Gender and the reality of regeneration:

a tale of two cities

Thursday 11 March 2004, NEC, Birmingham

Conference
report

Organised by
Oxfam UK Poverty
Programme and
Regional Action
West Midlands
This report was written by Nikki van der Gaag, with assistance from
Sue Smith, Jo Rowlands and Sharon Palmer.

More copies are available from the Oxfam UK Poverty Programme,

or Regional Action West Midlands.

You can download a copy of this report from

www.oxfamgb.org/ukpp/totc or www.rawm.net

For more information about ordering hard copies, contact:

Oxfam UK Poverty Programme
274 Banbury Road
Oxford OX2 7DZ
Tel: 01865 313184
Email: ukpp@oxfam.org.uk

Conference photos by Dave Griffiths

Contents
Foreword 4

Acknowledgements 5

About the organisers 6

1. Introduction 7

2. Regeneration: the context 8

3. Why is gender important in regeneration? 10

4. Why is gender invisible in regeneration? 13

5. Men have gender too 15

6. Building capacity, generating change 17

7. Data driven the importance of tools and statistics 23

8. Power matters getting women onto decision-making bodies 27

9. Vision, stamina and chocolate getting strategic about gender 30

10. Ways forward 35

Postscript 39

Resources and organisations working on gender and regeneration 40

A tale of two cities: conference programme 45

Index of case studies

Building on success East Manchester Beacon Women's Network 18

Women rock! Preston Road Womens Centre, Hull 20
Raising community spirit Friends of Jason Group, Cae Mawr, Wales 21
Tools for change West Midlands Gender and Equalities Programme 23
Gender and Community Engagement Manchester (GEM) Project 24
A story with heart: Black Country Women's Development Network 27
Strength and potential Sheffield Women's Forum 28
Women's vision, women's version: South Yorkshire Women's Development Trust 30
Going live in Greater Govan, Scotland 31
Thinking gender first: gender mainstreaming in Essex 33

page 3
FOREWORD
A tale of two cities: gender and the reality of regeneration was an inspirational
national event jointly organised by Regional Action West Midlands and Oxfams
UK Poverty Programme. It brought to the fore the need to look behind and beyond
the banner headlines of regeneration to see how it affects women and men
differently.
Regeneration is not limited to economic activity. It embraces and is integral to
issues of poverty, social inclusion, equality and participation at all levels. The
conference highlighted these issues and those relating to quality of life at very local
levels through project-based workshop presenters and facilitators.
A gender impact assessment framework used by decision makers, funders and
delivery bodies, within regeneration policy, strategies and initiatives, is essential to
improving the delivery of regeneration programmes across the nine regions of
England and the Elected Assemblies of Scotland and Wales.
With the assistance of their funders, Regional Action West Midlands and Oxfams
UK Poverty Programme have been able to test and refine approaches to gender
impact assessments. This is an important document and I would recommend it to all
decision makers and regeneration practitioners.

Katherine Rake, Director, Fawcett Society

Acknowledgements
Oxfam and RAWM would like to thank the many individuals and
organisations who have contributed to the success of the Tale of Two
Cities conference. This includes our speakers Chris Booth (Sheffield
Hallam University) Katherine Rake (Fawcett Society), Jane Slowey
(Birmingham Voluntary Services Council), Audrey Bronstein (Oxfam
UK Poverty Programme), Chris Bonnard (RAWM) and Carolina de
Oteyza (Community Pride Initiative).
We would also like to thank our workshop leaders Tricia Zipfel
(Neighbourhood Renewal Unit), Alun Burge (Communities Directorate,
Welsh Assembly Government), and Sukhvinder Stubbs (Barrow
Cadbury Trust).
Equally important are the women who took part from the pilot groups
of both Oxfams ReGender project and the West Midlands Gender
and Equalities Programme. These are: Friends of Jason Group at Cae
Mawr, the Beacon Womens Network, the Manchester GEM project,
the Black Country Womens Development Network, Birmingham
Voluntary Service Council, the Govan Social Inclusion Partnership and
Rose Anne Dempster from Glasgow, and the women from Sheffield
and South Yorkshire the Womens Development Trust, Sheffield City
Council, and South Yorkshire Objective 1 Management Team.
We would also like to thank the steering group of the West Midlands
Gender and Equalities Programme, and the National Advocacy
Group of the ReGender project for their help and advice, as well as
the staff at Oxfam and RAWM whose efforts made the event possible.
A final thank you to Elle Operations who did such a professional job
of organising the conference, and also to our funders the Barrow
Cadbury Trust, the English Regions Network Fund, and the West
Midlands Strategic Engagement Fund.

page 5
 About the organisers
Oxfam UKs Poverty Programme was created in 1996 in response to the growth in
poverty and inequality in the UK. Its work is guided by the same principles as
Oxfams work in other countries: it develops ways of working which enable people
living in poverty to work out their own solutions to their problems and to challenge
the policies and practices that are responsible for creating and maintaining
poverty.
Oxfams ReGender project is a two-year gender and regeneration project that
began in October 2002. It supports and encourages the equal participation of
women and men in regeneration schemes in the UK by:
Working with grassroots women to hold local regeneration bodies to account
and ensure that gender needs are being met.
Influencing key regeneration decision makers at national, regional and local
government level to commit resources to meeting the different needs of the
poorest men and women.
Influencing government to include women at senior levels and men at community
levels of regeneration programmes.

ReGender is supported by the Barrow Cadbury Trust.

Regional Action West Midlands is the regional strategic network for the voluntary
and community sector in the West Midlands, and works to promote and maximise
the contribution of these sectors in improving the quality of life for disadvantaged
communities in the region.
The West Midlands Gender and Equalities Programme was set up to influence
policy and decision makers and encourage them to promote positive action to
address gender differences within regeneration programmes.
Its key objectives are:
Strengthening their commitment to an inclusive approach to regeneration which
incorporates a gender dimension.
Disseminating research which has highlighted the absence of women from
regeneration initiatives.
Identifying and disseminating good practice where it does exist.
Promoting positive action to address gender differences within regeneration.

The project is supported by the English Regions Network.

page 6
1. Introduction
The ideas in this report come from the speakers, case studies and
testimonies of community-level women at the first ever national
conference on gender and regeneration in the UK. It was held in
Birmingham in March 2004 and organised by Oxfams UK Poverty
Programme and Regional Action West Midlands (RAWM).
There were almost 120 participants, ranging from women in
community groups to women and men with senior positions in
academia, non-governmental organisations and government. All of
them are working in regeneration, and all were agreed on one thing:
that gender lies at the heart of regeneration, and that unless the
different needs of men and women are taken into account,
regeneration will not work.
The conference aimed to demonstrate the evidence that when gender
analysis and gender impact assessment are used, and when women
have got to grips with the jargon and the structures of regeneration,
the result is better value regeneration programmes that address
poverty and exclusion more effectively.
As Chris Booth from Sheffield Hallam University put it: All the big
regeneration issues transport, education, housing, health, the
environment have important gender considerations.
When gender is taken on board in regeneration, both men and
women feel empowered, leading to real changes for communities and
those who live in them. Better-tailored and targeted programmes can
help reduce poverty and unemployment, increase educational
attainment and improve health and quality of life. This report is about
those changes and how people from the grassroots to those in
power have helped to make them happen. Audrey Bronstein, of
Oxfam UKs Poverty Programme noted that: Without power and
influence people in poverty have little chance of changing their lives.

A gender perspective
'Gender is different from sex. Sex refers to biological difference
between men and women, gender is the social and cultural
difference between men and women that we all learn from
society, families, and our culture.' Cae Mawr group, Llandudno
'A gender perspective produces policies or projects based on
accurate knowledge of the different situations, resources and
responsibilities of women's and men's everyday lives. At a
deeper level it also encompasses a commitment to change; an
understanding that greater gender equality can only be
advanced by challenging gender stereotypes, and creating
non-traditional opportunities.' Cinnamon Bennett, Gender
Manager for the Objective 1 Programme in South Yorkshire.

page 7
 2. Regeneration: the context
It is fantastic that we have got this far; it is a shame that it has
taken so long! Chris Bonnard, RAWM

Regeneration has many forms and facets. Its been around as a

concept for over 20 years, and is now delivered by a range of
different bodies, at different levels national, regional and local
across the UK. And, over that time, it has changed its emphasis and
its focus and become linked with other fashionable concepts such as
social inclusion, community cohesion and, most recently, civil
renewal.
While in the early 1990s the focus was on physical regeneration,
such as housing, today there is a recognition that regeneration needs
to be people-centred, and that it needs to involve people from the
local community. It has a major social aspect as well and has come to
be understood as a term that describes activity, usually targeted on
specific geographical areas, which aims to tackle the seemingly
intractable problem of physical, economic and social decline by
revitalising poor physical infrastructure, reducing unemployment,
improving local services and, more recently, building strong
communities.
Over recent years, devolution has led to a shift in emphasis away
from central government when it comes to planning and funding
regeneration, particularly in the area of economic regeneration.
Indeed, by 2005-6, the nine English Regional Development Agencies
will control some 2 billion of public money. Most recently, the
Learning and Skills Councils are also developing a much more
significant regional presence. The fact that significant amounts of
public money are now being determined and spent at a regional
level only serves to strengthen the argument of those who are looking
for a more democratic and accountable level of regional government.
This includes listening to the voices of women and men in the
community.

