Sturgeon underlines drive for Holyrood gender balance

NICOLA Sturgeon is to underline her support for a drive for legislated candidate quotas of 50 per cent women for all political parties by 2020.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Picture: Andrew Cowan

The First Minister is speaking at a conference next month organised by the Women 50:50 campaign, which has recently been awarded funding by the Joseph Rowntree Trust to host the event in Edinburgh.

A key aspiration of the Women 50:50 group is to introduce quotas that would ensure political parties produce an equal number of male and female parliamentary candidates.

Yesterday Ms Sturgeon said: “I am a proud supporter of this campaign and I am determined that the Scottish Parliament, local governments and political parties better represent the communities they serve. It is unacceptable that 52 per cent of the population is not represented nearly enough.”