Lesley Riddoch: Don't risk missing the quota bus

DESPITE public hesitance, quotas are the only effective mechanism to achieve political equality, writes Lesley Riddoch
Nicola Sturgeons Cabinet is gender balanced, a progressive achievement that will bring its own rewards. Picture: Neil HannaNicola Sturgeons Cabinet is gender balanced, a progressive achievement that will bring its own rewards. Picture: Neil Hanna
Nicola Sturgeons Cabinet is gender balanced, a progressive achievement that will bring its own rewards. Picture: Neil Hanna

What a difference 21 years makes. Back in 1995, when I edited the first Scotswoman, women in public life north of the Border were few and far between. In those unreconstructed days only five of Scotland’s 68 MPs were women – just 7.3 per cent of the total and a worse average than Westminster’s.

Today the Scottish Cabinet is gender equal, more than half of all public board appointees are female, all of Scotland’s main party leaders are women, Nicola Sturgeon is the most positively rated politician in the UK (not just Scotland) and has just made it into Debrett’s, the “Posh People’s Bible”, along with Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson.

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No-one suggests women are a liability in politics these days. In fact, the personal popularity of Sturgeon and Davidson is so high they look set to contest the forthcoming Holyrood elections using their own names (Nicola Sturgeon for First Minister and Ruth Davidson for a Strong Opposition) not their parties.

But there the similarity ends – not just because of the colour of their politics but because one is transforming prospects for women in her party, while the other is presiding over a clear-out.

Research into the candidates selected by each party for the forthcoming Holyrood elections by University of Edinburgh politics lecturer Dr Meryl Kenny shows the SNP could pip Labour on gender equality for the first time. Currently, 41 per cent of SNP constituency candidates are female and all look set to win. 55 per cent of Scottish Labour’s constituency candidates are female along with 50 per cent of list candidates – a more impressive showing but with less likelihood of success. Meanwhile, the Scottish Lib Dems look set to lose their only female MSP and be overtaken by the Greens, who have 42 per cent of their candidates female and “zipped” to ensure gender equality on party lists. A country mile behind them all sits the Scottish Conservative Party. Almost half its current posse of MSPs, but only 14 per cent of list candidates, are female. Indeed, two lists contain only men’s names.

So which leader has the measure of the Scottish voting public? If the Scotsman’s poll for International Women’s Day is correct, Ruth Davidson’s refusal to use quotas should get a big thumbs-up from voters of both sexes, even if that means she leads an all-male group of Tory MSPs after May.

The Scotsman survey found only 27 per cent of women and 18 per cent of men support procedures to ensure a gender equal Holyrood and roughly similar proportions were dubious about the merits of gender balance in senior public sector appointments.

Now those are strange results. If so few Scots support action to get women into prominent positions in public life, it’s surprising Nicola Sturgeon didn’t falter the second she started axing men from top spots to achieve the first gender equal Cabinet in Scottish or British history. Au contraire, the public seems to have warmed to that as part of a modernising agenda. It’s even more surprising the SNP continues to ride high despite requiring at least one woman on every shortlist during the selection of general election candidates and using women-only shortlists in nine of the Holyrood seats where incumbents are stepping down. Not just that but, according to Dr Kenny, the SNP has ensured “favourable placement for women on its party lists”.

In short, the party expected to have sweeping victories in both the constituency and list sections of the vote in May, is the party that’s deployed the quotas and mechanisms Scottish voters appear to hate.

Perhaps a relative absence of public rammies (thanks to the party’s renowned internal discipline) means voters don’t know Nicola Sturgeon has extended the use of quotas within the SNP.

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Or perhaps the survey question and the options offered to respondents were unconsciously loaded?

The Scotsman survey asked respondents if they backed procedures to ensure equal gender representation at Holyrood. They could answer Yes – “procedures should be put in place to ensure equal gender representation” or No – “the best people should be selected to be MSPs irrespective of their gender”.

According to Emma Ritch of the women’s right group Engender: “I would treat these results with a great deal of caution. The question posed on behalf of The Scotsman presumes we have currently have a meritocracy and quotas will disrupt that. The opposite is true. In other survey questions, more than a third of respondents said gender equality hasn’t gone far enough. That doesn’t stack up with a rejection of one of the best mechanisms for getting women into the Scottish Parliament, council chamber, or round the boardroom table.”

Imposing quotas may not be a popular way to correct bias, prejudice and inequality. But bias, prejudice and inequality are pretty unpopular too and no-one seems to have found a route to fairness without using these mechanisms. It might have been interesting if the poll sample was asked if they liked Scotland’s gender equal Cabinet and the idea of a gender equal Holyrood. My guess is the majority would have answered yes to both questions. Yet equality – like true love – rarely finds its way, unaided, past the obstacles of privilege and adversity. Not even in right-on Sweden. Until Swedish parties adopted party quotas, parliament was dominated by men. Since then, according to Dr Kenny, “the use of gender quotas on party lists has resulted in the selection of more, rather than less, qualified political candidates. Rather than oust competent men in favour of mediocre women, parties have replaced mediocre men with highly qualified women, raising the calibre of candidates overall (and particularly among men).”

Indeed, any worry about merit must currently apply more to men who (without quotas) can never be sure if their standing is related to hard work and personal capacity or the accident of gender.

In short, voters seem to like the outcome of greater equality but are not so keen on the means of achieving it. Just as – we’re told – voters like high quality public services but don’t like paying higher taxes for them.

All these bits of received wisdom will be tested over the next 21 years.

But I’d guess the political party whose composition most closely mirrors the electorate will come out on top.

So Willie Rennie and Ruth Davidson – beware.