W@W Topic of the Month

September 2008

The Scottish Government Equality Unit funds the WEA W@W Project for 3 Years

Why Womens’ Development is Important

It is known from national surveys etc that women are significantly under-represented in all forms of decision-making in Scotland, and particular groups of women are especially marginalised.

The Electoral Reform Society and the Equal Opportunities Commission, (now EHRC), publicise this fact and fully support efforts to remedy this inequality. This imbalance has the effect of restricting the breadth of experience and knowledge available when important decisions affecting all citizens are made.

Women have particular attributes, experiences and perspectives to offer as well as the right to be represented. This is a fundamental inequality which should be addressed in order that Scotland can benefit from truly representative participation in government and civic life. Women consider that this discrimination not only affects them as individuals but their absence from important discussions has repercussions for all aspects of life in Scotland.

The existing pay-gap which remains quite unacceptable, shows that women continue to miss out on life chances despite the progress made in the education of girls and young women. W@W has worked with the Close the Gap project to highlight this inequality and encourage women to challenge discrimination and to work collectively to initiate change.

What We're Planning to do Next

The Scottish Government’s Equality Unit has decided that the work of the W@W project makes a valuable contribution to addressing these issues and has agreed funding for us to continue and develop our work with women across the Highlands Argyll and Moray.

During the next three years we will build on our previous successful project development which has 7 dynamic women’s networks comprising more than 1800 women in Argyll, Badenoch & Strathspey, Inverness, Lochaber, Skye & Lochalsh, Moray and Rossshire. We will continue to offer monthly training events in each geographic area based on our existing programme which emphasises confidence building and removing barriers to participation. Several new topics will be offered from this Autumn – including Dealing with Fear, Mental Health Awareness, Mediation, Voice Coaching, Mentoring and various aspects of Money Matters designed specifically for women.

We will organise local consultations on contemporary subjects in collaboration with partner agencies to enhance the relevance and effectiveness of their services and policies. Our Advisory Group which meets quarterly, is made up of women representatives from pubic organisations including the Highland Council, NHS Highland, Highlands & Islands Enterprise, STUC, Unison, and several private companies including an employment lawyer from Ledingham Chalmers. We recently worked with NHS Highland and the Wellbeing Alliance on the consultation for the Highland’s Tackling Violence Against Women Policy.

We will work in partnership with the Scottish Womens’ Convention – the national organization which consults and represents the views of Scottish women and informs policy-makers of issues of importance across the country.

We will continue to develop our website, highlighting themes to stimulate the thinking of Highland, Moray and Argyll women, and will extend the distribution of our monthly e-bulletin to include more network participants.

We will focus our development on excluded women, specifically carers, minority ethnic women, low-paid women and those in the remote northern areas of Caithness & Sutherland.

We hope to initiate work on new subject areas such as ‘women and money’ ‘women and the law’ and ‘women and politics’ which all impact significantly on the ability of women to fully participate in society.

What Difference are We Making?

We will continue to use the evaluation tools developed last year, with Evaluation Support Scotland, particularly an on-line survey tool, specially designed events evaluations and website statistics. These should enable us to ensure that the stated aims of W@W are monitored and that we consistently meet our annual targets to increase awareness and involvement of women, to provide stimulating and thought-provoking training and to undertake effective ongoing partnership working.

The W@W project aims to increase the awareness of all women in the Highland, Moray and Argyll areas to enable them to become fully involved in decision making, and simultaneously to increase their self esteem. Previous W@W research indicated that the greatest barrier to participation is a lack of confidence and an absence of information and support. W@W prioritises the distribution of current information and consultation opportunities through our website and monthly e-bulletin, and provides training in personal development including confidence building techniques. W@W networks include women, in the workplace and the community, in a range of occupations and sectors, across this largely rural area.
In our 2007 on-line survey W@W showed:

•  71% of respondents thought that attending W@W events increased their confidence to speak out.
• 19% had joined a group or committee which required them to speak out

As a result of W@W involvement

• 45% had increased their participation in decision making, by enhancing their personal development
• 40% by enabling them to challenge decisions
• 31% now voice their opinions in consultations
• 23% have become more active in their workplace or community

Future Direction...

We intend to further diversify our networks by actively promoting W@W to carers groups and in low paid workplaces, through union learning reps. We will also use existing WEA contacts and others to develop network activities in Caithness & Sutherland. In addition we will continue to encourage women speakers to present topics of interest to our networks and, where appropriate, to promote their business through links to our website.

We intend to offer facilitation of consultations to partner agencies, by organising events for W@W networks to learn about the key issues and then to respond to proposals about the development of policies and services. This support will stimulate responses which ultimately will impact on the lives of individuals and families across the Highlands, Moray and Argyll.

Please contact us with contributions to our plans from W@W network members and others.

Contributed by Frances Powell, W@W Co-ordinator