Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Conference
report
Organised by
Oxfam UK Poverty
Programme and
Regional Action
West Midlands
This report was written by Nikki van der Gaag, with assistance from
Sue Smith, Jo Rowlands and Sharon Palmer.
Acknowledgements 5
1. Introduction 7
Postscript 39
page 3
FOREWORD
A tale of two cities: gender and the reality of regeneration was an inspirational
national event jointly organised by Regional Action West Midlands and Oxfams
UK Poverty Programme. It brought to the fore the need to look behind and beyond
the banner headlines of regeneration to see how it affects women and men
differently.
Regeneration is not limited to economic activity. It embraces and is integral to
issues of poverty, social inclusion, equality and participation at all levels. The
conference highlighted these issues and those relating to quality of life at very local
levels through project-based workshop presenters and facilitators.
A gender impact assessment framework used by decision makers, funders and
delivery bodies, within regeneration policy, strategies and initiatives, is essential to
improving the delivery of regeneration programmes across the nine regions of
England and the Elected Assemblies of Scotland and Wales.
With the assistance of their funders, Regional Action West Midlands and Oxfams
UK Poverty Programme have been able to test and refine approaches to gender
impact assessments. This is an important document and I would recommend it to all
decision makers and regeneration practitioners.
page 5
About the organisers
Oxfam UKs Poverty Programme was created in 1996 in response to the growth in
poverty and inequality in the UK. Its work is guided by the same principles as
Oxfams work in other countries: it develops ways of working which enable people
living in poverty to work out their own solutions to their problems and to challenge
the policies and practices that are responsible for creating and maintaining
poverty.
Oxfams ReGender project is a two-year gender and regeneration project that
began in October 2002. It supports and encourages the equal participation of
women and men in regeneration schemes in the UK by:
Working with grassroots women to hold local regeneration bodies to account
and ensure that gender needs are being met.
Influencing key regeneration decision makers at national, regional and local
government level to commit resources to meeting the different needs of the
poorest men and women.
Influencing government to include women at senior levels and men at community
levels of regeneration programmes.
Regional Action West Midlands is the regional strategic network for the voluntary
and community sector in the West Midlands, and works to promote and maximise
the contribution of these sectors in improving the quality of life for disadvantaged
communities in the region.
The West Midlands Gender and Equalities Programme was set up to influence
policy and decision makers and encourage them to promote positive action to
address gender differences within regeneration programmes.
Its key objectives are:
Strengthening their commitment to an inclusive approach to regeneration which
incorporates a gender dimension.
Disseminating research which has highlighted the absence of women from
regeneration initiatives.
Identifying and disseminating good practice where it does exist.
Promoting positive action to address gender differences within regeneration.
page 6
1. Introduction
The ideas in this report come from the speakers, case studies and
testimonies of community-level women at the first ever national
conference on gender and regeneration in the UK. It was held in
Birmingham in March 2004 and organised by Oxfams UK Poverty
Programme and Regional Action West Midlands (RAWM).
There were almost 120 participants, ranging from women in
community groups to women and men with senior positions in
academia, non-governmental organisations and government. All of
them are working in regeneration, and all were agreed on one thing:
that gender lies at the heart of regeneration, and that unless the
different needs of men and women are taken into account,
regeneration will not work.
The conference aimed to demonstrate the evidence that when gender
analysis and gender impact assessment are used, and when women
have got to grips with the jargon and the structures of regeneration,
the result is better value regeneration programmes that address
poverty and exclusion more effectively.
As Chris Booth from Sheffield Hallam University put it: All the big
regeneration issues transport, education, housing, health, the
environment have important gender considerations.
When gender is taken on board in regeneration, both men and
women feel empowered, leading to real changes for communities and
those who live in them. Better-tailored and targeted programmes can
help reduce poverty and unemployment, increase educational
attainment and improve health and quality of life. This report is about
those changes and how people from the grassroots to those in
power have helped to make them happen. Audrey Bronstein, of
Oxfam UKs Poverty Programme noted that: Without power and
influence people in poverty have little chance of changing their lives.
