local networks and using local advisors and bringing in larger organisations as required. Another suggestion was that the Executive should support groups of 'experts' so that this group of women can also make a contribution.

Accountability and Transparency

A key issue for many was that the Executive should be more open about what it did and be more accountable for its actions. For consultation, this included explaining how decisions were made about consultees and saying who was consulted with. There were concerns as to whether those consulted were actually the people best placed to participate. People also wanted to know what experts and other contacts the Executive was working with. There were concerns for some that the Executive only worked with professional women and for others, only with the activists. Everyone agreed the importance of working with women at grassroots level. There was also the question of how to consult representative bodies, were the individuals speaking for themselves or their employers/organisations. Some questioned whether those consulted had the most appropriate background and experience

The Grassroots Event

A number of people had not seen the strategy document and most had not seen the report of responses to the consultation. More time should have been allowed, particularly for questions. There should have been more emphasis on capacity building and training and more Ministers in attendance. Transport and childcare costs also should have been met. Finally, many mentioned the importance of providing feedback and that women should be able to comment on the draft report to ensure that their views had been taken into account.

BARRIERS PUBLIC APPOINTMENTS

Attitudes, stereotypes and discrimination

Many reasons were given for why women are underrepresented. There are too few role models, women as councillors, etc. Those women who do get involved are criticised and ridiculed. The low representation of women reflected and reinforced the idea that political and public life were not for women and decisions did not pick up women's concerns, serving to alienate women further. Some felt there was backlash against feminism and some women spoke of being obstructed.

The culture of public bodies was seen as unfriendly to women in various ways, it is adversarial, highly paid (and so not for women) and did not value or was actively hostile to women's experience. The types of behaviour and attitudes of those in public appointments could also alienate women and women might not see public appointments as rewarding. To increase women's participation required cultural change to reduce the dominance of male culture and values.

Stereotypes of women mitigated against selection and women putting themselves forward. Women often lacked confidence, had low self-esteem and expectations. Issues faced by many women, such as violence, poverty, literacy, language, skills, access and support were all suggested as issues which should be addressed. Some said that women are active in many areas of public life, only not those that were formal or high profile. What was needed was a better and broader definition of public life to respect the activity of many women.

Access and Communication

Access and communication barriers underpinned the problems. Public appointments were not advertised in media accessed by women who also did not have the contacts to hear about them. Language was formal and alienating. Broader democratic processes, voting in particular, were too complex and focused on votes not the process of democratic inclusion.

Resources were a major barrier, for example, relating to childcare and stable funding for women's organisations. Some said that it was harder for women to accept unpaid or lowly paid public appointments, as this option was economically unviable. Other women might be in jobs which would not allow time off for public appointments.

Changes and Actions

The causes of women's under representation were manifold and varied. The roots lay in structural and deep inequalities between women and men, in the labour market, in the home and within the family. Change was therefore required at various levels.

Some women suggested that mentoring, secondments into and out of the Executive and shadowing schemes would provide support and experience to take on public roles. Information on processes and examples of good practice would help broaden awareness, for example, the work of the European Parliament was seen as a good model. Training for women and policy makers would help change cultures and expectations. Women would benefit from training to boost their confidence and raise expectations, but men should also be trained and their attitudes challenged. The media could also play a role in this.

Work on equality, diversity and citizenship was required in school curriculum and careers advice with girls and boys from the earliest ages to build confidence and raise expectations. Women of all ages should be encouraged and supported to participate. Life experience should be valued and there should be greater understanding of and support for how women like to work.

Positive action was proposed, including the use of women only shortlists and 50 per cent quotas for women. More should be done to encourage women to participate in local politics, the training ground for public appointments. The Executive needed to enhance the visibility of women in public appointments through the media and through having a Minister for Women. Women in public life should also act properly, and be accountable and relate to and be seen in their communities.

Ongoing support should be made available for childcare and national information on key issues such as childcare and training made available for women. More value should be put on women's roles and the work of carers (of either sex)

Points were made about the democratic process, that it needs to be more dynamic and creative to involve young people. Work with employers was needed to help them overcome barriers.

Comments on the strategy

Many women urged the Executive simply 'to get on with it' - to take action to make changes that were pragmatic and down to earth. There should be fewer documents and papers and more action.

It was important that the strategy was properly resourced and a budget allocated. There should be action plans, with timescales, which are properly monitored and reported on. Some suggested that Codes of Practice should be produced. Appropriate and measurable targets should be set and met, with tangible outcomes. Independent reporting, in plain English, on the strategy was suggested. This was seen as more important than producing glossy reports. Reports should include a summary and overview of work so far and indicate who will undertake areas of work, the expected impact and how progress will be measured. Contacts for the Equality Unit should also be provided. It was important that the strategy and report were transparent and accessible in Plain English and available in the full range of alternative formats.