Jargon buster
'I used to be really intimidated by all the jargon in
regeneration but now I am happy to ask people to explain.
If I don't understand, other people won't either. They call me
Little Miss Clarifier!' Sue Ralph, Black Country Women's
Network

The Community Empowerment Fund provides 60 million over

2001-06 to set up Community Empowerment Networks (CENs)
in the 88 Neighbourhood Renewal Fund districts (selected on a
basis of deprivation) in England.

page 8
Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) are non-statutory, multi-agency bodies,
which match local authority boundaries, and aim to bring together at a local
level the different parts of the public, private, community and voluntary sectors
in England.
Communities First is the main regeneration programme in Wales, similar to
LSPs in England. The partnerships have to be made up of a 1/3 private
sector, 1/3 public sector and 1/3 community sector.
New Deal for Communities (NDC) is an English regeneration project with a
clear community focus which aims to help with employment, training and
education; and to create and build better homes.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) has responsibility for urban
planning and community-based regeneration. This is delivered by the
Neighbourhood Renewal Unit (NRU) that now has the most substantial
regeneration streams based within it.
Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) are under the Department of Trade
and Industry (DTI) and their role reflects the DTI's brief on economic and
employment. They have responsibility for regional economic development.
Social Inclusion Partnerships (SIPs), manage local regeneration initiatives in
the most deprived areas of Scotland. Community Planning Partnerships are
due to replace SIPs in 2004 and establish across the whole of Scotland.

page 9
 3. Why is gender important in
regeneration?
If women are not there [at decision making levels], womens needs
will not be addressed, womens priorities will be overlooked! GEM
Project, Manchester

Women still face discrimination at home, in the workplace, in the

community, and on decision-making bodies, despite the fact that they
are often the most active in their own communities. And men and
boys, particularly in deprived communities, may face a lack of
educational attainment, violence, unemployment and changing roles
as the nature of work also changes. For gender is not just about
women; it is also about men. In regeneration, issues relating to
masculinity and mens roles in a changed labour market have to be
addressed if interventions are to be successful.
Chris Booth, from Sheffield Hallam University, noted that:
regeneration can significantly impact on peoples lives in
communities that have severe economic, social and environmental
problems. It can make peoples lives better but it can also make
them worse. If gender is not taken into account in regeneration
programmes, it results in:
Unequal benefits
Unequal outcomes of programmes
Unequal access to resources
Unequal representation of men and women women participate at
community level, while men make the decisions.

When gender is taken into account, it leads to:

Accurate diagnosis of needs based on the reality of women and
mens lives.
Effective tailoring and targeting of resources to meet the diverse
and complex needs in communities and neighbourhoods.
Interventions that reflect gender differences avoid reinforcing
structural inequalities.
Reaching the whole community women are a critical link.

Katherine Rake, Director of the Fawcett Society, painted a vision of

the future if gender were included in regeneration:
First, there would be real changes in the lives of men and women.
Second, women would be fully engaged as decision makers. This
is not just about numbers, but about women having a proper voice
and an impact on policies. A big question emerges here: is it a
compromise to engage with policy makers on their own terms or is
it possible to change the nature of those terms? Third, it is
important to understand the complexity and diversity of womens
page 10
 and mens lives, and the complexity of the services they need transport,
housing, childcare. Fourth, there is now a sense of frustration with the pace of
change. If gender issues were fully incorporated, change would happen much
faster. It would not just mean a change in public lives but in private lives as well.
But it is important not to make regeneration just another burden, another thing to
do. We need to change mens behaviour in the private sphere and womens in
the public sphere. The next stage in this will be mens participation in unpaid
work.
And finally, if gender were included in regeneration there would be proper
funding involving women shouldnt be a way of getting regeneration on the
cheap.
Big resources and big money are tied up regeneration. Its potential to impact on
poverty and social exclusion is high particularly so when it comes to gender.

Women, regeneration and decision making

Women are disproportionately affected by those issues that regeneration
aims to tackle poverty, disadvantage and discrimination. That means that
gender should lie at the heart of regeneration strategies. And yet, while
women are the driving forces behind a lot of community activity, they are still
too often absent from decision-making.
So if women are already there at the community level often doing, rather
than deciding, its true then the emphasis on community-driven solutions
should provide an opportunity to nurture new styles of leadership and, by
working where women are, to tackle the lack of gender balance in decision
making.
New institutions provide new opportunities. For example, there are some
positive signs emerging from the devolution process. The positive steps taken
in Scotland and Wales to increase womens representation are paying off
women form 39 per cent of the Scottish Parliament and 50 per cent of the
Welsh Assembly.
There is a real responsibility for those who work at the policy level to make
sure that the efforts of those women make a difference beyond the
communities in which they work.
There is much more to do within the England regions. For example, here in
the West Midlands, only three of the Regional Development Agencys 14
members are women. However, some systematic work is in its early stages to
increase the number of women who apply for and secure public
appointments. There are signs of change in the West Midlands Regional
Assembly too, although its largest group of members, drawn from local
authorities across the region, continues to be overwhelmingly male.
There is a lot to play for, but also a lot to win.
Jane Slowey, Chief Executive, Birmingham Voluntary Service Council.

page 11
 Gender imbalances
'The European Union stipulates that the representation of either gender in
decision making processes at the EU, national and international level
should not fall below 40 per cent.' European Parliament Resolution on
Balanced Participation 2001
Inthe UK:
18% of MPs are women
23% of local councillors are women
6% of high court judges are women
In the public sector in 2003, women held 23% of top management posts
In the private sector, 2% of directors on the boards of companies were
women
Only 30% of minority ethnic women are managers or professionals
compared to 40% of black men, although 52% of black women have
further and higher education qualifications compared to 28% of white
women and 36% of black men
In Manchester, in local meetings, 57% are female, 43% male; in
intermediate meetings, 25% are female, 75% male, and in city-wide
meetings, 100% are male.
Source: Gender and Community Engagement in Manchester, Heidi Safia
Mirza (www.sourceuk.net/articles/F00353.html)

page 12
4. Why is gender invisible in
regeneration?
There needs to be political will from central government to
mainstream gender in policy making and other initiatives. It is a
gender thing not a woman thing.
Cath Kane, Women Connect

If so many people are agreed that regeneration work cannot happen

without gender being taken into account at all levels, why has this not
been happening?
First, the equalities focus of legislation and government efforts has been
mainly on disability and race. The Race Relations Amendment Act, for
example, is beginning to make a difference on race issues. There is
currently no such legislative push on gender equality. There is a general
lack of government requirements to tackle gender issues in regeneration.
Second, there has been a failure to set gender-specific targets and
outputs targets for the number of women on decision-making bodies,
for example.
Third, there are too few women and too few people from Black and
Minority Ethnic (BME) groups in senior decision-making positions.
There is only tokenistic involvement of women and other marginalised
groups in regeneration projects, and when they are involved, it is
often in the soft areas of regeneration; in community development
and relationships, while infrastructural issues such as roads, bridges,
schools, are done by men.
Fourth, there is a lack of disaggregated statistics by sex, a lack of
monitoring and a lack of evidence of good practice. Women as a
group are systematically excluded from regeneration documentation
and statistics. Without such statistics there is no data to examine or
monitor and it makes good practice difficult. So gender issues remain
problematised lone parents, teenage pregnancy, lack of
educational attainment.1

Practical problems2
There are also a number of practical problems for women when they
want to get involved in regeneration:
1. Childcare women with children stated that lack of childcare often
prevented them from attending courses or accessing services.
2. Confidence lack of confidence was a primary reason why
women said they did not become involved in community activities.

1 For example, Gender Profile of South Yorkshire's Labour Market 2000 (see
resources section)
2 Ideas from Preston Road Women's Centre, Hull, and Chris Booth, Sheffield
Hallam University. page 13
 3. Cost having a limited budget means that women have to prioritise how their
money is spent. Social activities or courses are not perceived as a necessity.
4. Information if information is not well distributed and easily accessible, women are
unaware of the opportunities available to them.
5. Timing it is important that activities take school hours into account. In addition
many women stated that they would not be happy to go out at night alone, and
that evening childcare was a problem. They would therefore prefer activities in
daylight hours.
6. Time womens commitment to their family/community/work means they often
have little time to stretch.
7. In addition, for many of the above reasons, it is not always easy for women to
get to meetings. Once they do get there, they face:
The formality of meetings not understanding the rules of engagement eg
speaking through the chair, tabling papers.
Not being listened to or taken seriously because they are women.
Lack of child care or other care facilities.
The male ethos of some meetings.
Lack of confidence to operate in what is seen to be a more public domain.
Barriers relating to women from different ethnic backgrounds.
Language barriers regeneration has lots of jargon!

page 14
5. Men have gender too
A few years ago, we realised that a large group of decision
makers thought that gender just means women and there was
a noticeable glazed eyes effect... But when we outlined that a
gender analysis was also about looking at the roles of men...they
began to take an interest.
Audrey Bronstein, Oxfam UK Poverty Programme.

Gender is often assumed to be just about women, but tackling gender

inequality also means involving men. In regeneration, the changing
nature of work has meant huge changes for men, particularly those
from poor communities.
In South Yorkshire, for example, male unemployment is almost four
per cent higher than in the rest of the country.3 The South Yorkshire
Objective 1 programme has a strand of its Gender Measure focused
exclusively on men, and funding has been ring-fenced to support
projects to assist men back into education, training and employment.
Objective 1 has involved groups and organisations that are not the
usual regeneration funding partners, such as football clubs, NHS
Health Trusts, local radio stations, the YMCA, but which had
developed successful methods and structures for working with men.
At a conference on men and regeneration held by South Yorkshire
Objective 1 programme, three main issues emerged:
1. Funding bodies need to recognise that re-engaging men in the
labour market requires long-term intervention.
2. Projects re-engaging men need to develop a holistic approach
which starts with each mans personal situation and educational
level and provides an environment in which multiple support
agencies can provide assistance. Central to this work is the need
to build mens self esteem and confidence.
3. There need to be more men and men who are gender aware
working in the regeneration field at the grass roots.
4. In the area of schools and parenting support services, there is a
need for activities to challenge the stereotypes attached to fathers
as the breadwinner and non carer. These assumptions result in
teachers and associated professionals unintentionally excluding
men from involvement in their childrens development as well as
serving to perpetuate the traditional gender role to the children.
5. In relation to employers, notions of the school leaver as the ideal
recruit mean that the advantages of employing older men are
overlooked.

