Why the Holyrood election is set to be a big step backwards for women in Scotland
There are 360 female candidates for the Scottish Parliament election – and 660 male ones
Ninety minutes of live TV seems like a lot but time flies when you have six party leaders pushing their arguments and vying to be elected. We managed to squeeze the cost of living, immigration, the NHS and independence into the first TV election debate last weekend but there was another question hanging in the air. Where were the women?
A decade ago, the occasion featured Nicola Sturgeon, Kezia Dugdale and Ruth Davidson. Ten years on, the leadership of the six largest parties is all male with the exception of the Scottish Greens where the job is shared between Gillian Mackay and Ross Greer.
It’s up to parties to select their leaders but in a nation where 52 per cent of the population are women, something has clearly changed. The last parliament had the best gender representation since devolution with women making up 45 per cent of MSPs but the signs are not great for after May 7.
No simple solution
More than half the 42 MSPs standing down at these elections are women. Some are prominent names in the parliament like Shona Robison and Liz Smith, others have only served one term but have had enough. More worryingly, while 660 men have registered as candidates for Holyrood, only 360 women are standing. In six constituency areas, there are no women contesting the seat.
What is the saying? You can only be what you can see. Holyrood faces many challenges but getting equal parliamentary representation in a nation with 2.7 million women and 2.6 million men has to be a priority.
Every party is looking at this but there is no one single simple solution. It helps if you know what a woman actually is but beyond that there are some obvious factors. Childcare is a part of the picture. The fact that the Holyrood creche only operates for four hours a day is ludicrous and needs to change.
The adversarial nature of business within the chamber may be another factor. The past term has looked particularly hostile and that may well discourage women who dislike the performative anger of some exchanges.
Sexist attitudes and abuse
Wider society also has a part to play. Female politicians simply get a harder time than men. It’s only ten years since the murder of MP Jo Cox, but women in politics continue to face much more bile and hostility on social media, much of it sexist and misogynistic.
In an age where the visual image is more prominent than ever before, female politicians are still judged on their appearance in a way never applied to men.
Unlike our sister BBC programme Question Time, on Debate Night we don’t have a desk. The idea is to remove the barrier between the politicians and the people but it’s had one unintended consequence.
An excellent female MSP who regularly appears on the programme told me she hates the lack of a desk. That’s not because she has nowhere to place her briefing notes and background information sheets. It’s because she will face horrible posts about her legs and body on social media for days afterwards. That’s something no male politician even has to think about.
Our politicians face a big range of challenges after the election but making sure the parliament reflects the nation must be one of the most important.
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