A gender perspective
'Gender is different from sex. Sex refers to biological difference
between men and women, gender is the social and cultural
difference between men and women that we all learn from
society, families, and our culture.' Cae Mawr group, Llandudno
'A gender perspective produces policies or projects based on
accurate knowledge of the different situations, resources and
responsibilities of women's and men's everyday lives. At a
deeper level it also encompasses a commitment to change; an
understanding that greater gender equality can only be
advanced by challenging gender stereotypes, and creating
non-traditional opportunities.' Cinnamon Bennett, Gender
Manager for the Objective 1 Programme in South Yorkshire.
page 7
2. Regeneration: the context
It is fantastic that we have got this far; it is a shame that it has
taken so long! Chris Bonnard, RAWM
Jargon buster
'I used to be really intimidated by all the jargon in
regeneration but now I am happy to ask people to explain.
If I don't understand, other people won't either. They call me
Little Miss Clarifier!' Sue Ralph, Black Country Women's
Network
page 8
Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) are non-statutory, multi-agency bodies,
which match local authority boundaries, and aim to bring together at a local
level the different parts of the public, private, community and voluntary sectors
in England.
Communities First is the main regeneration programme in Wales, similar to
LSPs in England. The partnerships have to be made up of a 1/3 private
sector, 1/3 public sector and 1/3 community sector.
New Deal for Communities (NDC) is an English regeneration project with a
clear community focus which aims to help with employment, training and
education; and to create and build better homes.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) has responsibility for urban
planning and community-based regeneration. This is delivered by the
Neighbourhood Renewal Unit (NRU) that now has the most substantial
regeneration streams based within it.
Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) are under the Department of Trade
and Industry (DTI) and their role reflects the DTI's brief on economic and
employment. They have responsibility for regional economic development.
Social Inclusion Partnerships (SIPs), manage local regeneration initiatives in
the most deprived areas of Scotland. Community Planning Partnerships are
due to replace SIPs in 2004 and establish across the whole of Scotland.
page 9
3. Why is gender important in
regeneration?
If women are not there [at decision making levels], womens needs
will not be addressed, womens priorities will be overlooked! GEM
Project, Manchester
page 11
Gender imbalances
'The European Union stipulates that the representation of either gender in
decision making processes at the EU, national and international level
should not fall below 40 per cent.' European Parliament Resolution on
Balanced Participation 2001
Inthe UK:
18% of MPs are women
23% of local councillors are women
6% of high court judges are women
In the public sector in 2003, women held 23% of top management posts
In the private sector, 2% of directors on the boards of companies were
women
Only 30% of minority ethnic women are managers or professionals
compared to 40% of black men, although 52% of black women have
further and higher education qualifications compared to 28% of white
women and 36% of black men
In Manchester, in local meetings, 57% are female, 43% male; in
intermediate meetings, 25% are female, 75% male, and in city-wide
meetings, 100% are male.
Source: Gender and Community Engagement in Manchester, Heidi Safia
Mirza (www.sourceuk.net/articles/F00353.html)
page 12
4. Why is gender invisible in
regeneration?
There needs to be political will from central government to
mainstream gender in policy making and other initiatives. It is a
gender thing not a woman thing.
Cath Kane, Women Connect
Practical problems2
There are also a number of practical problems for women when they
want to get involved in regeneration:
1. Childcare women with children stated that lack of childcare often
prevented them from attending courses or accessing services.
2. Confidence lack of confidence was a primary reason why
women said they did not become involved in community activities.
1 For example, Gender Profile of South Yorkshire's Labour Market 2000 (see
resources section)
2 Ideas from Preston Road Women's Centre, Hull, and Chris Booth, Sheffield
Hallam University. page 13
3. Cost having a limited budget means that women have to prioritise how their
money is spent. Social activities or courses are not perceived as a necessity.
4. Information if information is not well distributed and easily accessible, women are
unaware of the opportunities available to them.
5. Timing it is important that activities take school hours into account. In addition
many women stated that they would not be happy to go out at night alone, and
that evening childcare was a problem. They would therefore prefer activities in
daylight hours.
6. Time womens commitment to their family/community/work means they often
have little time to stretch.