3 Source: Gender Profile of South Yorkshire's Labour Market 2000 (see resources
section) page 15
 6. How can those men who have ceased to think of employment as an option in
their lives be attracted back into an educational context? They need to be
offered activities which interest them eg sport, technology or construction and
DIY. And these programmes need to be accurately marketed one man noted
that men were failing to pick up his organisations leaflets because they offered
support, something that a macho culture compelled men to shun. As soon as
the wording was changed to information, the situation reversed.

Gender equity and men Oxfam UK Poverty Programme

Projects examining and addressing mens participation in community level activities
are few and far between. There are few proven methods to follow. The use of
gender audits, gender policy proofing and gender appraisal are relatively new
techniques in the UK. Oxfams UK Poverty Programme is one of only a few UK
initiatives that have trialled these techniques and included within them a focus on
men. It has recently established a Gender Equity and Men project to look at gender
issues for men in tackling poverty and inequality in the UK and around the world.
In the UK, Oxfam has worked with the Friends of Jason (FoJ) group in Cae Mawr
in Wales, which has been looking at gender issues in the community. FoJ realised
that there were not enough men active at grassroots level and not enough local
women at decision-making level. Ursula from FoJ asked: As women who work
long and hard in the community to get community messages through to decision
makers, we need to ask: Why?
From there, FoJ asked why men were not accessing the services available in the
area, despite the fact that the changes in traditional family life meant more house
husbands, more men at home with their children, more men doing the school runs,
more single fathers. They noted that more service providers need to take account
of family lives and the different ways in which men and women live their lives.
They need to base their services on the gender roles and needs of the community.
At the moment we are talking to Communities First about setting up a fathers club
in our area. In the future we plan to work on a local gender needs analysis, which
will help us to identify mens needs on our estate.
FoJ believes that if men were given confidence at this level, that would give them
back respect and confidence to try and change the way they live, which would
ultimately change community life and create new opportunities for us all. This
would be the first step towards getting men back into employment.
The FoJ message on men and regeneration is: Involve men at the community level.
Find out what barriers they have to face as men in the community. Include
educational courses that will appeal and benefit both men and women... and of
course something that they want as men to be involved in.

page 16
6. Building capacity, generating
change
To make gender mainstreaming4 possible we need to keep
empowering women; giving them training and giving them
self-confidence.
Carolina de Oteyza, Community Pride Initiative

One of the building blocks for effective delivery and action in gender
and regeneration is to ensure that community groups have the
necessary knowledge, skills and expertise to implement change. This
section looks at three examples of groups which have managed to
make those changes East Manchester Beacon Womens Network,
Friends of Jason group in Cae Mawr, Wales, and Preston Road
Womens Centre in Hull. They all show how women from deprived
areas have come together to deal with the issues that they see as
important in their communities. They have not only galvanised others
including local authorities and decision makers into action, but in
the process of effecting change, have learned new skills and grown in
confidence themselves.

To prepare for the Tale of Two Cities national conference, the

ReGender project organised a learning workshop for the
community level women involved in both ReGender and its
sister Gender and Equalities project from Regional Action
West Midlands. This took place in Manchester in February, a
month before the conference. We knew that having un-pressured
time and a safe space in which to practise speaking out and
rehearsing the issues was an essential prerequisite to
participation in a major national conference at which high-level
decision makers would be present.

This proved to be a key component in the success of the Tale of

Two Cities conference. The experience of ReGender tells us that
ordinary people speaking about their day to day experience is
often the most successful way to reach and convince national
decision makers. Good preparation was therefore essential. The
workshop enabled them to meet women from other parts of the
country, and realise that the situations they faced were the
same. This in itself gave them confidence and security. It gave
them a safe space in which to practise making presentations to
a sympathetic and supportive audience. It gave them practice at
speaking in public, and preparing and delivering what they had
to say. All of this is the essence of empowerment and essential
to active participation in the partnerships on which regeneration
programmes are built.
Sue Smith and Jo Rowlands, Oxfam UK Poverty Programme

4 For definition see page 33 page 17

 Building on success East Manchester Beacon Womens
Network
In the late 1970s and 1980s most of East Manchester, along with many other
Northern industrial towns, began its journey into decline, and steadily deteriorated
over the following years. In 1999, it was one of the first areas to receive money
from the New Deal for Communities (NDC).
Under the NDC, at first people were a little disillusioned by what seemed to be lots
of talking and no action. There seemed to be no real platform for women to have a
say and be heard. So women from the voluntary and local sector decided to come
together, network and air their voices. Through this, the Beacon Womens
Network was formed at a gathering for women in East Manchester during
International Womens Week in 2003. Pauline Gourley, from Beacon, said: We
realised there were many common issues shared between us women, such as
teenage pregnancy, domestic violence, crime and safety. By looking at our lives,
we discovered the inequalities we faced in our communities and our lives. We also
realised that not all these issues were being addressed by the NDC.
In July 2003 we were introduced to Seema Shah, who works for the Oxfam
ReGender project. At first we were mainly unaware of the differences, or even the
actual meaning of gender and saw it as being a feminist issue. As we learned
more we realised this is not the case. We did an introductory workshop and looked
further into understanding the need for gender to be considered and recognised by
those who have the power and the influence in regeneration. We wanted to raise
the awareness of those who make the decisions and implement policies and
procedures. Over the course of several months we began regular workshop
sessions. We began to build up our confidence, skills and the tools to approach the
NDC with our key concerns. Some of the workshops we did were:
Power and influence We looked at the various NDC officers in the area and
decided who had the most power and influence.
Push and pull What helps push local women into getting involved in their
neighbourhood? For instance, wanting to ensure a better standard of housing.
What helps push them away from getting involved? For instance, poor
educational skills; the fear of feeling ridiculed or inadequate.
Budgets We imagined we had a sum of money (250,000) and prioritised
what we would like to see it spent on in our area. We also looked at how it
might need to be spent differently for men and women so that they both feel the
positive impact of this money.
Rainbow visioning exercise We looked at what we, a group of women,
would want to change in one years time in East Manchester regeneration so
that women are more involved and benefit more from it.
Some of the main issues raised through the rainbow visioning exercise were:
More women to have a say in schools
Training and employment to suit womens needs
More involvement of local women in groups and structures
Lack of space for focused discussion between women
Lack of women community role models
No launderette provision in area
page 18 Lack of consistent local transport services in area.
Transport
Christine Connaughton, also from Beacon, continued: We decided to focus on one
particular issue and see if we could at least get the powers that be to consider
the necessity for gender inclusion in their policies and plans.
Why transport? Out of all the issues that came up time and time again, transport
was a regular. It affects women in our area in a number of ways:
Fewer women than men have access to cars and therefore rely heavily upon
public transport to get about locally.
There is no direct transport service to new amenities in area little inter-estate
public transport. Most of the bus routes are city centre routes. Imagine.... going
off to work, but failing to collect children from school; never being on time due
to lack of local bus routes.
Restricted or no access for women and children to regeneration facilities, such
as Sports City, health centres, new community facilities and even Asda
Wal-Mart. A large proportion of the local people will also not have access to the
new tramline.
Infrequency of buses means that it is hard for women to juggle their daily chores
from getting to work, to doing shopping to escorting children.
Lack of local bus services acts as a barrier for womens involvement in the local
community. It also acts as a barrier to attend training and or employment
opportunities easily. It creates territorialism and divides areas. The community
finds it hard to network and work together.
People are more reliant on taxis after doing their large household shopping, but
can ill-afford the costs. This causes money concerns. Most people cannot afford
to use taxis regularly.
There are not enough low-level buses to allow easy access for prams/
wheelchairs and shopping. This would help the elderly too.

Successes
In order to tackle some of these issues, the Beacon Womens Network designed a
simple questionnaire, which they took to a local residents meeting. This had a
domino effect and created more discussion on transport locally. As a result,
transport became a community issue rather than just the Beacon Womens
Networks issue. Said Pauline Gourley: It boosted our confidence to see how such
a small group of women could create such feedback and awareness on an issue.
The Network then held a Residents Forum meeting on transport, after which the
local paper echoed their call for a Transport Survey in the area.
As a result of all this, the NDC now have awareness of the local transport
concerns, and the Health and Well Being Network has also begun to look at
transport issues at their meetings.

Challenges
We now want to build on our successes and try and deal with the challenges we
are facing, continued Christine. We need to work more closely with the NDC and
seek their support to help us with pursuing relevant organisations within the city that
page 19
 make decisions about the East Manchester public transport provision. We need to
convince the NDC to undertake a larger-scale East Manchester transport
questionnaire. The questionnaire needs to be designed so that it picks up on the
different transport needs of both women and men.
We have recently learned that the Manchester Local Strategic Partnership (LSP)
looks at city-wide transport issues through a thematic transport pool. We need to
make contact with them and get them to back us.
We need to continue raising awareness locally about why and how transport
needs to improve in the area. Although we have made NDC aware that transport
is a real issue in the area, there is more work to do to ensure it goes beyond just
the Health and Well Being Network.
Our initial survey was just a taster and as a small group of women, we do not
have the resources to take on a larger-scale survey of transport needs in the area.
The challenge is to ensure that we continue to build on the initial domino effect that
was created so that transport does not just become another issue that was raised
and forgotten when something else to campaign about came along.

