By Karen Dargo
Alex Salmond and the SNP may have achieved a historic victory in the 2011 Scottish parliament elections, but the male-dominated political landscape looks suspiciously like "politics as usual".
In the latest elections, women took just 45 out of 129 seats in Holyrood (34.8 per cent), compared with previous highs of 39.5 per cent in the 2003 elections and 37.2 per cent in 1999. Although the SNP has a number of high-profile women, including deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon, just over a quarter of the SNP’s winning candidates are female.
The 2011 parliament is made up of 45 women and 84 men. Women comprise 19 of the 69-strong SNP group (27.5 per cent), 17 of the 37 Scottish Labour MSPs (45.9 per cent), six out of 15 Conservatives (40 per cent), and one of five Liberal Democrats (20 per cent). One of the two Green MSPs elected is female and the one independent candidate returned is a woman. Overall, the number of female MSPs has risen slightly since the immediate post-2007 election results, when there were 43 women MSPs.
The 2011 results are a case of "stalling not falling". For Engender, the election results raise questions as to the future prospects of women’s political representation in Scotland, pointing to underlying trends of further decline in the recruitment and election of female candidates.
Overall, the proportion of female candidates fell from 36.1 per cent in 2007 to 29.5 per cent in 2011, fuelling fears that we would see a significant fall in women elected. While the drop materialised in the constituency vote where only 20 women (27.4 per cent) were elected, the effect was mitigated by the higher number of women elected on regional lists (25 women or 44.6 per cent).
This was the first election to see more women elected from the regional list than by constituency, and here the "zipping" of candidates (alternating one female, one male) on the Labour party lists – the only positive action measure used – delivered.
A report into the election results for Engender found that there were clear gendered patterns of candidate placement in the 2011 elections, with women candidates generally placed in lower positions on party lists and less likely to be selected to contest safe or winnable constituency seats.
There is little evidence that political parties are making any ongoing efforts to reform the norms and practices of political recruitment in Scotland. If political parties are serious about making real advances in women’s political representation, then they must make a firm commitment – including the use of equality guarantees to ensure equal representation at Holyrood.
“Our politicians say they want a parliament that reflects the society it represents," said Engender director, Niki Kandirikiria, "but appear unwilling to take the measures available to them to get this. When the parties come to review their election strategy they should include a full debate on adopting measures which would deliver a truly representative parliament.”
– Engender is a membership organisation that works in Scotland and Europe on an anti-sexist agenda to increase women’s power and influence and make visible the impact of sexism on women, men and society.
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