7. In addition, for many of the above reasons, it is not always easy for women to
get to meetings. Once they do get there, they face:
The formality of meetings not understanding the rules of engagement eg
speaking through the chair, tabling papers.
Not being listened to or taken seriously because they are women.
Lack of child care or other care facilities.
The male ethos of some meetings.
Lack of confidence to operate in what is seen to be a more public domain.
Barriers relating to women from different ethnic backgrounds.
Language barriers regeneration has lots of jargon!
page 14
5. Men have gender too
A few years ago, we realised that a large group of decision
makers thought that gender just means women and there was
a noticeable glazed eyes effect... But when we outlined that a
gender analysis was also about looking at the roles of men...they
began to take an interest.
Audrey Bronstein, Oxfam UK Poverty Programme.
3 Source: Gender Profile of South Yorkshire's Labour Market 2000 (see resources
section) page 15
6. How can those men who have ceased to think of employment as an option in
their lives be attracted back into an educational context? They need to be
offered activities which interest them eg sport, technology or construction and
DIY. And these programmes need to be accurately marketed one man noted
that men were failing to pick up his organisations leaflets because they offered
support, something that a macho culture compelled men to shun. As soon as
the wording was changed to information, the situation reversed.
page 16
6. Building capacity, generating
change
To make gender mainstreaming4 possible we need to keep
empowering women; giving them training and giving them
self-confidence.
Carolina de Oteyza, Community Pride Initiative
One of the building blocks for effective delivery and action in gender
and regeneration is to ensure that community groups have the
necessary knowledge, skills and expertise to implement change. This
section looks at three examples of groups which have managed to
make those changes East Manchester Beacon Womens Network,
Friends of Jason group in Cae Mawr, Wales, and Preston Road
Womens Centre in Hull. They all show how women from deprived
areas have come together to deal with the issues that they see as
important in their communities. They have not only galvanised others
including local authorities and decision makers into action, but in
the process of effecting change, have learned new skills and grown in
confidence themselves.
Successes
In order to tackle some of these issues, the Beacon Womens Network designed a
simple questionnaire, which they took to a local residents meeting. This had a
domino effect and created more discussion on transport locally. As a result,
transport became a community issue rather than just the Beacon Womens
Networks issue. Said Pauline Gourley: It boosted our confidence to see how such
a small group of women could create such feedback and awareness on an issue.
The Network then held a Residents Forum meeting on transport, after which the
local paper echoed their call for a Transport Survey in the area.
As a result of all this, the NDC now have awareness of the local transport
concerns, and the Health and Well Being Network has also begun to look at
transport issues at their meetings.
Challenges
We now want to build on our successes and try and deal with the challenges we
are facing, continued Christine. We need to work more closely with the NDC and
seek their support to help us with pursuing relevant organisations within the city that
page 19
make decisions about the East Manchester public transport provision. We need to
convince the NDC to undertake a larger-scale East Manchester transport
questionnaire. The questionnaire needs to be designed so that it picks up on the
different transport needs of both women and men.
We have recently learned that the Manchester Local Strategic Partnership (LSP)
looks at city-wide transport issues through a thematic transport pool. We need to
make contact with them and get them to back us.
We need to continue raising awareness locally about why and how transport
needs to improve in the area. Although we have made NDC aware that transport
is a real issue in the area, there is more work to do to ensure it goes beyond just
the Health and Well Being Network.
Our initial survey was just a taster and as a small group of women, we do not
have the resources to take on a larger-scale survey of transport needs in the area.
The challenge is to ensure that we continue to build on the initial domino effect that
was created so that transport does not just become another issue that was raised
and forgotten when something else to campaign about came along.
page 20
Raising community spirit Friends of Jason Group,
Cae Mawr, Wales
Cae Mawr is a housing association estate in North Wales. The first tenants moved
in on 5th November 1993. The estate soon had a bad reputation for anti-social
behaviour. Sue Collins from Friends of Jason Group noted that: because of this, the
estate was neglected, our children branded as vandals, parents as unfit and our
local housing association stopped repairing faults and listening to our complaints.
