Minority ethnic women's experiences in Scotland 2024: intersectional evidence review

2. Introduction

This Evidence Review explores the importance of considering intersectional qualitative and quantitative equalities evidence when aiming to understand differential experiences and outcomes. In doing so, it begins to address action 21 in the Scottish Government Equality Evidence Strategy 2023-25: ‘Undertake research to synthesise available evidence on key structural intersectionalities, identify gaps and suggest ways in which evidence gaps can be captured through both qualitative and quantitative research’. The purpose of this report is to draw together new and existing intersectional evidence, with the topic of minority ethnic women’s experiences as the focus. It utilises research from Scottish Government, other public sector organisations, third sector organisations, and academia to highlight learnings in relation to analysis and publication of equalities data.

This Evidence Review assesses existing data available from indicators and outcomes set out in the National Performance Framework (NPF) and Scotland’s Gender Equality Index (GEI). The NPF and GEI are agreed frameworks by which national wellbeing and gender equality performance are currently being measured. The indicators from these frameworks were chosen to shape the structure of this publication and to link the findings of this report to wider equality outcome monitoring work happening across Scottish Government. By focusing on experiences of minority ethnic women, this report responds to stakeholders' advice that a sex and gender focus on race equality requires systematic review of evidence to support the identification of and response towards structural inequalities experienced by this group in Scotland's population.

This Evidence Review aims to answer the following research questions:

1. According to evidence, where do women from minority ethnic backgrounds encounter inequitable outcomes and experiences, or barriers to accessing services?^[13] And where are there gaps in evidence?

2. By undertaking this Evidence Review, what lessons can we learn about analysis and publication of intersectional evidence?

Although not a key focus, the evidence included in this report also provides an update to some of the evidence set out in the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls' (NACWG) 2020 Race Equality report.

2.1. Key Concepts

Intersectionality is a concept which helps to make sense of how people’s experiences can be shaped by multiple interconnected social categories, and how these social categories interact with systems and structures of power that result in structural inequalities^[14]. Intersectionality allows us to move beyond an assumption that experiences are homogenous across one equality group (e.g. not all disabled people have the same experience). An intersectional approach allows decision makers to develop specific policy that promotes equitable outcomes and experiences for those with intersecting equality characteristics. This report will focus on the importance of considering intersectional characteristics to understand structural inequalities and will complement existing publications and research from Scottish Government and external organisations on the relevant intersecting characteristics.

Ethnicity broadly defines the shared characteristics of a group which may encompass identity, race, ancestry, history, and culture. Scottish Government guidance states that the term ‘Minority ethnic’ is preferred over ‘other ethnicities’, ‘ethnic minority’ or ‘Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME)/Black and Minority Ethnic (BME)’ as the latter terms imply homogeneity not reflective of the diversity of minority ethnic groups, focus on the ‘non-whiteness’ or the word ‘ethnic’, and do not include consideration of ‘white’ minority ethnic groups such as Irish, Polish, and Gypsy/Travellers. Based on Scottish Government guidance, the ‘white’ categories can include white Scottish, and white Other British, as well as Irish, Polish, Gypsy, Travellers, Roma, Showman/Showwoman, and other white ethnic groups. ‘Minority ethnic groups’ may include Mixed or multiple ethnic groups, Asian, Scottish Asian, or British Asian, African, Scottish African, or British African, Caribbean or Black, and other ethnic groups. Additionally, this may include white minority ethnic groups such as Irish, Polish, and Gypsy/Traveller.

In relation to sex and gender, we have matched any language used in the original data source being referenced to ensure that sources are interpreted correctly throughout this report. However, it should be acknowledged that some people do not identify as man/male or woman/female, but official data collections still by and large use binary questions. Based on Scottish Government guidance, a person’s sex encompasses biological, legal, and self-defined aspects. Gender identity is defined as a personal, internal perception of oneself while gender relates to a time and culture specific social construction of a set of norms, roles and relationships governing the labels of masculinity and femininity.

This report acknowledges that the experiences of minority ethnic people are not homogenous, and that there will be a variety of experiences depending on the exact ethnicity and sex or gender background of individual persons, as well as other interacting circumstances. In this review, comparisons between ethnic groups have been made based on the data and evidence available at the time of publication. In some cases, due to limited evidence, comparisons may be made of aggregated ethnic categories ‘minority ethnic’ and ‘white’ or, where data and evidence allows, comparisons may be more specific to disaggregated ethnic groups with intersectional sex or gender, such as Bangladeshi women in comparison to Bangladeshi men. Throughout this report we highlight how ethnic groups are aggregated in the different data sources through the use of footnotes, as these are not uniform across all data sources and this can have implications for analysis and comparisons.