Women are bearing the brunt of some of the more harmful impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a Perth charity.
Gender Equality Perth co-founder and chairwoman Rebecca McClune said clear divides had been emerging since the organisation was set up last August.
She said: “Throughout Covid-19, there has been an increase in violence against women, and the disparity in caring and household duties has been increased and emphasised.
“Women also represent the majority of workers on zero hours contracts in the UK and so have been hit harder during the pandemic than men.”
It comes after a Scottish Government report in November showed while abusers’ behaviours and tactics had “not changed significantly throughout the period of lockdown” they had increased in frequency and intensity.
Rebecca added the Gender Equality Perth founders had faced their own difficulties, in areas such as childcare.
“The main challenge for us has been the closure of nurseries on and off during the past year,” she said.
“Our co-founders all have under fives so we had been relying on a few mornings a week at nursery to progress our work.
“Ultimately Covid-19 has only highlighted many gender equality issues so we have certainly not been lacking in motivation.”
Next steps
The group intends to hold online discussion events next month to spread the word about its activities and set out plans to tackle issues at a local level.
An award from the Perth Common Good Fund will allow it to run an equal parenting discussion group later this year.
The charity is also applying for funding for a 12-month programme of events for Perth Women’s Collective, which could include speakers, workshops, a feminist book club and film club.
Rebecca said members were planning projects to raise awareness of gender inequalities and empower local childcare practitioners to create gender friendly spaces, as well as working on building a local network and forming partnerships with local groups that are already tackling gender issues.
“There are lots of brilliant organisations addressing gender inequality on a national and international scale, and lots of work happening in Scotland on a government policy level,” she said.
“We feel that a lot of the inequality that exists is tied to cultural norms and stereotypes that can and need to be addressed on a grassroots level as well as on a wider scale.
“If we can start to change these norms on a local level, then equality can start to grow from here as well as from the top.
“It’s also important to have events and spaces locally to make the movement accessible to people in Perthshire who may not have the ability to travel to bigger cities for events.”
Details of the discussions can be found at www.genderequalityperth.com/upcoming-events