Everyone was in low spirits. In 1998, my son was a survivor in a horrific drowning
incident in which his friend Jason died. This brought our community closer together,
and we were determined to do something positive. Our youths got together a
football team in memory of their friend, hence the name FoJ, Friends of Jason.
Mums organised a fun day to raise money for a bench in memory of Jason, and
the Cae Mawr residents association was formed. We held regular meetings and
sorted out a lot of housing and welfare problems on our estate, gave everyone in
our community a hope of a better a future. Community spirit was raised.
As things progressed locally at grassroots level, the estate started to get better.
In 2000, the local college, in partnership with other agencies, brought community-
based learning projects into the area and our learning began. In early 2002,
Communities First, the Welsh regeneration programme, came into the area and
asked if some of the group could be the Communities First tenant representatives.
By the end of 2002, FoJ secured a small community flat from the housing
association. They began running activities for children, youth and adults.
Angie Stephenson from FoJ continued:
We, as adults, have successfully completed lots of community-based courses from
this flat. The courses have given us the confidence to take our work further. As a
group we feel passionate about how many of the service providers we come into
contact with do not acknowledge the grassroots perspective. This inspired us to
develop a workshop aimed at service providers to build their capacity to work with
community groups and community level people. We have piloted it with community
practitioners and have been asked to present it again at the First Step in
Community Development Learning in North Wales. We hope to be able to roll out
this training further within Conway Council and regeneration.
Through our work, we were introduced to Oxfams ReGender project in the
summer of 2003. Our first thought was: This is about womens lib and burning
bras. But we quickly realised that it was about getting our voices heard. We
recognised that at community level we were gender unaware. We also noticed that
at decision-making level in Llandudno, gender was little or not considered. This
prompted us to find out why.
We worked with Oxfams ReGender project and took part in workshops to
understand why gender matters in regeneration and how we can get our voices
heard and be involved in decision making. We were introduced to tools, which
helped us to understand:
What gender roles and needs exist in our community
What gender analysis is
Why gender statistics can be important
Action planning according to gender needs
page 21
Who is involved in local partnerships and decision making on how regeneration
money is spent
How to lobby on having our needs met by regeneration
What pushes women to be involved in regeneration and what pulls them away
from it
Regeneration jargon.
We can do what we do now because we have gained confidence. We just want to
put back into the community what we have got out of it. We want more people to
get involved...
page 22
7. Data driven the importance of
tools and statistics
You cant develop policy without disaggregated statistics because
good policy is evidence-based.
Shelagh Prosser, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
Women and men differ in their capacity, authority and availability to participate in
decision-making processes and structures. There is an imbalance in the involvement
and influence of men and women in community engagement activities. For
example, 73 per cent of local councillors are men.
In order to promote gender equality, it is important to understand the different
opportunities, motivations and barriers women and men face that might give rise to
gender inequalities. It is also important to promote gender awareness at different
levels of involvement and in different decision-making processes.
In response to this situation, Manchester Womens Network, along with other
organisations in the area, has designed and is delivering the GEM project. Its overall
aim is to carry out a gender analysis of existing community engagement processes with
a view to developing information strategy and practice that will promote gender
equality in community engagement in Manchester. GEM aims:
To understand the gender dynamics of community engagement
To raise awareness of gender issues among participants in community engagement
structures, from grassroots groups to city-wide policy makers.
To develop materials and frameworks (toolkits) for gender-awareness training
suitable for community groups and voluntary and statutory organisations.
page 24
GEM's partners
Whalley Range Forum, Wythenshawe Voices, Old Moat Family Forum,
Crime and Community Safety Pool, East Manchester Community Network,
Community Pride Initiative, Community Network for Manchester, Women's
Electronic Village Hall, Oxfam UK Poverty Programme, Local Strategic
Partnership Steering Group, Manchester Metropolitan University Community
Audit and Evaluation Centre, Manchester University Students' Union.
Meetings with
gender balance
attendance
But...
Participation by Gender
Male dominated
participation
page 25
Black and Minority Ethnic women the least audible
This chart gives a breakdown by ethnic grouping of participants at a local strategy
group, and then a breakdown by gender. It demonstrates that that although 21 per
cent of participants were from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups, far fewer
women than men attended from those groups, compared to the white British
participants and therefore the level of womens participation depends on their
ethnicity.
