Equal Media & Culture Centre | Blog

International Women’s Day and our manifesto for a fairer future

Sharon Holland — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0000

Illustration by Kumi McKenna

International Women’s Day 2026 falls in the lead up to the Scottish Parliament elections. With this in mind, we are reflecting on our 2026 Manifesto: Transforming Culture for a Fairer Future. In this final blog, EMCC Project Manager Katie Goh reflects on women’s experiences across the arts, culture and creative sectors and what steps need to happen to improve equity for women and marginalised communities.

Last September, at our inaugural conference, we launched our manifesto Transforming Culture for a Fairer Future ahead of the 2026 Holyrood election. The manifesto was sent to all MSPs and major political parties, so that they can keep women’s equality and the culture sector top of mind when developing their party manifestos and cultural policies.

GUEST POST: IWD 2026 – Alycia Pirmohamed on the underfunded, unequal literary landscape

Sharon Holland — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Illustration by Kumi McKenna

International Women’s Day 2026 falls in the lead up to the Scottish Parliament elections. With this in mind, we have asked women working in the arts and culture sectors to reflect on our 2026 Manifesto: Transforming Culture for a Fairer Future. In her blog poet, writer and co-founder of Scottish BPOC Writers Network Alycia Pirmohamed reflects on funding, the resulting labour around it, and the experience of marginalised communities facing systemic barriers in the sector.

Last September, I sat in an immigration office in Edinburgh where I was going through the motions of applying for permanent residency. This was just two days after anti-immigration protests attended by over 100,000 people swept the nation.

GUEST POST: IWD 2026 – Iona Fyfe on meaningful change in music

Sharon Holland — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Content Note: This blog contains references to sexual harassment and violence against women.

Scotland’s Cultural Future: Reflections on our culture hustings for the next parliament

Sharon Holland — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 13:48:00 +0000

Last week, EMCC, alongside our five organisational partners presented Scotland’s Cultural Future, a culture hustings ahead of the upcoming Holyrood election in May. This event was an opportunity to hear Scotland’s main political parties debate their policy positions, and to help inform the public about their views on culture and the arts.

Watch now: From token to transformation - webinar

Sharon Holland — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 10:30:00 +0000

From token to transformation: The impact of Creative Scotland’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Action Plan requirement is EMCC’s latest research project, looking at the impact of the EDI Action Plan requirement on organisations funded by Creative Scotland.

Culture Hustings Event

Sharon Holland — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 10:00:00 +0000

Hear Scotland’s main political parties set out their plans for supporting our cultural lives in the next parliamentary term. We’ve joined forces with Scottish and UK cultural organisations to host a hustings event for the sector.

Guest post: Scottish Documentary Institute’s 50/50+ Women Direct Campaign

Sharon Holland — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 09:00:00 +0000

We are delighted to hear from the Scottish Documentary Institute’s Debora Bottino on the findings from their recent 50/50+ Women Direct campaign survey. Identifying key barriers to gender parity in the sector, SDI created the campaign to tackle this imbalance, with a goal of 50% of Scotland’s documentaries being made by women by 2025. Now they reflect on the campaign and ask what’s next for women in documentary?

New research: From token to transformation - the impact of Creative Scotland’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Action Plan requirements.

Sharon Holland — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 09:00:00 +0000

We are delighted to share our latest research, a new discussion paper looking into Creative Scotland’s EDI requirements for the funding stream: National Lottery Open Fund for Organisations.

Our research was designed to run independently alongside the Scottish Government’s Independent Review of Creative Scotland, which was published in November 2025. Our aim is to ensure specific EDI insights on Creative Scotland’s processes were made publicly available, and to keep EDI within focus. The paper offers actionable recommendations to enhance Creative Scotland’s EDI requirements, and to help move beyond tokenistic tick boxes.

2025: a year of growth for EMCC

Sharon Holland — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 16:01:00 +0000

Guest Post: Jali Collective present the Jali Film Weekender

Sharon Holland — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 11:32:00 +0000

Jali Collective host the inaugural Jali Film Weekender in Edinburgh from 30 October - 2 November. We caught up with Production and Outreach Lead Tomiwa Folorunso to find out more.

EMCC Launch Manifesto for 2026 Holyrood Elections

Sharon Holland — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 07:43:00 +0100

Transforming Culture for a Fairer Future

We are excited to launch our manifesto for the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections.

Right now, Scotland’s culture and media sectors are not as safe, equal or fair for women as they need to be.

Gender Equity in Scottish Film Survey

Sharon Holland — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 10:00:00 +0100

EMCC and FilmHub Scotland Launch Gender Equity in Scottish Film Survey

We have partnered with FilmHub Scotland on an essential new survey into gender equity in Scotland’s film exhibition sector. Data on women’s experiences in the film exhibition sector is scarce, and we need you to help us build a clear picture of the current situation.

Guest Post: Centring Marginalised Voices in the Scottish Arts and Cultural Sectors

Sharon Holland — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 10:00:00 +0100

EMCC are collaborating with Creative Balance on an exciting research project, which seeks to centre marginalised voices in the Scottish arts and cultural sectors. Phase one of the project will gather knowledge on the importance of by-and-for spaces, led by racialised creatives. The research will highlight why these safe spaces matter, how they protect mental health, what these spaces could look like, how they would function and the difference they could make to the creative practice and wellbeing of BPOC creatives. In this blog, Creative Balance’s researcher, Loa Pour Mirza, tells us more.

EMCC Respond to the Creative Scotland Independent Review

Sharon Holland — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 09:01:00 +0100

Culture Secretary Angus Robertson set in motion an Independent Review of Creative Scotland earlier in 2025. The Review team have an agreed remit to explore, and have so far worked to invite views from the arts and culture sectors on an opt-in, self-selecting basis. EMCC participated in an online roundtable and have made a written submission, covering the below points.

Join EMCC at the Festival of Politics this August

Sharon Holland — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 11:19:00 +0100

Dreaming of a Fairer Future for Culture

EMCC & Culture Counts Summer Advocacy Events

Sharon Holland — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 10:00:00 +0100

Guest Post: Transformative Feminist Leadership in Action

Sharon Holland — Fri, 30 May 2025 10:00:00 +0100

Over the last few months, EMCC has been hosting placements for Applied Gender Studies MSc students from the University of Strathclyde. As part of her placement, Ursula Grant has been researching feminist leadership. Here she writes about beginning her research project.

Guest post: What is Feminist leadership and why is it needed in cultural organisations?

Sharon Holland — Tue, 27 May 2025 09:00:00 +0100

Over the last few months, EMCC has been hosting placements for Applied Gender Studies MSc students from the University of Strathclyde. As part of her placement, Ursula Grant has been researching feminist leadership. Here she writes about feminist leadership in cultural organisations.

Guest Post: “Why Did They Let This Go On?”: How Media Coverage of Harassment Shifts Blame from Men to Institutions

Sharon Holland — Fri, 23 May 2025 10:00:00 +0100

Over the last few months, EMCC has been hosting placements for Applied Gender Studies MSc students from the University of Strathclyde. As part of her placement, Anna McFatridge has been researching the media coverage of two high-profile allegations of sexual harassment. Read the first part of her blog series here. In this blog, she writes about how the media frames harassment as an institutional problem.

Guest Post: How the Media Frames Harassment

Sharon Holland — Tue, 20 May 2025 10:00:00 +0100

Over the last few months, EMCC has been hosting placements for Applied Gender Studies MSc students from the University of Strathclyde. As part of her placement, Anna McFatridge has been researching the media coverage of two high-profile allegations of sexual harassment. Here she writes about beginning her research project.