Women rock! Preston Road Women's Centre, Hull

Hull has the highest number of teenage pregnancies in England. On the
Preston Road estate women face domestic violence and 75 per cent of
residents lack qualifications. Preston Road is one of Hull's eight development
and employment impact areas.
A group of local women on the estate got together and decided they wanted
to change things. The initiative has been driven by local women who live on
the estate and know the area. This has been very important. It was difficult at
first; women found it hard to get permission from their husbands to come
yes, it was a question of whether many of the women were allowed to come
to a meeting. And some came even though they had been told not to go. We
managed to get government funding probably through sheer cussedness!
In just two years our womens centre which is painted in suffragette colours,
purple and green has domestic violence and teenage pregnancy projects,
a drop-in centre, free classes for women with courses ranging from DIY to
self-defence, free childcare. It has eight staff and half a dozen volunteers.
We are about to become an independent company, which will give us more
control over what we want to do, with a service level agreement with the
New Deal for Communities which used to be in charge.
It has not been easy, but now it rocks!
Lisa Hilder, Jade Holwell, Angi Daley, Lisa Lee and Kerryann Strong

page 20
Raising community spirit Friends of Jason Group,
Cae Mawr, Wales
Cae Mawr is a housing association estate in North Wales. The first tenants moved
in on 5th November 1993. The estate soon had a bad reputation for anti-social
behaviour. Sue Collins from Friends of Jason Group noted that: because of this, the
estate was neglected, our children branded as vandals, parents as unfit and our
local housing association stopped repairing faults and listening to our complaints.
Everyone was in low spirits. In 1998, my son was a survivor in a horrific drowning
incident in which his friend Jason died. This brought our community closer together,
and we were determined to do something positive. Our youths got together a
football team in memory of their friend, hence the name FoJ, Friends of Jason.
Mums organised a fun day to raise money for a bench in memory of Jason, and
the Cae Mawr residents association was formed. We held regular meetings and
sorted out a lot of housing and welfare problems on our estate, gave everyone in
our community a hope of a better a future. Community spirit was raised.
As things progressed locally at grassroots level, the estate started to get better.
In 2000, the local college, in partnership with other agencies, brought community-
based learning projects into the area and our learning began. In early 2002,
Communities First, the Welsh regeneration programme, came into the area and
asked if some of the group could be the Communities First tenant representatives.
By the end of 2002, FoJ secured a small community flat from the housing
association. They began running activities for children, youth and adults.
Angie Stephenson from FoJ continued:
We, as adults, have successfully completed lots of community-based courses from
this flat. The courses have given us the confidence to take our work further. As a
group we feel passionate about how many of the service providers we come into
contact with do not acknowledge the grassroots perspective. This inspired us to
develop a workshop aimed at service providers to build their capacity to work with
community groups and community level people. We have piloted it with community
practitioners and have been asked to present it again at the First Step in
Community Development Learning in North Wales. We hope to be able to roll out
this training further within Conway Council and regeneration.
Through our work, we were introduced to Oxfams ReGender project in the
summer of 2003. Our first thought was: This is about womens lib and burning
bras. But we quickly realised that it was about getting our voices heard. We
recognised that at community level we were gender unaware. We also noticed that
at decision-making level in Llandudno, gender was little or not considered. This
prompted us to find out why.
We worked with Oxfams ReGender project and took part in workshops to
understand why gender matters in regeneration and how we can get our voices
heard and be involved in decision making. We were introduced to tools, which
helped us to understand:
What gender roles and needs exist in our community
What gender analysis is
Why gender statistics can be important
Action planning according to gender needs
page 21
 Who is involved in local partnerships and decision making on how regeneration
money is spent
How to lobby on having our needs met by regeneration
What pushes women to be involved in regeneration and what pulls them away
from it
Regeneration jargon.
We can do what we do now because we have gained confidence. We just want to
put back into the community what we have got out of it. We want more people to
get involved...

page 22
7. Data driven the importance of
tools and statistics
You cant develop policy without disaggregated statistics because
good policy is evidence-based.
Shelagh Prosser, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

In order to work on gender issues, baseline information broken

down by sex is essential, or it is really difficult to know where to
begin with any analysis on regeneration projects. There is
statistical data available for example on the Census 2001
(www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001) and Office of National Statistics
(ONS) (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/) websites, but it is quite limited.
Free CDs are also available from the ONS, but not many people
know about them, and they contain so much information it is hard to
see the wood for the trees. Even if people do have the data to hand,
they may not recognise it or be able to use it. So using the data is as
important as acquiring it. And in order to use it, two factors are key
drivers are required from the top, and information is needed from the
grassroots.
In this section, Regional Action West Midlands (RAWM) and the GEM
project in Manchester explain their approaches to collecting data.

Tools for change West Midlands Gender and

Equalities programme
Regional Action West Midlands (RAWM) in partnership with the
Gender and Equalities Programme steering group have been testing
and refining a Gender Impact Assessment Toolkit (GIAT) developed in
the late 1990s. The toolkit, designed for large-scale policymaking
regeneration scenarios, was developed on the understanding that the
planning for, and strategy development of, a regeneration
programme requires an understanding of the environment in relation
to gender issues. This needs to include baseline indicators statistics
about mens lives and womens lives. These indicators (collectively
known as a gender profile) aim to give an objective measurement of
the situation and provide a check (impact assessment) as to whether a
programme is likely to make the situation better or worse.
Birmingham Voluntary Service Council (BVSC), working with
Birmingham Settlement (see below), set about developing a research
structure that would become an integral part of the GIAT, but would
also be a stand-alone capacity building activity.
The research structure has four key areas:
(i) Knowing and understanding the questions to be asked
(ii) Understanding what the data tells you once it has been collected
(iii) Sources for the relevant data
(iv) Developing a profile from the collected data. page 23
 Birmingham Settlement is a capacity building and service-delivery organisation based in
the West Midlands. It is a large multi-sited organisation, but the GIAT was used with just
one project, the Wyrley Birch estate. Gender issues are very important, especially in a
multi-deprivation environment such as Wyrley Birch. For this reason the project worker
and the board of Birmingham Settlement agreed to develop and test the applicability of
research as part of the GIAT. In testing the approach, the need to tie the concepts down
to the practical realities of acting in communities was quickly realised, for example, not
looking at employment, but breaking down the indicators by age, ethnicity, and within
gender groups. Findings also included the need to compile specific indicators to gain
useful data. Within the workshop, a discussion was held about accessing data (Who
owns data? Who can access it?). The key issue was peoples ability and willingness to
engage with data or statistics. There are two factors influencing an individuals ability to
scrutinise data and hold decision makers to account: the willingness of the individual to
engage with numbers; and putting in place concrete skills building for numbers and
statistics. It was suggested that funding was required for an intermediate organisation to
support or give statistical support to community groups.
Gail Walters, Birmingham Voluntary Service Council

Gender and Community Engagement Manchester (GEM)

Project
We want to be there because we want to contribute to others and make a
change. We have good ideas, we have a lot to say!
Womens voices from the GEM project

Women and men differ in their capacity, authority and availability to participate in
decision-making processes and structures. There is an imbalance in the involvement
and influence of men and women in community engagement activities. For
example, 73 per cent of local councillors are men.
In order to promote gender equality, it is important to understand the different
opportunities, motivations and barriers women and men face that might give rise to
gender inequalities. It is also important to promote gender awareness at different
levels of involvement and in different decision-making processes.
In response to this situation, Manchester Womens Network, along with other
organisations in the area, has designed and is delivering the GEM project. Its overall
aim is to carry out a gender analysis of existing community engagement processes with
a view to developing information strategy and practice that will promote gender
equality in community engagement in Manchester. GEM aims:
To understand the gender dynamics of community engagement
To raise awareness of gender issues among participants in community engagement
structures, from grassroots groups to city-wide policy makers.
To develop materials and frameworks (toolkits) for gender-awareness training
suitable for community groups and voluntary and statutory organisations.

page 24
 GEM's partners
Whalley Range Forum, Wythenshawe Voices, Old Moat Family Forum,
Crime and Community Safety Pool, East Manchester Community Network,
Community Pride Initiative, Community Network for Manchester, Women's
Electronic Village Hall, Oxfam UK Poverty Programme, Local Strategic
Partnership Steering Group, Manchester Metropolitan University Community
Audit and Evaluation Centre, Manchester University Students' Union.

GEM is looking at 16 structures across three levels of decision-making: local,

intermediate and city wide. The project is being carried out as a participatory
process, involving learning and awareness-raising for all involved. Data is gathered
through a mixture of direct discussions and workshops (with mixed groups,
men-only and women-only, black men and women, Asian women, working class
men, young people, old people, lesbians and gay men) as well as questionnaires
and analysis of secondary data.
For each of the structures, GEM has collected information on the stated purpose,
activities and engagement remit of the structure; background on the area covered
(such as boundaries and demographic statistics), and one years worth of meeting
minutes. From workshops and communities GEM collected barriers and motivations
to participation, the importance of participation, the gender impact and effects of
under-representation, and possible strategies and recommendations. GEM have
produced a range of tables, graphs and statistics, which give a rich picture of the
nature of gendered participation, forming the basis of a strategy for the Local
Strategic Partnership. Here are two examples.

Women seen but not heard

This pie chart compares the presence of women attending the New Deal Crime
Task Group in the area, with the number of times they spoke at the meetings. It is
clear that women are the majority of those who attend, but lack the confidence to
make their voices heard.

New Deal Crime Task Group

Attendance by Gender

Meetings with
gender balance
attendance
But...

Participation by Gender

Male dominated
participation

page 25
 Black and Minority Ethnic women the least audible
This chart gives a breakdown by ethnic grouping of participants at a local strategy
group, and then a breakdown by gender. It demonstrates that that although 21 per
cent of participants were from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups, far fewer
women than men attended from those groups, compared to the white British
participants and therefore the level of womens participation depends on their
ethnicity.

CN4M Strategy Group

In structures with
good Black and
Attendance by Ethnic Background

Minority Ethnic
background
representation

Ethnic Background by Gender

gender inequality
80
70

amongst Black
60
50
40
and Minority 30
20
Ethnic attendees 10
0

Noreen Khan, Vikki Canham, Hannah Berry, Caroline De Oteyza

page 26
8. Power matters getting women
onto decision-making bodies
Women need to understand the language of regeneration and
power, but those in power must understand the language of the
community.
Dee Edwards, Black Country Womens Development Network

There are few women on decision-making bodies about regeneration.