In structures with
good Black and
Attendance by Ethnic Background
Minority Ethnic
background
representation
Ethnic Background by Gender
gender inequality
80
70
amongst Black
60
50
40
and Minority 30
20
Ethnic attendees 10
0
page 26
8. Power matters getting women
onto decision-making bodies
Women need to understand the language of regeneration and
power, but those in power must understand the language of the
community.
Dee Edwards, Black Country Womens Development Network
page 28
The Forum meets on the first of every month and takes anything that members want
to put on the agenda. It has held two conferences one on information technology
and one called Womens visions, womens version. It also presented key issues on
women living in poverty to Sheffield First for Inclusion Partnership Board (LSP).
The Forum is an example of the kind of joined-up thinking that helps to move things
forward. It works closely with Sheffield City Council, and since the Forum was set
up, a range of other organisations for women have also been created in Sheffield,
including the South Yorkshire Womens Development Trust (see section 9 of this
report), and Women in Front training and mentoring for women. This joined-up
approach involving women from the grassroots up to Objective 1 management
level, has been a critical factor in the success of gender initiatives in Sheffield and
South Yorkshire.
Margaret Goodlad (Children Mean Business), Kate Flannery (Sheffield City Council)
page 29
9. Vision, stamina and chocolate
getting strategic about gender
We must be more organised. We need a structure to broaden out
involvement and to build a strong lobbying organisation. We cant
rely on individuals they are only as strong as the networks
behind them.
Participant at Womens vision, womens version conference,
Sheffield
Greater Govan is a very diverse area of inner city Glasgow. There are 28,000
people, lots of ethnic minorities and refugees, and people coming in and out all the
time. It is also an area of high deprivation and poverty. There are few opportunities
for young people and there was no womens group.
In 1999 Greater Govan was designated as a Social Inclusion Partnership, or SIP,
with the aim of tackling some of these problems and making the area a better
page 31
place to live. The SIP already had a number of programme aims relating to gender
and regeneration:
Promoting a better understanding of how to deliver regeneration, using a gender
analysis to promote gender equality.
Promoting these lessons so that they informed and supported approaches to
regeneration in Govan, elsewhere in Glasgow and throughout Scotland.
Grassroots and institutional capacity built to raise awareness, increase
understanding, improve processes and approaches and take action.
At a meeting in December 2001, the Community Forum, which included 40 local
people, looked at poverty and discrimination. Parveen Khan from the Govan Social
Inclusion Project said: Everyone felt they had been discriminated against in one
way or another. But poverty wasnt something people identified as an issue,
because its something theyve always lived with.
The SIP then started work with ReGender, part of Oxfams UK Poverty Programme.
The project with the SIP aimed to support and train a group of grassroots women in
Greater Govan so that they could:
Be skilled in using tools to carry out a gender analysis of local regeneration
initiatives.
Monitor the impact of regeneration programmes on marginalised women.
Influence regeneration practice in meeting the needs of women effectively.
Motivation
Parveen Khan added: One of the difficulties was motivating a group of local
women to take part in the project. Some women had already been involved in the
SIP and had become disillusioned, so this was not easy. The problem of recruiting
women is perhaps indicative of just how difficult it is for women to become
involved in such groups. Two women had to drop out due to personal difficulties;
one cannot attend meetings as she has to work odd hours due to being unable to
access childcare in the area, and another had dropped out of previous community
activity as she felt lost in the jargon at meetings and as a result had lost
confidence.
But a core group of six has now been recruited and several training sessions have
been held introducing the concepts of gender and regeneration, and looking at
what it means for Greater Govan women and the role of Govan SIP.
At first it was: Whats all this about feminism, burning your bra? but gradually the
women gained a greater understanding of jargon, gender diversity and
regeneration initiatives. By the third session women started saying: Why arent
there any men here? Why is this all about women? They thought local men should
undertake the same process, to compare findings and explode some stereotypical
gender myths.
Change has to be driven forward both at grassroots and strategic levels says
Parveen. We have to build those links and communicate. We still have got a long
way to go, but we know now that we have started something. And it is having an
influence elsewhere. All the other SIPs look to us because were doing pilots and
also were seen as a good model. Were hoping to develop policy and practice
page 32 guides that we hope others will pick up.
