Publication - Impact assessment
Equally Safe strategy: draft EQIA
Draft equality impact assessment (EQIA) of Scotland's strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls.
Stage 3: Assessing the impacts and identifying opportunities to promote equality
Having considered the data and evidence you have gathered, this section requires you to consider the potential impacts – negative and positive – that your policy might have on each of the protected characteristics. It is important to remember the duty is also a positive one – that we must explore whether the policy offers the opportunity to promote equality and/or foster good relations.
Do you think that the policy impacts on people because of their age?
| Age | Positive | Negative | None | Reasons for your decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation | X | The overall aim of this policy is to prevent and eradicate gender based violence and challenge the societal attitudes that allow this violence to perpetuate. Our gendered approach takes into consideration the fact that women experience this violence simply because they are women. This violence stems from inequality that exists between genders-an inequality that is present in our lives, systems and institutions. This policy should help try and rectify this power imbalance and should help towards eliminating unlawful harassment, victimisation and harassment endured by women of all ages. | ||
| Advancing equality of opportunity | X | The policy aims to prevent and eradicate gender based violence for all women with a long term goal of advancing equality and challenging the societal attitudes that allow gender based violence to perpetuate. | ||
| Promoting good relations among and between different age groups | X | Gender based violence is experienced by women of all ages. This is an opportunity for women of all ages to work towards a common goal and for relationships between age groups to strengthen. |
Do you think that the policy impacts disabled people?
| Disability | Positive | Negative | None | Reasons for your decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation | X | The policy is designed to include all people who are/or may be survivors of gender based violence, including those who suffer from disabilities. Disabled women can often face additional difficulties when faced with gender based violence and the policy is designed to factor in and recognise these additional vulnerabilities Disabled women are affected by gender based violence including forced marriage, domestic abuse, sexual assault etc and the policy should help us challenge societal attitudes that allow violence against women to perpetuate and, as a result, should help reduce associated discrimination, harassment and victimisation. |
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| Advancing equality of opportunity | X | This policy will assist any affected by gender based violence, disabled women are affected by gender based violence including forced marriage, domestic abuse, sexual assault etc. Prevention of violence against disabled women should advance equality of opportunity. | ||
| Promoting good relations among and between disabled and non-disabled people | X | This policy will assist any affected by gender based violence, disabled women are affected by gender based violence including forced marriage, domestic abuse, sexual assault etc. Prevention of violence against disabled women should assist promoting good relations among and between disabled and non-disabled people. |
Do you think that the policy impacts on men and women in different ways?
| Sex | Positive | Negative | None | Reasons for your decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eliminating unlawful discrimination | X | The policy will mostly benefit women and girls as they are the majority of victims of gender-based violence. However, the actions to achieve gender equality, greater knowledge of consent, positive gender role models and healthy relationships, and the actions to support victims and deal with perpetrators, will benefit everyone and should prevent unlawful discrimination of women and children. | ||
| Advancing equality of opportunity | X | The policy will mostly benefit women and girls as they are the majority of victims of gender-based violence. However, the actions to achieve gender equality, greater knowledge of consent, positive gender role models and healthy relationships, and the actions to support victims and deal with perpetrators, will benefit everyone and should assist in advancing equality of opportunity for men, women and children. | ||
| Promoting good relations between men and women | X | The policy will mostly benefit women and girls as they are the majority of victims of gender based violence. However, the actions to achieve gender equality, greater knowledge of consent, positive gender role models and healthy relationships, should promote good relations between men and women. The aim to prevent and eradicate violence against women by men should improve relations between men and women. |
Do you think that the policy impacts on women because of pregnancy and maternity?
| Pregnancy and Maternity | Positive | Negative | None | Reasons for your decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eliminating unlawful discrimination | x | The policy will mostly benefit women and girls as they are the majority of victims of gender-based violence. Work carried out under priority one – gender roles and stereotyping may have a positive impact on pregnancy/maternity discrimination. | ||
| Advancing equality of opportunity | x | The policy will mostly benefit women and girls as they are the majority of victims of gender-based violence. Work carried out under priority one – gender roles and stereotyping may have a positive impact on pregnancy/maternity discrimination and thus advance equality of opportunity. | ||
| Promoting good relations | x | Relations between pregnant women and their healthcare professionals should be strengthened by an increased awareness of gender based violence and should hopefully lead to healthcare professionals taking the appropriate measures to safeguard families and respond appropriately when required. |
Do you think your policy impacts on transsexual people?