And yet it seems clear that increasing the proportion of women would
make a difference to regeneration schemes. The Black Country Womens
Development Network and Sheffield Womens Forum are working to
change this situation; to achieve a recognition that power needs to be
shared between men and women and that this will mean change.

A story with heart: Black Country Womens

Development Network
The Black Country Womens Network was founded in 2001. It
consists of womens organisations in the voluntary and community
sector across Sandwell, Dudley, Wolverhampton and Walsall. It
provides information, training and support to enable womens groups
to develop and work collectively. It aims to be innovative and risk-
taking in its approach and ways of working and to be an
organisation that listens and responds to womens voices to ensure
that it reflects their ideas and views. It hopes to challenge women
and womens groups to think and act in a collective way on a long-
term basis. Dee Edwards noted: We try to get women to work at a
strategic level.
Sue Ralph is from Women in Sandwell (WINS), part of the network.
She belongs to the Johns Lane Community Group. She said: when
we started out the committee decided to put the only three men in the
top positions. All the women agreed. They thought otherwise they
wouldnt be heard. But nothing got done and now women are back
on the committee and we are able to do the talking. For example,
there is a street in our area known as mugging lane. It was poorly lit
and dangerous. So we got better lighting. The same thing happened
with the issue that children had nowhere to go, no park or playing
field. So we are going to lease the basement room of the church. It
needs a lot of work but we have plenty of volunteers and a grant
from Sure Start.
I have learned so much that I call myself a guinea pig. I have gained
such a wealth of knowledge and experience. I have been asked to be
an observer on the Community Empowerment Network (which is
mainly men). I want to pass what I have learned on to the community.
Having a disability doesnt mean anything to me any more as long as
I can help the community. They want to be heard. I want to be heard.
This is my heart.
page 27
 Sue Walton, from Sandwell EBP, also felt that becoming involved in the Black
Country Womens Network increased my confidence and my knowledge base I
can be more assertive and can challenge people now. It had an impact on my
family and on my community I had left school with no qualifications and took my
GCSEs at the same time as my daughter! I gained an A in English and went on to
take the A level Im waiting for the results. My son is now at university and my
husband is taking a professional qualification.
I want to go on making a difference!

Dee Edwards (Black Country Womens Development Network); Faiza Durrani

(Humdard, supporting Asian Women); Sue Walton (Sandwell EBP); Sue Ralph
(Johns Lane Residents Group); Mary Smith (Sandwells Womens Forum).

Tick boxes and token women

There is a danger that once gender becomes an issue, token women will be
invited onto committees so that boxes can be ticked. This raises important
issues about consultation and democracy. Just because something is local
doesn't mean it is automatically democratic.
Ursula from Cae Mawr noted: What constitutes asking the community? I
remember once being dragged off the street for a consultation something
about extending people's gardens. The architect who was there already knew
what he wanted and I found four other people who had also been dragged
off the street.
It sometimes feels as though women are being invited onto committees and
into meetings because someone somewhere needs to tick a box saying
Women. In this case you feel it is difficult to use the power you gain from
being on that committee because you feel you are having to do it the mans
way.

Strength and potential Sheffield Womens Forum

The Sheffield Womens Forum was launched in Sept 1999, as part of the European
Unions Objective 1 funding. Until then, said Margaret Goodlad: Womens issues
in Sheffield had mainly gone unseen. The women in Sheffield needed to have a
voice, a powerful voice, almost like their own union. Sheffield Womens Forum now
covers over 100 organisations with their own networks to disseminate information.
This indicates the potential, strength and need for women.
The Forum was originally led and supported by Sheffield City Council but became
a multi-agency forum for anyone working on womens issues in Sheffield eg
statutory organisations, voluntary organisations, individuals, trusts etc. Its aims are:
To make womens issues, interests and concerns visible in developments in the
city
To ensure women are involved in regeneration issues and new funding initiatives
To influence decision-making processes affecting womens lives.

page 28
The Forum meets on the first of every month and takes anything that members want
to put on the agenda. It has held two conferences one on information technology
and one called Womens visions, womens version. It also presented key issues on
women living in poverty to Sheffield First for Inclusion Partnership Board (LSP).
The Forum is an example of the kind of joined-up thinking that helps to move things
forward. It works closely with Sheffield City Council, and since the Forum was set
up, a range of other organisations for women have also been created in Sheffield,
including the South Yorkshire Womens Development Trust (see section 9 of this
report), and Women in Front training and mentoring for women. This joined-up
approach involving women from the grassroots up to Objective 1 management
level, has been a critical factor in the success of gender initiatives in Sheffield and
South Yorkshire.
Margaret Goodlad (Children Mean Business), Kate Flannery (Sheffield City Council)

Gender and the representation of women in the West

Midlands
Only three of the Regional Development Agencys 14 members are women.
However, some systematic work is in its early stages, to increase the number
of women who apply for and secure Public Appointments. And while the West
Midlands Regional Assembly continues to be overwhelmingly male, there are
signs of change here too. Interestingly, there are a reasonable number of
women among the Other Stakeholders Group the three representatives on
the Assemblys Board are all women. So far there have been two female Vice
Chairs one from the Other Stakeholders Group and one from the business
group.
Jane Slowey, Chief Executive, Birmingham Voluntary Service Council

page 29
 9. Vision, stamina and chocolate
getting strategic about gender
We must be more organised. We need a structure to broaden out
involvement and to build a strong lobbying organisation. We cant
rely on individuals they are only as strong as the networks
behind them.
Participant at Womens vision, womens version conference,
Sheffield

You need vision. And stamina. And chocolate! Cinnamon Bennett,

Gender Manager, South Yorkshire Objective 1 Programme

Where gender has been most successfully integrated into

regeneration projects, it is because local organisations have forged
links with funders, local authorities and other groups and
organisations to drive their vision forward. Here, three such alliances,
in South Yorkshire, Glasgow and Essex, explain the secrets of their
success.

Womens vision, womens version: South

Yorkshire Womens Development Trust
By 2000, in Sheffield, there were five womens organisations working
with people from marginalised groups in the city. There were
questions of sustainability. Groups had to turn women away; the
future was uncertain.
Then Objective 1 status was given to South Yorkshire there was
700m from EU and matched funding from public money. This was a
huge opportunity. Gender mainstreaming was a requirement for
Objective 1 and social inclusion was also written in. The door was
opening...
In February 2001 the Sheffield Womens Forum organised a conference,
Womens vision, womens version, and were delighted when 160
women turned up. This came up with the idea of forming a funding trust,
to pull down the funding effectively. A consultant came in to find out how
to create a legal entity, and to look at what organisations might want to
participate. The South Yorkshire Womens Development Trust was
established and it soon began to work in partnership with Objective 1.
Isadora Aiken, manager of the Trust, noted that when the Trust first
started there was no Board, nothing, there wasnt even a desk! But the
pilot for the Trust in 2002 was very successful, and we got further
funding to roll it out across South Yorkshire.
Using the Objective 1 infrastructure, the Trust took a dual approach,
looking at positive action and gender mainstreaming. It came up with
a project that looked at tackling gender imbalance in the labour
market. This involved:
page 30 Getting women and men into non-traditional employment.
 Supporting employers to increase employment opportunities by promoting
work-life balance practices.
More women in senior decision-making roles in organisations and public life.
Training and education for men who have reduced employment prospects due
to changes in the economic base.
The Trust fought hard to get positive action to make sure that the experience of
working with women at grassroots level wasnt lost when making decisions about
how to spend the new funding. It developed womens learning partnerships,
supporting and enabling women to think and engage in a very diverse range of
credited and non-accredited training, conferences and seminars. It has also
commissioned research into women in non-traditional trades, the needs of disabled
women and the gaps for women in public life. A positive action pot was ring-
fenced, and a post created to promote funding availability to applicants. Different
groups of women put their case to say Fund Us!
Isadora Aiken says that the Trust today is: a strong team of passionate women
who really care about the area. There are 22 member organisations, seven
training organisations and 700 women have been trained. Were getting women
into construction, and we have women training women. We have women working
with women in the community on their own community buildings. We do everything
we can to get women out of the house. Its amazing how people grow when
theyve got support, its a wonderful feeling!

The key messages from the Trust are:

Womens involvement is vital to the success of economic regeneration.
Women are the poorest group in South Yorkshires communities and the
Objective 1 programme will not achieve its targets without addressing their
needs.
The womens voluntary sector in South Yorkshire has the experience of building
the infrastructure of everyday lives, proving that activities which are realistic and
taken into account the limitations face by time, transport, money and womens
responsibilities for others.
The Objective 1 programme has committed resources and provided gender
know-how to inspire and develop the contribution of individual women and
organisations.

Going live in Greater Govan, Scotland

Regeneration didnt mean anything to them [the women being recruited to the
project], it was like hearing that Marks and Spencer was coming to the area
youll only go in if you can afford it. ReGender group member, Glasgow

Greater Govan is a very diverse area of inner city Glasgow. There are 28,000
people, lots of ethnic minorities and refugees, and people coming in and out all the
time. It is also an area of high deprivation and poverty. There are few opportunities
for young people and there was no womens group.
In 1999 Greater Govan was designated as a Social Inclusion Partnership, or SIP,
with the aim of tackling some of these problems and making the area a better
page 31
 place to live. The SIP already had a number of programme aims relating to gender
and regeneration:
Promoting a better understanding of how to deliver regeneration, using a gender
analysis to promote gender equality.
Promoting these lessons so that they informed and supported approaches to
regeneration in Govan, elsewhere in Glasgow and throughout Scotland.
Grassroots and institutional capacity built to raise awareness, increase
understanding, improve processes and approaches and take action.
At a meeting in December 2001, the Community Forum, which included 40 local
people, looked at poverty and discrimination. Parveen Khan from the Govan Social
Inclusion Project said: Everyone felt they had been discriminated against in one
way or another. But poverty wasnt something people identified as an issue,
because its something theyve always lived with.
The SIP then started work with ReGender, part of Oxfams UK Poverty Programme.
The project with the SIP aimed to support and train a group of grassroots women in
Greater Govan so that they could:
Be skilled in using tools to carry out a gender analysis of local regeneration
initiatives.
Monitor the impact of regeneration programmes on marginalised women.
Influence regeneration practice in meeting the needs of women effectively.

