Gender budgeting in Scotland since devolution

Gender budgeting has long been an ambition for feminist policy change in public policy content and process in Scotland, with a clear focus on reform of the budget process to embed gender analysis at all stages. Over the lifespan of the devolved institutions, gender budgeting has been advocated by the Scottish Women’s Budget Group (SWBG), through a number of feminist activists and academics, and a range of civil society organisations. Institutional action has, arguably, not kept pace with the demands for change or indeed the organisational structures introduced by the Scottish Government to advance gender budgeting. There have been a number of discursive shifts from a focus on gender, to broader equalities, and now to human rights, which have impacted the clarity of the focus for change and the accompanying narrative. This is consistent with a more generalised evaporation of gender analysis in public policy which this article highlights. With reflections on some of the principal actors and advocates for gender budgeting and milestones in Scotland’s approach to implementation, this article also offers some indication of future action to advance the adoption of gender budgeting.