Gender Budgeting in Scotland: A Work in Progress

Date Posted: Thursday 24th August 2017

New special issue includes article on Gender Budgeting in Scotland

Feminist EconomicsGender BudgetingScotlandSocial Infrastructure

 

Angela O’Hagan has published an article about the progress of gender budgeting in Scotland in the Journal of the Institute of Public Administration of Ireland. O’Hagan is the Convenor of the Scottish Women’s Budget Group and one of our Management Committee members. Her article is part of an Administration Journal special issue on budget proofing for human rights and equality.

See a snippet of her article below:

“A principal aim of gender budgeting is to integrate gender analysis into economic policy, government spending and revenue proposals. Gender analysis of the policy and resource allocation process in the budget means examining how budgetary allocations affect the economic and social opportunities of women and men, and restructuring revenue and spending decisions to eliminate unequal gendered outcomes. Gender budgeting does not mean separate budgets for women and men, but rather it is a critical review of resource allocation to identify potential differential impacts on women and men, and to understand the contexts in which those differences arise.

“An important goal of gender budgeting, linking gender equality policy and macroeconomic policy by ensuring greater consistency between economic goals and social commitments, is particularly germane in the Scottish context. This ambition of gender budgeting and the interlinking goals have structured SWBG*’s approach since its inception in 1999 in its engagement with politicians, civil servants and parliamentarians, and in responding to emerging government policy responses.”

*Scottish Women’s Budget Group

Visit the Scottish Women’s Budget Group website.

View a PDF of the full article:  ‘Gender budgeting in Scotland: A work in progress’.