Motivation
Parveen Khan added: One of the difficulties was motivating a group of local
women to take part in the project. Some women had already been involved in the
SIP and had become disillusioned, so this was not easy. The problem of recruiting
women is perhaps indicative of just how difficult it is for women to become
involved in such groups. Two women had to drop out due to personal difficulties;
one cannot attend meetings as she has to work odd hours due to being unable to
access childcare in the area, and another had dropped out of previous community
activity as she felt lost in the jargon at meetings and as a result had lost
confidence.
But a core group of six has now been recruited and several training sessions have
been held introducing the concepts of gender and regeneration, and looking at
what it means for Greater Govan women and the role of Govan SIP.
At first it was: Whats all this about feminism, burning your bra? but gradually the
women gained a greater understanding of jargon, gender diversity and
regeneration initiatives. By the third session women started saying: Why arent
there any men here? Why is this all about women? They thought local men should
undertake the same process, to compare findings and explode some stereotypical
gender myths.
Change has to be driven forward both at grassroots and strategic levels says
Parveen. We have to build those links and communicate. We still have got a long
way to go, but we know now that we have started something. And it is having an
influence elsewhere. All the other SIPs look to us because were doing pilots and
also were seen as a good model. Were hoping to develop policy and practice
page 32 guides that we hope others will pick up.
Thinking gender first: gender mainstreaming in Essex
South Essex Rape and Incest Crisis Centre (SERICC) commissioned Sheffield Hallam
University to carry out a gender mainstreaming project that was funded by the
Home Office. The key aims of the project were:
1. To clarify policy aims and constraints on service development affecting gender
mainstreaming in selected services.
2. To gain an understanding of local agency strategies, missions and values in
each of these areas.
3. To assess and measure the impact of the services delivered in each area on
women and on men, and on specified groups of women.
4. To support local agencies in developing a gender mainstreaming strategy and a
forward action plan to achieve improved outcomes for women, especially any
women not well served by current provision.

Gender mainstreaming: everyone's issue

Gender mainstreaming involves the incorporation of gender considerations
into all polices, practices and decision making, so that at every stage of
development and implementation, an analysis is made of the effects on
women and men, and appropriate action is taken. Addressing gender means
recognising that inequalities between women and men involve unfairness and
stereotyping that damages everyone. Gender mainstreaming is everyone's
issue, where everyone gains.

Chris Booth from Sheffield Hallam said: we were aiming to make the links
between sexual violence and gender inequality. We wanted to get into the health
authority, get into the police, turn things upside down, mainstream gender into
service delivery. We wanted to understand local service providers; to see what
makes them tick.
The project focused on three policy areas: crime and disorder, mental health and
regeneration. We worked in those three areas with Thurrock Council, the health
trust and voluntary organisations. We tried to get an in into all these
organisations; we held focus group workshops, tried to get them to think about
gender. Then we did telephone interviews with the heads of service. After that we
had a look at national policy documents to see what frameworks were provided
and how they were interpreted at the local level. Then we had a look at sex-
disaggregated data. We couldnt get hold of very much data, but we got some...
We got people together and presented everything back at an action-planning
workshop. We developed a policy framework and guidelines, and a series of
recommendations for all the organisations.

page 33
 Crime matters in Thurrock
More than four in five victims of domestic violence are women
Reported rapes have increased rapidly in recent years while conviction
rates have plummeted
Mens and womens patterns of offending behaviours differ in important
ways, as do both their fear of crime and their contact with the police.
Important national developments in this area include the Home Office
Crime Reduction Programme, the Violence Against Women Initiative, and
the establishment of working groups focusing on these issues at the
Womens National Commission.

Project reflections
There were a number of reflections from the work of the project, as Chris Booth
noted: first, we were surprised at the lack of awareness and knowledge on gender
in key agencies. More than surprised, in fact I have rarely been in a situation
where people know so little about gender. It was as though we were speaking a
different language.
The project was also problematic because it was led by the voluntary sector, led
by a small womens organisation, rather than by the local authority. This made it
difficult for Thurrock to take it on and things took longer than expected. Other
problems were that the Local Authority and agencies had difficulty in relating
gender mainstreaming to the work of SERICC around domestic and sexual violence
and abuse. The lack of government guidance on gender in two of the service-
delivery areas also hindered progress.
Perhaps most importantly, the project demonstrated the importance of gender-
disaggregated data. Getting such data was really difficult. It just didnt seem to
exist. This is now SERRICs mission in life!
A cultural shift is beginning to take place, but it only emerged after the project was
over. For example, gender mainstreaming has been supported by the importance
of equality in the Comprehensive Performance Assessment for Local Authorities.
And the Department of Health in its mental health strategy places significance on
gender and has cited SERRICs work on gender mainstreaming as an example of
good practice in the field.

page 34
10. Ways forward
Regeneration can never be a quick fix. Tackling long-term decline
requires sustained investment over many years.
Alan Burge, Communities First, Wales

As a community group, we ask you to please consider gender in

all your regeneration policies and decision making. This will help
to make sure that the whole communitys needs are being met by
regeneration.
Cae Mawr Friends of Jason Group

In order for regeneration to be successful, gender needs to be

addressed at all levels, from policymakers to the grassroots. And this
is not a quick fix. It will take time some programmes are looking at
10 to 20 years. But it can be done. This section gives both practical
and strategic ideas for how to take gender forward in regeneration
work, with ideas from both the grassroots and from decision-makers.
Community groups are clear about the ways forward. Lisa Crowther
from Friends of Jason Group in Cae Mawr noted some basic
principles that need to be thought through before a project is even
drawn up:
1. Dont throw money into projects for any area unless you have
considered all the facts, built a picture of the local community and
understood the communitys profile. This means understanding how
men and women live their everyday lives (from their employment to
household responsibility to community activity patterns).
2. Dont assume, as assumptions cause prejudice. People have to live
with your decisions.
3. For every decision, there is impact good or bad. Keep this in
mind when decisions are made, as the impact is felt by real life
women and men.
4. Work closely with community groups like us, and not against us,
so that the right decisions are made for each area.

The practical steps

There are a range of areas where steps can be taken to put gender
into regeneration strategies. These are drawn from suggestions made
at the conference. They involve a rethinking of priorities, a
reassessment of power and an identification of the gender gaps in
regeneration work. The areas include: targets, training and tools,
data and statistics, information, funding and support. There are also
strategic steps in relation to forging networks and partnerships,
changing behaviour and attitudes, customising services, and the
inclusion of men in this work.

page 35
 1. Targets
There need to be targets for a fair gender balance (50:50) on Community
Empowerment Networks (CENs), Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) and other
decision making bodies by a set date. These include the creation of floor targets to
measure progress. These targets also need to be monitored.
2. Legislation
It is important not to have equalities in separate silos things are changing on the
race front because of the Race Relations Amendment Act. The Act made a real
difference, and a similar requirement for a public duty on gender would be a key
requirement. Conditionality on gender in funding would also help for example,
Objective 1 funding requires clawback of money in case of non-compliance.
3. Training and tools
Gender and diversity need to be integrated into all existing training programmes:
Identify the need for specific gender and diversity training to ensure compliance
with new legislative and other requirements.
Capacity building of individuals and organisations is a major issue. People can
get number-blind when they see statistics.
Women need to be provided with training on the complex layers of regeneration
schemes and the right support in order for them to participate effectively in the
regeneration process.
Womens participation in training needs to be reviewed and there should be
more positive action training initiatives.
Devolved administrations in England, Wales and Scotland are more open to
outside influences. Get to know the individuals who run management training
and get gender on the agenda.
Training on gender also needs to be provided for decision makers.
In addition, appropriate tools need to be developed, not only for the training,
but also for gender audits and gender impact assessments.5
4. Statistics and disaggregated data
Ensure statistical data is available in sex-disaggregated form. This will enable the
following to be assessed:
What gaps exist in developing and delivering services to men and women?
What are the positive and negative impacts of services on different groups of
women and men?
How do mens needs and womens needs differ?
There needs to be guidance on sex-disaggregated data, analysis and
interpretation. And learning how to use the data once it is gathered is as important
as having it in the first place. More work is needed on access to, and awareness
of, information and data. More detailed local research is needed, including an
understanding of the gender and diversity aspects of local area profiles6.

5 For an example see Gender Proofing Handbook (see resources section)

6 For an example see Gender profile of South Yorkshire's Labour Market 2000 (see resources
page 36 section)
5. Information
Women must use their new knowledge to influence everything they do like a
chain reaction, this knowledge impacts on their individual lives and their work in
the community.
Regeneration officers must equip local women with clear and simple information in
order for them to become involved. Without a clear understanding of how
regeneration schemes work, local people cannot get actively involved. Equality and
diversity know-how, capacity and awareness also need to be developed.
There is already a lot of information out there, but it needs to be well maintained,
well resourced and permanent. Strategies for good practice also need to be shared
and disseminated.
6. Funding and support
More money needs to be available for specific gender and governance training to
up-skill women and equip them for participation in strategic arenas. (To include the
costs of childcare/care, transport, interpreters and mentoring support systems).
More funding needs to be given to middle order infrastructural organisations to
train smaller organisations in using data and scrutinising decision makers.
Annual budgets for local authorities need to be gender-analysed.
Funding and support needs to be available for women who are active at
grassroots level so that they too can sit around tables and be involved in making
decisions about the regeneration issues that they have direct experience of or
are involved in tackling at community level. This can be as simple as developing
a jargon dictionary for each meeting. Or it may mean providing training
opportunities on understanding regeneration structures and simple information
on where money is spent.

