Sturgeon says SNP needs more women politicians

NICOLA Sturgeon has said that all political parties must do better to encourage more women into politics, as she admitted the SNP had “more work to do” to improve the number of female representatives it had.

Picture: TSPL

The First Minister hailed progress made on gender equality in Scotland, including her own 50-50 gender balanced cabinet, efforts to tackle domestic violence and the expansion of childcare.

Ms Sturgeon was speaking at the annual conference of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) in Crieff, Perth and Kinross today.

However, Ms Sturgeon admitted that the SNP and the other main parties had failed to get enough women elected as MSPs, MPs and councillors.

Ms Sturgeon said: “If we look at the position with councillors, I’m certainly aware that in my own party, we’ve got much more work to do.

“Only around a quarter of SNP councillors are women. That’s broadly in line with the overall average but that simply emphasises that other parties are also falling short at present.

“Equality in politics is an important part of equality in society and it’s an area where all parties, my own included, can and must look to do much better.”