Women's Engagement
Strengthening women’s voices in
Government
Theresa May and Lynne Featherstone, Ministers for
Women and Equality, have made clear their commitment to strengthen
women’s voices in Government so it is important for them to hear
directly from you on what you think matters, what you think are the
priorities and what information you would find useful and how you
want to receive it.
About this webpage
- We would very much welcome any suggestions on what should be
included in the new Platform and the most effective ways to
communicate with you, the women’s sector and individual women.
- The Government Equality Office (GEO) has developed this webpage
so we can listen to women’s views while a new way of reaching out
to women and listening to their views is being developed;
- A consultation was launched on Monday 7th March which will set
out this new approach to engage with women and women’s
organisations in the UK. This will also explore how Government can
talk to women and women can talk to Government using an interactive
website or ‘IT Platform’.
Please use our new email address: womensengagement@geo.gsi.gov.uk
if you would like to get in
touch.
Women’s Engagement newsletter
The new team will produce a regular newsletter
for women’s engagement that will be published here and sent out to
organisations and individuals who have signed up to receive it. It
will deliver information and topics of interest.
Newsletter: Current
Women's Engagement newsletter
Previous Women's
Engagement newsletters
To receive Women's Engagement newsletters please
send your email address to womensengagement@geo.gsi.gov.uk
stating you would like to receive Women's Engagement
newsletters.
Women's National Commission
The Women's National Commission was abolished on
31st December 2010. If you would like to visit the WNC website
which is no longer maintained please go to
wnc.equalities.gov.uk
Closure of the Women's National Commission:
Women's Engagement participation
Sign up and join our database so that you can take part, have
the opportunity to be involved in events and discussions and
receive news about the Women's Engagement programme. Please fill in
the form below and email to: womensengagement@geo.gsi.gov.uk
Women’s Engagement Consultation goes live - Monday 7th
March
On Monday 7th March GEO launched a
consultation document which asks women how they wish to bring their
views to Government. The consultation period will last for 14 weeks
until 10th June.
The main issues which we seek women’s views on
are:
- Tell us what you or your organisation consider the most
important challenges or priorities facing women in the UK
today;
- Tell us how effective, in your or your organisation’s
experience, the four main methods we have outlined are in terms of
engaging with women in the UK;
- Accessibility issues – e.g. how do we help non IT users to take
part, ensuring marginalised or ‘hard to hear’ women including those
women who do not have English as a first language have their voices
heard? and,
- Are there other methods which GEO should be looking at as part
of our new approach?
Please click on the links below to view the
Written Ministerial Statements:
Please click on the link below to view the Consultation
Document:
To complete the consultation questions in our
survey please click on the link below:
UN Commission on the Status of
Women
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is
held annually at United Nations headquarters in New York in late
February – early March. The object of the Commission is to promote
implementation of the principle that men and women shall have equal
rights.
The 55th session of the CSW will be
held from 22 February - 4 March 2011. The thematic focuses of CSW
55 will be:
Main theme: “Access and participation of
women and girls to education, training, science and technology,
including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full
employment and decent work”; and,
Review theme: “The elimination of all forms
of discrimination and violence against the girl child”.
Our Ministers are committed to continuing the
strong and productive relationship with UK non-Governmental
organizations (NGOs). The upcoming 55th session in New York
provides a timely opportunity to set in motion our plans which also
includes revitalising communications on international matters. To
engage UK NGOs on the themes of the session and outline the
provisional arrangements, GEO organized and chaired a pre-CSW
briefing meeting in January. We were joined on the panel by policy
experts from across Government Departments with policy
responsibility for the priority and review themes.
UK NGOs can keep abreast of UN developments and
the UK's participation at CSW via regular GEO Women’s Engagement
e-bulletins and online shortly.
More information on CSW is available on the UN
Women website.
Information on NGO participation at the
55th session of the CSW is available here.
UN Convention for the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
The Convention for the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is a United Nations Human
Rights convention which the UK signed up to in 1981 and ratified in
April 1986. By signing up and ratifying CEDAW, States agree to
implement the measures set out within it by legislative and other
means. States agree have to submit every four years “periodic”
reports to the CEDAW Committee, the expert body that monitors
implementation of CEDAW.