7. Forums and partnerships

The best strategies are about making local, regional and national links in order
achieve the greatest impact in gender and regeneration. Networks, forums or
partnerships that focus on gender issues and come together to share practice and
develop expertise have proved successful. Ideas for this have included:
Establishing a local or regional womens forum so that women can have their
say in key regeneration issues.
Womens forums, which can also be used as in-depth focus groups to help
identify and research key issues which impact on women within regeneration.
Multi-agency partnerships of womens organisations can also be established to
help progress work.
Women need to be enabled to participate in city partnerships.
8. Changing behaviour and attitudes
Changing attitudes is complicated and takes time. But there are areas where work
can make a difference.
Jargon Regeneration has a huge amount of jargon and a large number of
acronyms. This is off-putting for many people and those working in regeneration
need to be aware of this.
The media There needs to be a lot of work on images of men and women.
Schools Work on stereotypes and gender issues can be built into citizenship,
personal and social education and other programmes. page 37
 9. Involving men
Involve men at the community level. Find out what barriers they have to face as
men in the community. Some ideas for local areas might include educational
courses that will appeal and benefit both men and women... and of course
something that men want to be involved in.
10. Services
More customised services are needed a uniform approach has clearly not met
peoples needs. For example, there could be mini urban development corporations
which could then use things like gender toolkits.
Services like welfare rights also need to be more sensitive to womens needs.

What has been done? Positive examples from Europe

The UK Health and safety audits working with Black and Minority Ethnic
women to conduct health and safety audits in their local neighbourhood.
The Netherlands Testing the living environment developing a toolkit to
help local women examine their neighbourhood and lobby for change.
Finland The Dream method is a visioning technique to help women look
ahead 10 years.
Spain Womens experience of the city workshops with women in
Barcelona to get them thinking about improvements to their home,
neighbourhood, public spaces and city.
The UK Participatory design women architects supported Black and
Minority Ethnic women to design a refuge sensitive to their cultural needs,
using participatory techniques.
Portugal A woman's way of doing employment and skills training for
women adopted a listening approach, starting with: I am a woman so
what do I know?
The UK Capacity building in the West Midlands working with a group of
women to develop knowledge, skills and behaviours to participate in
regeneration partnerships.

The Beacon Womens Group in East Manchester noted that:

Regeneration will not work without local womens voices being heard!
Regeneration must involve the people living and working in the areas targeted.
We understand the problems in our community because its us who suffer them.
We have good ideas to contribute to the solutions. We have learnt that men and
women feel the impact of programmes and policies in different ways. Gender
needs and roles need to be considered by regeneration projects to ensure
money is directed to those who need it most. The community as a whole will
suffer without the involvement of women in regeneration.

A final word from Katherine Rake of the Fawcett Society: The most important factor
in ensuring that gender is included in all regeneration work is the people
themselves people who see that the process of change is political, social and
psychological. Women and men who recognise the importance of gender in
page 38 regeneration and who are prepared to go out and make it happen.
Postscript: whats never said to
women working with women
They never say...
Youre doing a great job
What a brilliant idea
Here, have a few more bob
Well give you good cheer

They never say...

We can see you are so competent
You are showing us the way
So bright and so confident
We hope youre here to stay

They never say...

Youre so experienced
Your contribution is unique
We look to your knowledge
You have the skills we seek

They never say...

Youre so easy to work with
Wed like you to take the lead
Your achievements are legendary
An inspiration, indeed

We say...
Some may think its a fantasy
Some may think weve gone mad
But Im sure that in Sheffield
Many women will soon be glad

We say
With a Forum for women
WIF and WDT
Women working together
Well make a difference youll see

L Carruthers in Sheffield Womens Forum Biannual Report

Sept 1999 March 2002

page 39
 Resources and organisations working on
gender and regeneration
1. Bibliography
Changing Places: Womens lives in the city, by C. Booth, J. Darke, and
S.Yeandle. Paul Chapman Publishing 1996. ISBN 1-85396-311-9
This book offers a specifically feminist perspective on womens lives in
contemporary cities. It acknowledges womens positive as well as negative
experiences in their role as workers, mothers, housewives, and shoppers. The
contributors offer an array of knowledge about womens place and womens places
in cities today.

Challenging assumptions: Gender issues in urban regeneration, by

Nicky May. Joseph Rowntree Foundation in association with Oxfam, 1997.
ISBN 1-899987- 58- 4
This groundbreaking report explores how women and men each experience
poverty and exclusion and some of the reasons behind the differences. It looks at
patterns of social disadvantage in urban areas, how women and mens roles are
perceived and whether planners and policy makers take account of changing roles
in the workplace and in the home. It concludes with recommendations to improve
policy and practice. It draws the attention of UK planners to international
development practice of gender analysis, and gives examples from Oxfams
international experience.

Rich Mix inclusive strategies for urban regeneration, by Sue Brownill

& Jane Darke. Policy Press in association with Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 1998.
ISBN 1861 341067
Women and ethnic minorities are over-represented in areas undergoing regeneration.
The nature of poverty and exclusion in regeneration areas is different for different
groups. For example, women may be excluded by lack of confidence, domestic
responsibilities and economic discrimination. Ethnic minorities face stereotyped
attitudes and in some cases barriers of language or custom. This report studied
current initiatives in this area and concluded that projects would need a mixture of
universal and specific targets if the needs of specific groups are to be met.
Summary http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/housing/pdf/HRO108.pdf

Removing the Goalposts: Perspectives on Women and Regeneration,

by Sarah Clement. Womens Design Service 2000, revised 2002.
Order from www.wds.org.uk/pub
This guide is a useful working tool for all those involved with regeneration and
renewal partnership boards and other regeneration decision-making bodies. It is
primarily based on community research and development work carried out by the
Women and Regeneration Project, with local women in three London regeneration
areas between 1999 and 2001.
It seeks to generate understanding of the barriers faced by the diverse communities
of women living in regeneration areas and to suggest ways in which those barriers
page 40
can be overcome. The guide includes checklists to assess to what extent decision-
making bodies are working inclusively.

Gender profile of South Yorkshires labour market 2000, by Sue

Yeandle, Lisa Buckner, Tony Gore and Ryan Powell. Produced for Objective 1 by
the Centre for Social Inclusion, Sheffield Hallam University, 2004.
In spite of much improvement in womens lives and a better understanding of the
vital importance of their contribution to social and economic life there remain
significant differentials between women and men in basic areas such as education,
health and nutrition This groundbreaking statistics collection looks in a truly
gendered way at men and womens education, employment, unemployment and
inactivity and the gender pay gap in key towns of South Yorkshire. It examines
separate statistics for women and men, and presents results for both sexes in a
clear and well-presented format. The profile was carried out as part of the
Objective 1 programme requirement to mainstream gender.
http://www.goyh.gov.uk/objective1/documents/Gender%20profile.pdf

Gender Mainstreaming Toolkit, Royal Town Planning Institute

The Gender Mainstreaming Toolkit encourages all those engaged in day-to-day
planning processes to look at existing and proposed plans through a gender lens.
Accompanying the Toolkit is a comprehensive research report containing further
background information and case studies, an executive summary and web links to
other sources of information. The research can be downloaded from the link below.
http://www.rtpi.org.uk/resources/panels/equal-w/toolkit.html

EuroFEM Toolkit: mobilizing women into local and regional

development, by Liisa Horrelli, Christine Booth, Rose Gilroy. Centre for Urban
and Regional Studies, Helsinki University of Technology, 2000.
The Toolkit is a practical and inspiring collection of methods and stories taken from
womens projects in European member states. It is aimed at supporting,
encouraging and facilitating womens involvement in every sector of local and
regional development. The context for the development of the Toolkit is set within
the debate about gender mainstreaming and what this means for local and
regional development.
http://www.eurofem.net/ToolkitNet/toolk.html

Gender and Poverty in Britain, EOC Working paper Series No.6, by John
Bradshaw, Naomi Finch, Peter Kemp, Emese Mayhew, and Julie Williams.
Produced for the EOC by the Social Policy Research Unit, University of York, 2003.
Recent discussions about the nature and experience of poverty have not paid any
special regard to the relationship between gender and poverty. In order to initiate
a debate around this neglected issue,the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC)
commissioned a number of exploratory projects during 2003/4. The comparative
poverty of women was one of its main findings.
http://www.eoc.org.uk/cseng/research/genderandpoverty.pdf

page 41
 Engendering the Work of SIPs in Glasgow Gender impact assessment
and its application to social inclusion in Scotland. Report to the Glasgow
Women and Social Inclusion Working Group by Rona Fitzgerald of the European
Policies Research Centre. Published by Oxfam for Glasgow Women and Social
Inclusion Working Group.
Recent policies from the Scottish Executive to promote equality in Scotland
advocate the adoption of a gender mainstreaming approach. The study looks at
awareness of gender impact assessment as a gender mainstreaming tool and how
far SIPs (Social Inclusion Partnerships in Glasgow) felt this and other tools could be
useful in integrating gender equality and social inclusion policies at local level.
Available from Oxfam in Scotland: Tel 0141 285 8880

Gender Proofing Handbook, by Marie Crawley and Louise OMeara.