Thinking gender first: gender mainstreaming in Essex
South Essex Rape and Incest Crisis Centre (SERICC) commissioned Sheffield Hallam
University to carry out a gender mainstreaming project that was funded by the
Home Office. The key aims of the project were:
1. To clarify policy aims and constraints on service development affecting gender
mainstreaming in selected services.
2. To gain an understanding of local agency strategies, missions and values in
each of these areas.
3. To assess and measure the impact of the services delivered in each area on
women and on men, and on specified groups of women.
4. To support local agencies in developing a gender mainstreaming strategy and a
forward action plan to achieve improved outcomes for women, especially any
women not well served by current provision.
Chris Booth from Sheffield Hallam said: we were aiming to make the links
between sexual violence and gender inequality. We wanted to get into the health
authority, get into the police, turn things upside down, mainstream gender into
service delivery. We wanted to understand local service providers; to see what
makes them tick.
The project focused on three policy areas: crime and disorder, mental health and
regeneration. We worked in those three areas with Thurrock Council, the health
trust and voluntary organisations. We tried to get an in into all these
organisations; we held focus group workshops, tried to get them to think about
gender. Then we did telephone interviews with the heads of service. After that we
had a look at national policy documents to see what frameworks were provided
and how they were interpreted at the local level. Then we had a look at sex-
disaggregated data. We couldnt get hold of very much data, but we got some...
We got people together and presented everything back at an action-planning
workshop. We developed a policy framework and guidelines, and a series of
recommendations for all the organisations.
page 33
Crime matters in Thurrock
More than four in five victims of domestic violence are women
Reported rapes have increased rapidly in recent years while conviction
rates have plummeted
Mens and womens patterns of offending behaviours differ in important
ways, as do both their fear of crime and their contact with the police.
Important national developments in this area include the Home Office
Crime Reduction Programme, the Violence Against Women Initiative, and
the establishment of working groups focusing on these issues at the
Womens National Commission.
Project reflections
There were a number of reflections from the work of the project, as Chris Booth
noted: first, we were surprised at the lack of awareness and knowledge on gender
in key agencies. More than surprised, in fact I have rarely been in a situation
where people know so little about gender. It was as though we were speaking a
different language.
The project was also problematic because it was led by the voluntary sector, led
by a small womens organisation, rather than by the local authority. This made it
difficult for Thurrock to take it on and things took longer than expected. Other
problems were that the Local Authority and agencies had difficulty in relating
gender mainstreaming to the work of SERICC around domestic and sexual violence
and abuse. The lack of government guidance on gender in two of the service-
delivery areas also hindered progress.
Perhaps most importantly, the project demonstrated the importance of gender-
disaggregated data. Getting such data was really difficult. It just didnt seem to
exist. This is now SERRICs mission in life!
A cultural shift is beginning to take place, but it only emerged after the project was
over. For example, gender mainstreaming has been supported by the importance
of equality in the Comprehensive Performance Assessment for Local Authorities.
And the Department of Health in its mental health strategy places significance on
gender and has cited SERRICs work on gender mainstreaming as an example of
good practice in the field.
page 34
10. Ways forward
Regeneration can never be a quick fix. Tackling long-term decline
requires sustained investment over many years.
Alan Burge, Communities First, Wales
page 35
1. Targets
There need to be targets for a fair gender balance (50:50) on Community
Empowerment Networks (CENs), Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) and other
decision making bodies by a set date. These include the creation of floor targets to
measure progress. These targets also need to be monitored.
2. Legislation
It is important not to have equalities in separate silos things are changing on the
race front because of the Race Relations Amendment Act. The Act made a real
difference, and a similar requirement for a public duty on gender would be a key
requirement. Conditionality on gender in funding would also help for example,
Objective 1 funding requires clawback of money in case of non-compliance.
3. Training and tools
Gender and diversity need to be integrated into all existing training programmes:
Identify the need for specific gender and diversity training to ensure compliance
with new legislative and other requirements.
