Council elections Scotland: Only 33% of candidates running for May local elections are female

Groups have expressed concern over women getting into and staying in politics as new data shows only 33 per cent of candidates standing in the coming Scottish council elections are female.
Only 33% of candidates running in Scotland's upcoming local elections are women (Photo: Rui Vieira/PA Wire).Only 33% of candidates running in Scotland's upcoming local elections are women (Photo: Rui Vieira/PA Wire).
Only 33% of candidates running in Scotland's upcoming local elections are women (Photo: Rui Vieira/PA Wire).

Research from the Democracy Club shows only 33 per cent of Scottish candidates running in the elections in May are female.

There is also only a total of 33 per cent female candidates in the local elections across England, Scotland and Wales combined.

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The Scottish Green party has the most female candidates at 47 per cent with the SNP on 42 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party in Scotland has 36 per cent female candidates and the Liberal Democrats are on 33 per cent.

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The Scottish Family Party (31 per cent) and Alba (31 per cent) have more female candidates than the Conservatives (27 per cent). Independent candidates round up to 20 per cent being female.

Democracy Club also estimates 10 per cent of Scottish ballot papers have no female candidates on them at all.

The most common Scottish candidate first name is John (88) and the most common female name is Anne (17).

Andrew Bazeley, policy and insight manager at the Fawcett Society, which campaigns for gender equality and women's rights, said: “This data is concerning and clearly demonstrates that more needs to be done to support women to get into and, crucially, stay in politics.

"We don't just need to see flexibility introduced to support those with caring responsibilities. We need to see sexism stamped out and misogyny consigned to the history books. Women must be supported across the political spectrum to play a bigger part in our democracy."

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