The Centre for Women and Democracy have published a report into the impact the governments reform agenda will have on women's access to and representation in decision making.  The research, funded by the Feminist Review, found that women's access to public roles would decrease as a result of the reforms and makes recommendations, including the use of quotas, to counteract these 'unintended consequences'.  Read the report 

The report, Women in Parliaments in the UK has been  revised to include the results of the 2010 general election and the 2011 elections to the devolved governments. This is a great resource that lists our female MPs and MSPs and gives a statistical breakdown of female representation.  Read the report 

The Health and Social care bill going through the House of Commons contains amendments which would remove the right to offer women pregnancy counselling from charities who offer abortion.  This would leave pregnancy counselling in the hands of faith based groups who, in a recent report, have been shown to offer misleading and inaccurate information.  Please support Abortion Rights' email campaign to ask your MP to reject these amendments.  Read more       

The Royal Society of Edinburgh with the Chief Scientific Officer for Scotland, is developing a strategy to address the continuing under representation of women in these areas.  As part of this, the working party have issued a call for evidence.  Submissions are requested by 19th August but will be taken until the end of August.  Find out more 

Wise Women, who offer free personal safety courses to women in Glasgow have launched a new website.  Read more

A year after the Wales Women's National Commission closed due to the withdrawal of funding from the Welsh Assembly, the all Wales Women's Network is to be launched and funded by.... the Welsh Assembly!   The role of the new organisation is also very siimilar to that of the old commssion - ensuring that the views of the women of Wales reach government.  Read more

Our summer newsletter contained a section on the the Public Sector Equality Duty specific duties not being implemented in Scotland.  This section was not meant to imply that it was the UK Government that prevented the progress of the public sector equality duties in Scotland.  While it is true the UK has issued a consultation on the Equality Act, the public sector specific duties in scotland were challenged by a group of NGOs.  This group raised their concerns over the inadequacy of the duties to the Equal Opportunities Committee of the Scottish Parliament who ultimately rejected the proposal for the specific duties for the time being.   Apologies if our article was misleading.