Capacity building of individuals and organisations is a major issue. People can
get number-blind when they see statistics.
Women need to be provided with training on the complex layers of regeneration
schemes and the right support in order for them to participate effectively in the
regeneration process.
Womens participation in training needs to be reviewed and there should be
more positive action training initiatives.
Devolved administrations in England, Wales and Scotland are more open to
outside influences. Get to know the individuals who run management training
and get gender on the agenda.
Training on gender also needs to be provided for decision makers.
In addition, appropriate tools need to be developed, not only for the training,
but also for gender audits and gender impact assessments.5
4. Statistics and disaggregated data
Ensure statistical data is available in sex-disaggregated form. This will enable the
following to be assessed:
What gaps exist in developing and delivering services to men and women?
What are the positive and negative impacts of services on different groups of
women and men?
How do mens needs and womens needs differ?
There needs to be guidance on sex-disaggregated data, analysis and
interpretation. And learning how to use the data once it is gathered is as important
as having it in the first place. More work is needed on access to, and awareness
of, information and data. More detailed local research is needed, including an
understanding of the gender and diversity aspects of local area profiles6.
A final word from Katherine Rake of the Fawcett Society: The most important factor
in ensuring that gender is included in all regeneration work is the people
themselves people who see that the process of change is political, social and
psychological. Women and men who recognise the importance of gender in
page 38 regeneration and who are prepared to go out and make it happen.
Postscript: whats never said to
women working with women
They never say...
Youre doing a great job
What a brilliant idea
Here, have a few more bob
Well give you good cheer
We say...
Some may think its a fantasy
Some may think weve gone mad
But Im sure that in Sheffield
Many women will soon be glad
We say
With a Forum for women
WIF and WDT
Women working together
Well make a difference youll see
page 39
Resources and organisations working on
gender and regeneration
1. Bibliography
Changing Places: Womens lives in the city, by C. Booth, J. Darke, and
S.Yeandle. Paul Chapman Publishing 1996. ISBN 1-85396-311-9
This book offers a specifically feminist perspective on womens lives in
contemporary cities. It acknowledges womens positive as well as negative
experiences in their role as workers, mothers, housewives, and shoppers. The
contributors offer an array of knowledge about womens place and womens places
in cities today.
Gender and Poverty in Britain, EOC Working paper Series No.6, by John
Bradshaw, Naomi Finch, Peter Kemp, Emese Mayhew, and Julie Williams.
Produced for the EOC by the Social Policy Research Unit, University of York, 2003.
Recent discussions about the nature and experience of poverty have not paid any
special regard to the relationship between gender and poverty. In order to initiate
a debate around this neglected issue,the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC)
commissioned a number of exploratory projects during 2003/4. The comparative
poverty of women was one of its main findings.
http://www.eoc.org.uk/cseng/research/genderandpoverty.pdf
page 41
Engendering the Work of SIPs in Glasgow Gender impact assessment
and its application to social inclusion in Scotland. Report to the Glasgow
Women and Social Inclusion Working Group by Rona Fitzgerald of the European
Policies Research Centre. Published by Oxfam for Glasgow Women and Social
Inclusion Working Group.
Recent policies from the Scottish Executive to promote equality in Scotland
advocate the adoption of a gender mainstreaming approach. The study looks at
awareness of gender impact assessment as a gender mainstreaming tool and how
far SIPs (Social Inclusion Partnerships in Glasgow) felt this and other tools could be
useful in integrating gender equality and social inclusion policies at local level.
Available from Oxfam in Scotland: Tel 0141 285 8880
page 42
2. Organisations working on gender and regeneration
Women and Equality Unit
This unit has responsibility within government for policy on women, gender
equality, sexual orientation and the co-ordination of equality. It is based in the
Department for Trade and Industry (DTI).
http://www.womenandequalityunit.gov.uk
Engender
An information, research and networking organisation for women in Scotland,
working with other groups locally and internationally to improve womens lives and
increased their power and influence.
