Karen Dargo: Political parties still not doing enough to bridge equality gap

FIRST the good news: Scotland now has more female MPs than we have ever had – a record 13. And now the bad news: 13 out of 59 is nowhere near equal representation and the democratic deficit continues.

At the current rate of progress, it will take 200 years for women to make up 50 per cent of the UK parliament.

In 2008, the Electoral Reform Society, Unlock Democracy, the Hansard Society, the Centre for Women and Democracy, the Fawcett Society and Engender jointly celebrated the 90th anniversary of the first women being given the right to vote. They held events at party conferences and in Westminster, Holyrood and the Welsh Assembly.

All were well attended by politicians and the public. There is a genuine desire to see more women in our elected chambers, but the question of why it's taking so long to achieve equality in this area was more difficult to pin down. Is it the party structure? The selection process? The adversarial type of politics we do? Or are the barriers within women themselves – a lack of confidence to take on an overwhelmingly male preserve?

So while there is recognition that a parliament reflecting the make up of society in terms of gender, race, disability and sexuality is good for democracy, a commitment to measures which would deliver such diversity is lacking. Gender equality measures such as zipping – where alternative male and female candidates are selected on party lists – twinning constituencies so one has a male and one a female candidate, or all-women shortlists are available to constituency parties, but not often used and when they are often lead to challenges.

In this election fewer than one in four candidates selected by the four main Scottish parties were women. The party breakdown is as follows: Labour 14 women out of 59; Conservatives: 18; Liberal Democrats ten and the Scottish National Party 16. In contrast the Scottish Green party, which contested only 20 seats, fielded 12 women.

Five of Scotland's new female MPs were selected from all-women-shortlists. The Labour Party was the only one to adopt quota-type equality measures and this is reflected in the overall results. Women are a third of the Scottish Labour contingent but only 9 per cent of the Scottish Lib Dems and 16.7 per cent of SNP members. The sole Tory elected was a man.

What can be done to increase women's representation? How about the Centre for Women and Democracy's call for a state-backed diversity fund which parties would use to train and promote candidates from under-represented groups? Or Engender and the Fawcett Society's support for the effective use of all-women short-lists (should this be compulsory?). How about Unlock Democracy's idea of some state funding for parties who undertake a duty to ensure they reflect society? And what of proportional representation? Could a form of PR such as the single transferable vote – used in Scottish elections to elect local councillors – potentially offer voters a more balanced slate of candidates as the Electoral Reform Society believes?

The recent Speaker's conference stated that parties may be made to adopt equality measures if the number of women MPs did not increase in the 2010 election. Numbers have gone up, but 142 female MPs out of 650 is not enough, fast enough.

We will be back at the polls in May to elect our MSPs – long enough for parties to demonstrate their commitment to equality by delivering a gender-balanced list of candidates.

• Karen Dargo is information officer at Engenderin, which works in Scotland to increase women's power and influence