Hope you can join us on Wednesday 9th Feb at 6pm in the Scottish Parliament where we are meeting to discuss Engender's parallel report to the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).  The Commission meets between 22nd Feb - 4th March this year and the theme is around women and girls' access to and participation in education, training, Science and Technology'.  Our parliament meeting is in conjuction with Close the Gap and the Scottish Resource Centre for women in Science, Engineering and Technology and will be chaired by Margaret Mitchell MSP.  Titled 'Jobs for the boys and girls? Women’s engagement with science, technology, engineering and maths, and occupational segregation'  the meeting is an opportunity to add your comments to the final report.  See here for full details and please email me at karen@engender.org.uk or call the office on 0131 558 9596 to book a place.  Engender's statement which was sent to the CSW in November gives a taste of the discussion - read it here. 

T he new year brings the new challenge of how we get women in Scotland's views to our governments and wider without the Women's National Commission which was abolished by the Coalition last month.  Engender, the Scottish Women's Convention and the WNC Scottish Commissioner invite you to a meeting in Stirling to discuss international reporting, in particular reporting to the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).   The meeting is in the Albert Halls, 1.30-3.30pm on Monday 24th Jan.  Please email lorna.kettles@scottishwomensconvention.org  to book a place. 

The European Commission publish an quarterly update on women and men in decision-making which gives highlights of developments throughout Europe.  See the latest update here. 

The European Women's Lobby have published a position paper on Violence Against Women.  ’Towards a Europe free from all forms of male violence against women’ contains an analysis of vaw as a structural expression of gender inequality and contains policy reccomendations.  Read the paper here

S ally Armstrong from Stirling University is looking for young women aged 18-23 who would be willing to talk to her about feminism and what it means to them.  This research is for her dissertation for her honours degree.  The aim of her dissertation is to explore the role of feminism in the every day lives of young women and she is interested in how members have got involved with Engender and the ways in which they think feminism has shaped their beliefs.  If you are over the target age yourself, perhaps you have daughters or friends who would be happy to talk about the F word?

If you would like to participate or have any questions about the study please contact Sally at sfa00001@stir.ac.uk

The new UN gender agency UN Women is up and running with a new website which is worth a visit - see www.unwomen.org  The official launch event for the agency is on 24th Feb at the UN Headquarters in New York..