| Gender reassignment | Positive | Negative | None | Reasons for your decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eliminating unlawful discrimination | x | The strategy is in place to help prevents and eradicate violence against all women and girls, including those who have undergone, intend to undergo, or are in the process of undergoing gender re-assignment. There are no negative impacts related to eliminating unlawful discrimination of transgender people. Even if women later identify as transgender men, the strategy recognises and takes into account that men can also experience violence. | ||
| Advancing equality of opportunity | x | The policy has the potential to advance equality of opportunity and there is no barriers to engagement of transgender people. | ||
| Promoting good relations | x | It is hoped that the policy implementation will help foster and promote positive relationships between all women and girls within communities, including those who have or are transitioning. |
Do you think that the policy impacts on people because of their sexual orientation?
| Sexual orientation | Positive | Negative | None | Reasons for your decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eliminating unlawful discrimination | x | Equally Safe recognises that although gender based violence is predominantly suffered by women and perpetrated by men, people in gay/bi-sexual/lesbian/transsexual relationships can also be subjected to violence which is/may be committed by their partner. In these circumstances, the same level of service and intervention should still be available. | ||
| Advancing equality of opportunity | x | The inclusive nature of the policy and this delivery plan has the potential to advance equality of opportunity. Action to expand capability of violence against women services to ensure they are LGBT inclusive ensures this community are offered the same level of help and support. | ||
| Promoting good relations | x | Our specific focus on the LGBT community and action to build capacity within violence against women services to ensure that they are LGBT inclusive should help foster positive working relationships and should promote positive relations between services and service users. |
Do you think the policy impacts on people on the grounds of their race?
| Race | Positive | Negative | None | Reasons for your decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eliminating unlawful discrimination | x | There are positive impacts related to eliminating unlawful discrimination on the grounds of race. Actions within the delivery plan such as commitment to raise awareness of FGM and forced marriage can help prevent and eradicate these archaic practices and can help raise awareness in the wider community that such practices are not acceptable and will not be tolerated in Scotland. | ||
| Advancing equality of opportunity | x | The overall inclusiveness of the policy and specific actions to identify and promote practice to reduce employment inequality for ethnic women should help us work towards advancing equality of opportunity for women from minority ethnic backgrounds. | ||
| Promoting good race relations | x | The Scottish Government consulted with groups that engage with women from minority ethnic backgrounds to help inform the delivery plan. We continue to collaborate with a number of community organisations to enhance engagement of minority ethnic communities and to ensure that our actions implementing this delivery plan continue to promote positive race relations. |
Do you think the policy impacts on people because of their religion or belief?
| Religion or belief | Positive | Negative | None | Reasons for your decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eliminating unlawful discrimination | x | Although they are cultural practices, FGM and forced marriage are commonly misunderstood as religious practices or requirements. This policy works to dispel this notion and to raise awareness among communities and agencies alike about how best to respond to this and protect young girls and women. Although we recognise that a under-reporting is a risk factor, this policy has the potential to highlight and challenge the societal attitudes that allows gender based violence across the board and shift community attitudes, potentially in religious spheres where this type of violence is typically normalised. | ||
| Advancing equality of opportunity | x | The policy's inclusiveness has the potential to advance equality of opportunity and its purpose is to help challenge existing attitudes towards women that allow gender based violence to perpetuate. Although we recognise that a under reporting is a risk factor, this policy has the potential to highlight and challenge the societal attitudes that allows gender based violence across the board and shift community attitudes, potentially in religious spheres where this type of violence is typically normalised. | ||
| Promoting good relations | x | One of the key benefits of the policy is our focus on collaborative and partnership working. Throughout the implementation of the strategy we intend to continue to engage with community groups to promote positive working relations and to ensure that we are delivering our commitments under the strategy in a manner that reflects and recognises the different challenges experienced by women from varying religions and beliefs. |
Do you think the policy impacts on people because of their marriage or civil partnership?
| Marriage and Civil Partnership[15] | Positive | Negative | None | Reasons for your decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eliminating unlawful discrimination |
Contact
Email: Kirstin McPhee
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