http://www.engender.org.uk
page 43
Gender and the reality of regeneration:
a tale of two cities
PROGRAMME
09.15 Registration Refreshments will be available
10.00 - 10.20 Welcome and Introduction
Lynne Jones, MP for Birmingham Selly Oak
10.20 - 10.45 The regeneration context: opportunities and barriers
Jane Slowey, Vice Chair, West Midlands Regional Assembly
10.45 - 11.15 Gender is a key issue in regeneration
Professor Chris Booth, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Development & Society,
Sheffield Hallam University
11.15 - 11.30 Break Refreshments will be served in the Pendigo Restaurant
11.30 - 11.50 Two project perspectives
Chris Bonnard, Network Director, RAWM
Audrey Bronstein, Director, Oxfam UK Poverty Programme
11.50 - 13.00 Conference Workshops
There will be 4 workshops working in parallel places will be allocated on a first
come, first served basis. These workshops will include short presentations from a
range of organisations with experience in working at local and regional levels on
gender & regeneration. The workshops will allow opportunity for discussion.
page 45
WORKSHOP outlines
Workshop 1: Capacity building Workshop 2: Gender and
for democratic renewal governance
Building the capacity of women and men What is needed to address the gender
in communities towards engagement in deficit in decision-making structures?
active partnership with professionals.
Chair: Alun Burge, Communities
Chair: Tricia Zipfel, Neighbourhood Directorate, Welsh Assembly Government
Renewal Unit
The Black Country Womens
The Cae Mawr (FoJ) group from Development Network, drawn from
Llandudno will talk about their work five towns across the area, will talk about
engaging men in their community in their work building the capacity of local
self-help initiatives including community women to connect with the structures of
education on the estate, and their community engagement and local strategic
dialogue with Communities First partnerships.
decision-makers (the suits) in bringing
unintentional gender discrimination to Sheffield City Council are working with
their attention. the local strategic partnerships and have
set up a women and poverty group to help
The Beacon Womens Network will service providers and policy makers
talk about their action research into men address the particular issues faced by
and womens different use of transport in women living in poverty. The Council also
the East Manchester New Deal for helped to set up the independent
Communities area, and their advocacy Sheffield Womens Forum which has
with the local council for more gender- brought women together from across the
aware transport provision, and other issues city to address womens inclusion in
such as a local launderette. decision making.
page 46
WORKSHOP outlines
Workshop 3: Analytical Workshop 4: Getting strategic
approaches about gender
Using gender-focused and gender-specific Making local, regional and national links
tools, data and guidance to achieve greatest impact
Chair: Sukhvinder Stubbs, Director of the Chair: Katherine Rake, Director of the
Barrow Cadbury Trust Fawcett Society
A gender impact assessment toolkit tested In South Yorkshire: The strategic vision
by the West Midlands Rural Stress of a group of women who brought together
Network and the Birmingham voluntary sector groups to access large-scale
Settlement has the potential to build a funding. Hear about the supporting
strong picture of the different experiences structures, and how both women and men
of poor and excluded women and men. benefited from separate funding.
It highlights effective processes that gather In Glasgow: A joined-up initiative which
and use local data, and emphasises the brings together a grassroots level women's
need for gender-disaggregated data to be group, regeneration practitioners trained in
more freely and widely available. the techniques of gender impact assessment,
Exciting city-wide interest in its potential, and the Greater Govan Social Inclusion
the Manchester Womens Networks Partnership.
GEM project (gender and community In Essex: South Essex Rape and Incest
engagement in Manchester) uses Crisis Centre worked with Thurrock Council
gender audit methods to gather and the police in a gender mainstreaming
data on women and mens different project which tackled three areas of service
engagement at local, intermediate and provision with practical results in reducing
city-wide levels. women's vulnerability to violence.
page 47
Gender and the reality of regeneration:
a tale of two cities
This report tells a story. It tells the tale of two cities, of two
different realities of women and of men, of the wealthy and
the poor, the powerful, and those who lack a voice to tell
decision makers what they need to know.
The evidence comes from the speakers and the case studies at
this first-ever national conference on gender and regeneration
in the UK, held in March 2004, and organised by Oxfam's UK
Poverty Programme and Regional Action West Midlands. The
conference focused on four main areas: capacity building for
democratic renewal, gender and governance, analytical
approaches, and getting strategic about gender.