3 CASO SCOZIA INGLESE low - Rete Pari Opportunita

Gender Equality in Local Economic Development in Scotlandreported to not perceive each other as competitors,but to collaborate to avoid duplications,strengthen synergies and deliver a complementaryset of schemes.Trade Unions are also active in the field of genderequality as they have had equality at the heart oftheir policies since their beginnings. The Scottishsociety itself has traditionally been very receptiveto the issues of equality.4.5 Policy gapsAfew gaps were identified with respect to theimplementation of gender equality policies inScotland. A first set of gaps relates to policy areasthat so far have not been adequately developedfrom an equal opportunities point of view. First,regarding the pay gap, the fact that pay reviewsare still not mandatory (despite the importantimprovements introduced in Scotland with thisrespect by the GED) is felt to be a significantdeficiency and something that should be lookedat in future if the pay gap has to be overcome.Second, there is still little policy work that is beingdone on older women specifically. Only recently,in March 2007, the Scottish Executive publishedits policy “All Our Futures: Planning for a Scotlandwith an Ageing Population”. 62 Until then, inScotland policy did not address the specific needsof the older population (for example, the lifelonglearning agenda is mostly targeted at youngpeople and the policies of the Scottish Executiveare focused on younger adults rather than olderadults). However, the changing demography inScotland implies a need to focus policy on olderpeople too. Similarly, with respect to women morespecifically, a lot of work has been done onyounger women (e.g. training for school leavers),but as a woman gets older it is more difficult forher to find forms of support. Finally, poverty doesaffect women in a very specific manner and policyresponses to this issue are not yet fully adequate.A second set of gaps relate to the methodologiesand practices in place to integrate genderconsiderations in the wide range of sectoralpolicies, even where the relevance of equality isacknowledged. On the one hand, on a conceptuallevel, there is still an inadequate link between theanalytical work carried out in the academia andthe stages of policy-formulation. On the otherhand, on a more operational level, there is still animportant gap between the policies formulated(mainly at Scottish level) and the actual work ofpractitioners on the ground (local levels). Oneexample of this is the field of regeneration policy,where the inadequacy of the tools to involvewomen in decision-making processes has adetrimental effect on the policies’ capacity totackle poverty and its specific impact on women.62 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Equality/18501/Experience40