Esther Breitenbach

Understanding Women in Scotland

This article explores obstacles to understanding the history and contemporary experiences of women in Scotland, and to the development of feminist research in Scotland. It is argued that explanations which invoke Scottish male chauvinism and misogyny alone are insufficient, and that the marginalization of women in Scotland is produced both by male domination within Scotland, and by English cultural and political hegemony within the UK. The article comments on the relationship of the concept of ‘Britishness’ to that of ‘Scottishness’ (and other identities within the UK) and illustrates how the frequent confusion of ‘British’ with ‘English’ serves to obscure Scottish experience. It is also argued that the place of Scotland within the British state has led to the creation of an institutional framework that disadvantages women, and a system of government that excludes women. This implies that feminist debates on the state in Britain require a specific focus on the form of the British state, and in the context of constitutional change in particular this is important for the development of future strategies. It is argued that the double marginalization of women in Scotland is not just a problem in relation to the development of feminist research, but is also a political problem in that it contributes to a degree of alienation from feminism in England. The article concludes by arguing for the necessity of recognition of difference, but also for dialogue, as the basis for feminist alliances in different parts of the UK.

Religious Literature and Discourses of Empire: The Scottish Presbyterian Foreign Mission Movement

That foreign missions played a not insignificant role within the British Empire has been increasingly recognized as the body of scholarship on missions grows. Many scholars in this field have aimed to evaluate the impact of foreign missions on the peoples with whom they worked, and to elucidate the nature of the encounter between missionaries and indigenous peoples in colonial territories. More recently the impact of foreign missions on people in Britain has been a focus of research, and there is growing evidence that the foreign mission movement was instrumental in shaping understandings of empire and of the other peoples governed by the imperial state, as well as in shaping the construction of identities in Britain.1 This chapter discusses the ways in which missionary societies and the Presbyterian churches mediated an understanding of empire for people in Scotland.2

The Pilton Partnership: Bringing Together the Social and Economic to Combat Poverty

The European Communitys Poverty 3 Programme ran from 1989 until June 1994. The programme part-funded partnerships which aimed to combat poverty through actions addressing the social and economic causes and manifestations leading to social exclusion. In this article, we describe some of the activities of one of these partnerships the Pilton Partnership in Edinburgh. The Poverty 3 Programme developed and built upon previous EC experience from the first and second programmes. Demonstration projects based upon particular geographical areas have been a feature of British urban policy for a quarter of a century. The distinctive features of Poverty 3 were its emphasis on partnership, participation and multidimensional action. This article describes the context within which the Pilton Partnership was based: the area of Pilton and the organisational structure of the Partnership. It outlines the way in which activity was directed through a strategy developed in the early stages of the project. It then concentrates upon examining those activities which related directly to employment, training and education. In conclusion, it discusses the actions in the light of the programme principles and comments on the role of the European Union in combating the widening gap between rich and poor in Europe.

A Comparative Study of the Women's Trade Union Conference and the Scottish Women's Trade Union Conference

The intention of this article is to make a comparative study of womens activity in trade unions in Scotland and in Britain as a whole, and to discuss womens demands for better representation in the unions. It is important to point out that this is not a straightforward comparison between Scotland and England (in case it should be taken to be so), since Scottish trade unionists participate in unions organizing workers throughout Britain, and in the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and Womens TUC. This comparison will focus mainly on the womens conferences of the TUC and the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), the reasons for this choice will be elucidated later in the text. Firstly, in order to establish how much ground there is for comparison I wish to briefly indicate the similarities and differences existing between Scotland and the rest of Britain, relevant to the issue under discussion. This entails outlining the pattern of womens employment in Scotland, and the way in which the particular characteristics of the Scottish economy affect that pattern. The general level of unionization of women in Scotland and in Britain will also be briefly described. Womens Work in Scotland In Britain there are over nine million women at work, forming 41.2% of the total workforce. In Scotland there are over 875,000 women workers, forming 42.2% of the Scottish workforce. The pattern for womens employment in Scotland in terms of industrial distribution does not differ significantly from that for Britain as a whole, i.e. women are concentrated in services and distribution, and are in the least skilled and the lowest paid occupations. Table 1 demonstrates the

Introduction: The Changing Politics of Gender Equality

The beginning of the twenty-first century is an appropriate time to reflect on the progress that has been made towards gender equality and to consider the prospects for further advancement. This edited collection draws on experiences of the 1980s and 1990s, but has been brought together in a period following a fundamental change in the British political landscape. The election of a Labour government in 1997, committed to a programme of constitutional change and modernisation, has provided new opportunities and new structural spaces in which the politics of gender equality can be pursued. It is within this context of change that our contributors have reviewed past policies and practices before exploring the opportunities and challenges for the future.

Review: The Gender Impact of Compulsory Competitive Tendering in Local Government

This report is a well documented and detailed account of research carried out by the authors into the impact on equal opportunities of Compulsory Competitive Tendering in local government. The research consisted of a sample study of 39 local authorities in England, Wales, and Scotland. This included 3 Regional Councils and 3 District Councils in Scotland. It examined the local authority services in which Compulsory Competitive Tendering is now operational, and also looked at the impact of community care, though since this is more recent it was not possible to analyse its full impact. The four service areas studied were building cleaning, education catering, refuse collection, and sport and leisure management.

Review: The Economics of Equal Opportunities

A casual reader of the popular press might be forgiven for thinking that women had achieved equality with men, or even thinking that women were gaining ascendancy over men. Large compensation awards for successful sex discrimination cases, most new jobs going to women, girls out-performing boys at school, women being awarded an equal share of their husbands pensions on divorce, and so on, may all be seen to be indicators of womens equality. The reality, of course, is much more complex than the headlines suggest. In fact women still face considerable disadvantage in the labour market. What explanations exist for this, and what impact have equal opportunities policies had?