The GEO is on course to submit the UK’s 7th
periodic report to the UN in May 2011, with the examination
expected in 2012. These reports provide progress information on the
situation of women in all the areas of discrimination detailed
within the Convention, as well as the UN CEDAW Committee’s previous
recommendations.
UK NGOs are very active in monitoring progress
against the Convention and the implementation of the Committee's
recommendations and therefore direct engagement with NGOs is
crucial to the process. So in November 2010, the Ministers for
Women & Equality hosted a large consultation event to discuss
priorities for the UK both domestically and internationally. To
ensure engagement is UK-wide, GEO has also supported similar events
in partnership with the Devolved Nations (Scotland, Northern
Ireland and Wales). For more information on CEDAW click the
following links:
United Nations: http://www.equalities.gov.uk/international/united_nations.aspx
UN CEDAW: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/
Tackling violence against women and
girls
On 25 November, the coalition government launched
a paper or narrative outlining their ambition and guiding
principles to tackle violence against women and girls. This will be
followed by a full plan of action next spring. Four key areas of
focus are highlighted; the prevention of violence including
reducing repeat victimisation, the provision of support, the
bringing together of groups to work in partnership and action to
reduce risk by ensuring perpetrators are brought to
justice.
The Home Secretary has allocated more than £28
million for specialist services to tackle violence against women
and girls until 2015, as part of cross-government plans.
Services which support victims of sexual and
domestic violence will continue to receive central Home Office
funding, including local domestic and sexual violence advisors,
services for high-risk domestic violence victims, national help
lines and work to prevent forced marriage.
More information on the
allocation of funds is available at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/media-centre/news/hidden-crime
More information of tackling Violence Against
Women is available at:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/CrimeJusticeAndTheLaw/CrimePrevention/DG_181549
Public Sector Equality
Duty
On 12 January, the Government announced its
intention to commence the new single public sector Equality Duty on
6 April. The new Equality Duty will replace the three existing
duties on gender, race and disability and extends coverage to
include age, sexual orientation, religion or belief and gender
reassignment in full.
For more information
see: http://www.equalities.gov.uk/equality_act_2010/public_sector_equality_duty.aspx
Civil society organisations have a key role to
play in holding public bodies to account for the actions they take
to meet the new Equality Duty. GEO wants to draw on the experience
of women’s organisations in holding public bodies to account on the
existing Gender Duty and how these methods can be applied to the
new Equality Duty. GEO will be engaging with women’s
organisations in the coming months to develop this.
You can access a fact
sheet on the existing gender duty
at:
http://www.equalities.gov.uk/pdf/8803-TSO-GenderEqualityDuty-FactSht.pdf
Women in Public Life
The Government has set itself the aspiration that
by the end of the Parliament at least half (50%) of all appointees
being made to the boards of public bodies will be women. These
appointments will continue to be made on merit and the Government
will step up its efforts to attract qualified women to public
positions and ensure that working practices and conditions are
family-friendly. We are also working with Cabinet Office to develop
an action plan to support departments to achieve more diverse
appointments, which will be published shortly.
The Equality Act 2010 includes a range of
positive action provisions that allow political parties to take
steps to encourage involvement amongst women and other
underrepresented groups. These include extending the period that
they can use women-only shortlists until 2030. The general positive
action provisions will also enable political parties to create
dedicated committees or groups or other fora exclusively for women
and broader shadowing, internship and mentoring opportunities for
women.
For more information
please click here: http://www.equalities.gov.uk/equality_act_2010.aspx
Improving transparency
We are working with partners to develop a
voluntary approach for gender equality reporting, including pay, in
the private and voluntary sector. We will lead by example in
promoting transparency in the public sector.
Women on Boards
Lord Davies, former Chair of Standard Chartered
PLC is currently leading work to develop an effective business-led
strategy to increase the number of women on corporate boards and
will set out his recommendations shortly. Again, the public
sector will lead by example by setting a new aspiration that by the
end of the current Parliament 50 per cent of all new appointments
to public boards will be women.
More information is available on the GEO website
on these issues.
Women in the criminal justice
system
Since the publication of the Corston Review of
women with particular vulnerabilities in the Criminal Justice
System, over £10 million has been provided by the Ministry of
Justice until March 2011 to established voluntary sector providers
to develop effective community based interventions for women to
tackle the underlying causes of their offending.
For more information, please click here:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/corston-response-report.htm
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