Abstract
Constitutional politics has inflected Scottish politics over the past five years, as the electorate has voted twice in referenda that have sought its views on Scotland’s place in the unions of Europe and the UK. The engagement of women and women’s organisations in the two referenda stands in stark contrast. The independence referendum saw the establishment of new women’s organisations and networks to counteract a seeming marginalisation of women’s concerns in the official campaigns. The European referendum pre-election period, which overlapped with the local government election campaign in Scotland, saw limited national public engagement by women’s and other civil society organisations, and lacked a particular gender focus even in feminist spaces. Post-referendum, feminist and gender advocates are struggling to establish the four-nations mechanisms that would enable them to collaborate effectively to create a UK feminist response to the negotiations. This chapter considers these developments.
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Notes
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The ‘rape clause’ is an exception to the two-child cap on the child element of Universal Credit, in which women who have conceived a child as a result of rape are able to claim this entitlement for third or subsequent children.
- 2.
Scottish Labour Party were represented by Greg McClymont MP and Iain Gray MSP; Scottish Green Party were represented by Maggie Chapman and Patrick Harvie MSP; Scottish National Party were represented by Linda Fabiani MSP and John Swinney MSP; Scottish Conservatives were represented by Adam Tomkins and Annabel Goldie MSP; and Scottish Liberal Democrats were represented by Michael Moore MP and Tavish Scott MSP.
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DSD & Anor v The Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis [2014], EWHC 436 (QB).
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WF, Re Judicial Review [2016] ScotCS CSOH_27 (12 February 2016).
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Ritch, E. (2019). Foreboding Newness: Brexit and Feminist Civil Society in Scotland. In: Dustin, M., Ferreira, N., Millns, S. (eds) Gender and Queer Perspectives on Brexit. Gender and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03122-0_13
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