Gender budgeting in Scotland: towards feminist policy change

Since the formation of the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Executive in 1999 there has been sustained effort to introduce and implement gender budget analysis in the Scottish budget process. The Scottish Women’s Budget Group (SWBG) have been central to this process along with other external stakeholders seeking to influence and transform the approach to budget formulation and analysis by the Scottish Government and scrutiny by the Scottish Parliament. This working paper is a brief introduction to gender budgeting and overview of the history of adoption and implementation in Scotland. It presents the key concepts and the discursive shifts in how gender budgeting has been framed in Scotland; the principal actors involved; the significant outcomes to date and the remaining challenges.