An initiative of Six County Development Boards funded by the NDP Gender
Equality Unit, Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Republic of Ireland,
2002. ISBN 0-9542895-0-1
Long term funding of development by the European Union has enabled the
Republic of Ireland to make considerable progress in gender mainstreaming. This
handbook provides a 5 step process for gender proofing of objectives, actions and
plans, illustrated with definitions, gender-disaggregated statistics, checklists and
case studies of how gender has been mainstreamed into a range of areas
including transport, IT training, and employment strategy.
http://www.ndpgenderequality.ie/publications/publications_01.html

page 42
2. Organisations working on gender and regeneration
Women and Equality Unit
This unit has responsibility within government for policy on women, gender
equality, sexual orientation and the co-ordination of equality. It is based in the
Department for Trade and Industry (DTI).
http://www.womenandequalityunit.gov.uk

Gender Statistics User Group

The GSUGs aim is to improve the production and reporting of statistics in the UK
in relation to gender issues. Supported by the Equal Opportunities Commission and
the Office of National Statistics, it was set up in 1998.
http://www.eoc.org.uk/EOCeng/dynpages/research_gsu.asp

Womens National Commission

The UK umbrella body that represents more than eight million women and womens
organisations. It is funded by government and works alongside the Women and
Equality Unit and is also located in the DTI.
http://www.thewnc.org.uk

Engender
An information, research and networking organisation for women in Scotland,
working with other groups locally and internationally to improve womens lives and
increased their power and influence.
http://www.engender.org.uk

The Wales Womens National Coalition (WWNC)

Grant funded by the Welsh Assembly Government, the WWNC has a diverse
membership and lobbies the Assembly on womens issues.
Email info@wwnc.org.uk

National Alliance of Womens Organisations (NAWO)

The Alliance aims to bring widely diverse womens organisations together to
achieve equality and justice for all women. It is an independent charity working at
national level.
http://www.nawo.org.uk

The Fawcett Society

Fawcett campaigns for equality between women and men in the UK, campaigning
for changes which will lead to improvements in womens lives.
http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk

page 43
 Gender and the reality of regeneration:
a tale of two cities
PROGRAMME
09.15 Registration Refreshments will be available
10.00 - 10.20 Welcome and Introduction
Lynne Jones, MP for Birmingham Selly Oak
10.20 - 10.45 The regeneration context: opportunities and barriers
Jane Slowey, Vice Chair, West Midlands Regional Assembly
10.45 - 11.15 Gender is a key issue in regeneration
Professor Chris Booth, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Development & Society,
Sheffield Hallam University
11.15 - 11.30 Break Refreshments will be served in the Pendigo Restaurant
11.30 - 11.50 Two project perspectives
Chris Bonnard, Network Director, RAWM
Audrey Bronstein, Director, Oxfam UK Poverty Programme
11.50 - 13.00 Conference Workshops
There will be 4 workshops working in parallel places will be allocated on a first
come, first served basis. These workshops will include short presentations from a
range of organisations with experience in working at local and regional levels on
gender & regeneration. The workshops will allow opportunity for discussion.

Workshop 1: Workshop 2: Workshop 3: Workshop 4:

Capacity building Gender & Analytical Getting strategic
for democratic Governance approaches about gender
renewal Chair: Alun Burge, Chair: Sukhvinder Chair: Dr Katherine
Chair: Tricia Zipfel, Communities Stubbs, Director, Rake, Director,
Neighbourhood Directorate, Social Barrow Cadbury Trust Fawcett Society
Renewal Unit Justice & Regeneration
Department, Welsh
Assembly Government

13.00 - 13.45 Lunch Lunch will be served in the Pendigo Restaurant

13.45 - 14.55 Conference Workshops
The workshops held in the morning will be repeated in the afternoon to enable
delegates to attend a second workshop of their choice places will be
allocated on a first come, first served basis. (See above for workshop outlines)
14.55 - 15.10 Break Refreshments will be served in the Pendigo Restaurant
15.10 - 16.00 Plenary panel session and Q & A:
Chair: Jane Slowey, Vice Chair, West Midlands Regional Assembly
Commentators: Shelagh Prosser, Head of Equality and Diversity Unit, Office of
the Deputy Prime Minister, Alun Burge, Communities Directorate, Social Justice
& Regeneration Department, Welsh Assembly Government, Sukhvinder Stubbs,
Director, Barrow Cadbury Trust, Carolina De Oteyza, Community Link Worker,
Community Pride Initiative
16.00 - 16.30 Closing keynote
Dr Katherine Rake, Director, Fawcett Society

page 45
WORKSHOP outlines
Workshop 1: Capacity building
for democratic renewal
Building the capacity of women and men
in communities towards engagement in
active partnership with professionals.
Chair: Tricia Zipfel, Neighbourhood
Renewal Unit
The Cae Mawr (FoJ) group from
Llandudno will talk about their work
engaging men in their community in
self-help initiatives including community
education on the estate, and their
dialogue with Communities First
decision-makers (the suits) in bringing
unintentional gender discrimination to
their attention.
The Beacon Womens Network will
talk about their action research into men
and womens different use of transport in
the East Manchester New Deal for
Communities area, and their advocacy
with the local council for more gender-
aware transport provision, and other issues
such as a local launderette.
ABOUT the conference speakers
Chris Booth
Professor Chris Booth is an experienced
practitioner and researcher in the fields of
planning practice, equal opportunities and
gender studies. Over the last five years she
has undertaken five EU funded trans-national
projects, which researched gender
mainstreaming, spatial planning and ICT. More
recently she has completed an EO appraisal of
the South Yorkshire Objective One programme,
a major research project on mainstreaming for
the Scottish Parliament, Gender Impact
Assessments and Equality Audits for regional
regeneration agencies and national grant
making organisations. Chris is currently acting
as a Neighbourhood Renewal Advisor for the
Neighbourhood Renewal Unit.
page 46
Workshop 2: Gender and
governance
What is needed to address the gender
deficit in decision-making structures?
Chair: Alun Burge, Communities
Directorate, Welsh Assembly Government
The Black Country Womens
Development Network, drawn from
five towns across the area, will talk about
their work building the capacity of local
women to connect with the structures of
community engagement and local strategic
partnerships.
Sheffield City Council are working with
the local strategic partnerships and have
set up a women and poverty group to help
service providers and policy makers
address the particular issues faced by
women living in poverty. The Council also
helped to set up the independent
Sheffield Womens Forum which has
brought women together from across the
city to address womens inclusion in
decision making.
Katherine Rake
Dr. Rake is Director of the Fawcett Society, which
campaigns for equality between women and men
in the UK. She is a specialist in gender and social
policy, with a particular interest in representation,
pensions, pay and poverty. She has undertaken
a range of policy work with governmental and
non-governmental organisations. Her work
includes a secondment (1999-2000) to the
Womens Unit where she edited Womens
Incomes over the Lifetime. As a co-chair of the
Womens Budget Group, she has advised the
Prime Ministers Policy Unit, HM Treasury and
other Government departments. From 1996-2002
she was Lecturer in Social Policy at the LSE where
she published both in traditional academic outlets
and the national press.
WORKSHOP outlines
Workshop 3: Analytical
approaches
Using gender-focused and gender-specific
tools, data and guidance
Chair: Sukhvinder Stubbs, Director of the
Barrow Cadbury Trust
A gender impact assessment toolkit tested
by the West Midlands Rural Stress
Network and the Birmingham
Settlement has the potential to build a
strong picture of the different experiences
of poor and excluded women and men.
It highlights effective processes that gather
and use local data, and emphasises the
need for gender-disaggregated data to be
more freely and widely available.
Exciting city-wide interest in its potential,
the Manchester Womens Networks
GEM project (gender and community
engagement in Manchester) uses
gender audit methods to gather
data on women and mens different
engagement at local, intermediate and
city-wide levels.
Workshop 4: Getting strategic
about gender
Making local, regional and national links
to achieve greatest impact
Chair: Katherine Rake, Director of the
Fawcett Society
In South Yorkshire: The strategic vision
of a group of women who brought together
voluntary sector groups to access large-scale
funding. Hear about the supporting
structures, and how both women and men
benefited from separate funding.
In Glasgow: A joined-up initiative which
brings together a grassroots level women's
group, regeneration practitioners trained in
the techniques of gender impact assessment,
and the Greater Govan Social Inclusion
Partnership.
In Essex: South Essex Rape and Incest
Crisis Centre worked with Thurrock Council
and the police in a gender mainstreaming
project which tackled three areas of service
provision with practical results in reducing
women's vulnerability to violence.

ABOUT the conference speakers

Jane Slowey
Jane Slowey has been Chief Executive of
Birmingham Voluntary Service Council since
February 1998. BVSC is one of the largest
Councils for Voluntary Service in the UK.
Jane was closely involved in the establishment
of Regional Action West Midlands (RAWM),
a voluntary and community sector network.
She represented the National Association
of Councils for Voluntary Service (NACVS)
on the Cross Cutting Review Capacity
Implementation Team and the Compact
Working Group. Jane is Vice-Chair Elect of
the National Council of Voluntary
Organisations (NCVO) and Chair of the
Birmingham Race Action Partnership (BRAP).

page 47
Gender and the reality of regeneration:
a tale of two cities

All the big regeneration issues transport, education,

housing, health, the environment have important gender
considerations.
Chris Booth, Sheffield Hallam University

This report tells a story. It tells the tale of two cities, of two
different realities of women and of men, of the wealthy and
the poor, the powerful, and those who lack a voice to tell
decision makers what they need to know.

It provides the evidence from a range of grassroots and

voluntary sector women the real experts. They tell a tale
of how a good understanding of life as experienced by
women and men in poverty can mean better-targeted and
higher-quality regeneration.

The evidence comes from the speakers and the case studies at
this first-ever national conference on gender and regeneration
in the UK, held in March 2004, and organised by Oxfam's UK
Poverty Programme and Regional Action West Midlands. The
conference focused on four main areas: capacity building for
democratic renewal, gender and governance, analytical
approaches, and getting strategic about gender.