SNP plans to create new gender equality enforcer

Powerful role set to spark fresh backlash over all-female shortlists for Holyrood

THE SNP is planning a powerful new role within the party to promote gender equality in a move that could reopen internal tensions over the use of all-women shortlists.

Proposals have been outlined internally to create a national women’s and equalities convener, who would be heavily involved in the vetting and selection of candidates.

The details are being put forward by the SNP’s National Executive Committee (NEC) in a draft agenda for the party’s conference in October.

Under the plans, which have been circulated to members, the party constitution would be changed to ensure the convener becomes one of 10 national office bearers alongside figures including Nicola Sturgeon.

They will also have a place on the influential NEC, which sets the political direction of the SNP and has the final say over who can stand for election. It follows the SNP conference in March, which saw the membership vote to allow all-female shortlists in the upcoming Scottish Parliament elections despite strong opposition from some members.

Since the decision, all nine seats held by the SNP for next year’s Holyrood vote where the incumbent is standing down have seen all-female shortlists imposed on constituencies by party HQ.

The move has provoked a backlash from some party members who are unhappy that men have been excluded from the chance to stand in their local area, with competition fiercer than ever due to the party’s increased membership and ratings in the polls.

John Wilson, an MSP who quit the SNP last year, said the issue had caused divisions. He said: “There was a strong view within the SNP that it should be the best candidates chosen, regardless of gender. I think there are still a lot of members like that, including some female members.”

The appointment of a permanent equalities convener with a remit over vetting and selection suggests positive discrimination could become a feature of internal party politics beyond next May’s election. The job description for the new role states the new convener will be “responsible for the development, implementation and monitoring of equality strategies, approved by the NEC, to cover under-represented and minority groups”.

They will support constituency and branch women’s officers and chair the SNP Women’s Academy while advising “on equality issues relating to internal procedures, such as vetting and selection”.

The position will replace the role of women’s and equalities officer, currently held by Ochil and South Perthshire MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, who will be seen as the most likely choice to take on the more powerful job. Party members will vote on who wins the post, with an SNP source saying the creation of the prominent role was “an extension of democracy”.

Adopting a sharper focus on dealing with issues of gender equality has become a characteristic of Ms Sturgeon’s leadership. The move to allow all-women shortlists came after she appointed Scotland’s first gender-balanced Cabinet and launched high-profile initiatives including encouraging equal gender splits in boardrooms by 2020.

Including herself, five of the nine Cabinet secretaries named in the first Sturgeon cabinet were female. She said it sent a “strong message that the business of redressing the gender balance in public life starts right here in government”.

But it led to accusations that Ms Sturgeon still had work to do to get her house in order, with just over a quarter of her MSPs female. Almost half of Labour MSPs, a party that embraced all-female shortlists long before the SNP, are women.

At May’s General Election the party had the highest proportion of female candidates among the main parties in Scotland. At Westminster 36 per cent of SNP MPs are female, compared to 43 per cent of Labour MPs and 21 per cent of Tories.

In a recent interview to mark International Women’s Day, Ms Sturgeon said those who are not up to the job should not be over-promoted, but added there had been “glacial progress in some areas of life” in terms of gender equality.

FROM the beginning of her time as First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon made it clear gender equality was a priority. She appointed just as many women as men to her cabinet and earlier this year supported the campaign to achieve a 50/50 split between women and men in boardrooms by 2020. She has also promised to tackle the gender pay gap, which for a long time has been heading in the wrong direction. The gap in Scotland actually worsened during the three years to 2014.

Closer to home, Ms Sturgeon has also made it clear she intends to tackle gender inequality in her own party. In March, the party’s national executive was given the power to introduce all-women shortlists for Holyrood and impose a balance of male and female candidates on regional lists and it has now emerged that a new role of women’s and equalities convener is to be added to the party’s national council.

According to the proposed agenda for the SNP’s conference, the convener would be responsible for the development and monitoring of equality strategies and would advise on equality issues relating to internal procedures, including the selection of candidates. It is an indication of how seriously Ms Sturgeon appears to take the issue that the appointee would sit on a body like the national council alongside the party’s senior figures.

However, appointing an influential figure to tackle gender equality is not the same as achieving it and whomever is appointed has a hill to climb, within the SNP and in wider society. At the grassroots, there is considerable intransigence in the SNP to the idea of all-women shortlists and women remain under-represented among the party’s MPs and MSPs. The three main parties may be led by women, but it is still men who dominate the other ranks.

Ms Sturgeon’s determination to tackle the issue is welcome, but all-women shortlists remain a problematic method and will provoke the charge that women have been appointed because of gender rather than ability. The same applies to the idea of quotas in the boardroom – a much better strategy is to support the target of 50/50 men and women at the senior level, as Ms Sturgeon has done, and compel organisations that fail to meet the target to explain why they are falling short.

The gender imbalance in politics and elsewhere is also likely to persist until some of the profound structural inequalities in society are tackled, most importantly the lack of good, affordable childcare. Ms Sturgeon’s Government aims to offer parents 30 hours of free care a week, but far too many parents still find it difficult to secure the childcare they need.

The price of a nursery place has also been soaring and costs one third more than five years ago, meaning that, for many women, the economics do not add up. The affordability and availability of childcare remain the most serious obstacle to gender equality in Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s stated intention to tackle these problems is a welcome development, as is the appointment of a senior person to the gender equality portfolio in the SNP. But more than 35 years since the Sex Discrimination Act, men still dominate the bodies that run much of Scottish life, including political parties. Scotland’s biggest party, led by the most successful female politician of her generation, wants to do something about it. But there is still a long way to go to equality.