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: –
http://www.equalities.gov.uk/what_we_do/womens_engagement.aspx
- 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 7 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'. The Consultation Survey closed on 10 June 2011.
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 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
- Revised Women's Engagement Partner Form
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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If you wish to subscribe to the Government Equalities Office mailing list, please visit:
http://geo-newsletters.org.uk/subscribe/ and follow the instructions on that page