The importance of good quality gender statistics was stressed and the need to have an annual summary on women in Scotland. The value of Engender's work on this was raised. These and other mainstreaming tools were required and there should be more clarity about how the strategy was to be implemented.

There was support for the mainstreaming approach across policy areas, including budgetary processes and outcomes, although some people were concerned that women's issues might become lost or ghettoised. The Scottish Executive should be an exemplar, including as an employer. There was also scope for the Executive to take a wider role with local authorities, the voluntary sector and the general public to raise awareness of, and challenge, institutional sexism. Media images of women should be more positive and greater value put on the unpaid work undertaken by many women. Education of young people as tomorrow's parents was also important. Circulating simplified versions of the Annual Report to schools was suggested as a way of raising awareness and widening accountability. As a matter of course, participants and partners should be able to see the outcome of their input and work. There was one suggestion that the sex discrimination laws should be reviewed.

Infrastructure was needed to support effective participation and the Executive should use existing groups such as the Women in Scotland Consultative Forum and those at local and regional level. The Executive should know more about other bodies and a mapping exercise, capacity building and support for women and grassroots organisations were also needed. It was important that the strategy reached out to the grassroots both in impact and accountability. The strategy should target different groups of women, including the most excluded groups, women experiencing multiple discrimination and younger and older women. There was value in pulling equality and social justice closer together.

GOOD PRACTICE

Many suggestions were made for good practice, including work done by local community groups, national forums, in schools and with specific equality groups. Project work by anti poverty groups, specialist women's organisations and local and Trade Unions were also outlined. There was clear support for the Executive taking an active role in actively seeking out and promoting good practice, giving it a high profile and ensuring that groups could share practice. There was also support for looking at projects and strategies in other countries, developing accessible databases and making meetings and consultation more fun. The Scottish Executive had a key role in supporting and spreading good practice.

OTHER CONCERNS

Some women were cynical about the Executive's commitment to equality in general and women's issues in particular which were often under researched and 'tagged on at the end'. However, most women raised the importance of looking at women's lives in the round, in particular at the importance of proper support for and access to childcare and wider family support; women's employment - low paid jobs and occupational segregation; and the need to look at men and boys' attitudes. Education was an important area; both in terms of access for women but particularly for women experiencing multiple discrimination. The Executive should look at why women don't participate and take a role in working with other bodies to address institutional sexism, sexual harassment and change the culture to make it more women friendly.

Issues arising over the 3 events

Grassroots events were also held with disabled people and people from minority ethnic communities. A number of themes arose across the 3 events. These are summarised briefly below.

The Executive should move quickly from producing the strategy to developing detailed action plans, informed by the findings of the events. These should identify:

• the themes affecting individual groups
• actions required and ways themes will be addressed
• how issues which have arisen will be embedded in action plans
• adequate time and resources to participate meaningfully

The plans should include clear statements about measurable outcomes, timescales, responsibility and resources and should be monitored properly. The plans and information on progress should be made publicly available.

In all the events there was a degree of cynicism about whether the hopes would be translated into reality, but also some optimism that now is the time to make a difference with a Scottish Executive that is willing to listen.

The Executive should say how the findings of the days have been used, and materials should be circulated in draft to facilitators to ensure that everyone is happy about how their discussions are represented.

Resources are needed to support effective involvement in consultation and to implement change. Many suggestions were made about how to improve consultation, communication and participation for different equality groups.

Good consultation and participation should run alongside the action plans. And the Equality Strategy should spell out how change will be actioned and demonstrate a clear will to do so.

All recognised that there could be problems balancing a mainstreaming approach with an appreciation and focus on the diverse groups it encompassed. Individual action plans must take account of the needs and experiences of different groups and people facing multiple discrimination.

The strategy and action plans must be taken on across the Scottish Executive and senior figures within Government must endorse and act upon the strategy. Training and awareness raising for staff and politicians is also required.

The Executive should recognise the expertise within communities and foster equal partnerships, engaging partners on a regular basis and providing feedback on what account has been taken of their views. This makes the process more inclusive and accountable.

All recognised the problems of seeking the views of a wide range of groups and individuals, and that the consultation base must be expanded. This is a task for the Scottish Executive and requires an up to date database of organisations and contacts and a concerted effort to tackle barriers to participation.