IT was 2014 when Professor Kirstein Rummery and colleagues began work on a major project aimed at finally achieving equality for women in Scotland.

Initial research took place in the fevered atmosphere of the indyref, when Scots questioned what kind of country they were living in and what it could and should look like in years to come.

Now as the country again questions whether or not to repeat that vote, the team has revealed its results in a new book that examines whether lessons from neighbouring nations can be used to bring balance in childcare, earnings, long-term care and more.

The 190-page study, titled What Works in Improving Gender Equality, is driven by input from experts and also factors the constitution into its approach, looking at what is possible within the current framework and under independence.

Rummery, of Stirling University, began the project during an unprecedented period in Scottish society and ends it in another, thanks to Brexit and Covid. Follow-up research had to be done as goalposts shifted during a delay to publication caused by a prolonged spell of ill-health.

“Covid in particular has been such a big exogenous shock to the system, to healthcare and education and childcare and work and the economy,” Rummery says.

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“There’s a lot of talk at the moment about building back better but none of it is drawing on what we know about what works, everything is drawing on what we have now.

“This is actually a window of opportunity to do things quite radically differently. If we’re not going to do it now, we probably never will.”

Since the pandemic began, sociologists have tracked the impact on work, health and the home. Deficiencies in the care system were exposed early on as the crisis struck residential homes and affected the provision of personal care services. Most of this workforce is female and low-paid and was left juggling childcare and homeschooling responsibilities at the same time.

The book, written in partnership with UK Government advisor Alcuin Edwards and Craig McAngus, formerly of Stirling University and the Centre on Constitutional Change, questions whether if and how a Norway-style care policy model would work in Scotland and does the same with a Netherlands-style approach.

Norway and its neighbours Iceland, Denmark and Sweden have, the book states “gender equality at the heart of their constitutional framework and policy values”, with the state as primary funder and provider of services, “little to no stigma” about accessing services and “egalitarian” shared parental leave.

In the partnership model used in states including the Netherlands and Germany, gender equality is less considered and the state is the driver of policies rather than services, with a greater role for municipal authorities meaning stronger variation in the quality and availability of services.

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The book found that “cultural attitudes to gender equality and care work” and the state’s place in this are “very entrenched and gendered in UK society”: “In particular, the idea that care work should be done by the family, and ideally by women, contributes to it being undervalued and to a reluctance to letting the state interfere in ‘private’ matters.”

“People didn’t realise how much gender inequality was going on in the household until men and women were at home together with homeschooling and childcare and working from home going on,” Rummery states. “Inputs were suddenly very, very visible.

“On so many levels, the failures in the system have been exposed.

“You don’t get radical change unless something radically big has happened.”

The findings of Rummery’s team suggests the universal model of childcare is “fairer” on women in many respects, and stakeholders interviewed suggested gender equality was a”relatively uncontentious value and aspiration to see within a new constitutional settlement” for a sovereign Scotland.

Independence would be, some said, a “significant opportunity” to promote a shift in society.

Others said institutions, rather than “inspirational legislation” hold the key to change.

Independence could be, the book says, the move needed to create the necessary circumstances for adopting a Norway-style care policy, something which would require “ the most fundamental change to be implemented in UK policy”.

But, approaching the Holyrood election, Rummery says all parties must consider what they can do. “In policy terms, the Scottish Parliament is conservative with a small ‘c’. It is incremental in policy making. This parliament needs to go beyond that.

“This is not just the parliament that will decide whether there’s an independence referendum, this is the post-Covid parliament. All sorts of things have to be done.”