Scottish Women and Political Representation in the UK and Scottish Parliaments (1918–2020)

This article reviews the record of Scottish women’s representation in the UK Parliament since 1918, and in the Scottish Parliament since 1999. Women candidates have stood for election to Westminster at every General Election since 1918, with the first Scottish woman MP being elected in 1923. Subsequently, there have always been women MPs representing Scottish constituencies, with the number increasing in 1997, as elsewhere in the UK. The Scottish Parliament, created in 1999, has consistently seen a higher level of representation of women than that achieved for Scottish MPs at Westminster. The article examines political parties’ track records in promoting women candidates, and comments on the careers of women politicians. The article argues that the increase in women’s representation in recent decades is attributable to the efforts of women activists, and to the specific strategies adopted by parties to achieve this. It also argues that the Scottish Parliament has significantly extended opportunities for women to participate in political decision-making and in policy-making.


Introduction
This article gives an account of Scottish women's representation in the UK parliament since the 1918 Representation of the People Act enfranchised most women over 30, and of women's representation in the Scottish parliament since its inception in 1999. This late-twentieth-century political devolution can be understood as the outcome of tensions between the Union settlement of 1707 and the growing need for parliamentary time and administrative structures closer to the Scottish people.
Such tensions were manifest from the late nineteenth century onwards, resulting in the establishment of the Scottish Office in 1885, and further administrative devolution in the 1930s and 1940s (see, for example, Keating, 2010;McCrone, 2017;Paterson, 1994). Along with local government, this provided focal points for activism and engagement at Scottish level prior to political devolution. Liberal Unionism proved strong in Scotland, and the Conservatives fought elections in Scotland as the Unionist Party until the 1960s (Burness, 2003). Liberal decline after World War I was rapid, although certain areas of Scotland maintained loyalty to the Liberals, and later the Liberal Democrats, for example, Orkney and Shetland and the Scottish Borders. By the late nineteenth century the Social Democratic Federation and the Independent Labour Party (ILP) were attracting members in Scotland; the ILP remained a force in Scottish politics well after the rise of the Labour Party. The Communist Party of Great Britain established itself in Scotland from 1920, maintaining a stronger presence than elsewhere in Britain. In the inter-war years, the British Union of Fascists also had a presence in Scotland.
All the main parties had Scottish organisations, not necessarily identical to those in England or Wales. Levels of party support differed from England, and varied Breitenbach: Scottish Women andPolitical Representation in the UK andScottish Parliaments (1918-2020) 3 geographically within Scotland. As Baxter (2013) has pointed out, the changing party fortunes of the inter-war years, particularly Liberal decline and Labour's rise, made for a competitive political environment. After World War II the political landscape changed again. Unionist support peaked in 1955, and declined as Labour grew to dominate Scottish politics from the 1960s to the 2010s. By the 1960s the SNP was enjoying some electoral success. Thus, while Labour and the Conservatives still dominated elections, there was already a four-party system in Scotland. Further change has followed the advent of the Scottish Parliament. Its system of proportional representation has allowed the representation of smaller parties, such as the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) and the Green Party, and was thought to favour multi-party representation and coalition government. The SNP's success in gaining a majority in the Scottish Parliament was thus unanticipated. The party has also captured a large number of Scottish seats at Westminster in the most recent three UK general elections.
As noted, this article focuses on Scottish women's representation in the UK and Scottish parliaments; they have also been represented in local government and the European Parliament. The wider sphere of women's political engagement over the twentieth century lies beyond the scope of this article, but it is worth noting that local government has played an important role. Before 1918, women in Scotland, as elsewhere in the UK, exercised their rights to vote and stand for public office.
While success in achieving representation varied across Scotland, suffragists made their mark in getting women on to school boards (McDermid, 2010). In Edinburgh, from the 1870s onwards suffragists organised strategically to get women elected to school boards, parochial boards, and the successor parish councils (Breitenbach, 2019). After 1918, the successor organisations to the suffrage societies, the Women Citizens' Associations and Societies for Equal Citizenship, continued to campaign for equal suffrage, and supported women candidates for councils and parliament (Breitenbach and Wright, 2014). While they claimed success for their efforts, levels of representation nonetheless remained low (Baxter, 2008). Women's representation in local government in Scotland remains lower than in England, but has increased over time, now standing at 29 percent. With the advent of Women's Committees in the 1980s, local government came to play a crucial role as a training ground for Breitenbach: Scottish Women andPolitical Representation in the UK andScottish Parliaments (1918-2020) 4 women politicians and in building an equalities policy community (Breitenbach and Mackay, 2001). to promote equality such as equal pay and anti-discrimination legislation, maternity leave and childcare provision, as well as public service provision of particular importance to women. In conclusion, the article outlines key factors underlying the growth in women's representation, and suggests areas for future investigation.
Finally, it asks whether there are distinctive characteristics to Scottish experience.

Scottish women's representation at Westminster
The number of Scottish seats at Westminster reflects the size of its population, although historically this has been overrepresented, given low population densities in some rural constituencies. Over time the number of seats has changed, reflecting Scotland's changing demography and redrawn boundaries. Most recently, as part of the devolution settlement, the number of Scottish constituencies has shrunk to 59, forming 9.1 percent of the current 650 seats in the UK Parliament (see Table 1 below). Thus, numbers of women elected have always been small in comparison with England; in the early years following women's enfranchisement they were very small.
The first woman to be elected to Westminster was Constance Markiewicz, who, as a Sinn Féin member, famously refused to take her seat. As this special issue of the Open Library of Humanities journal commemorates, Nancy Astor was therefore the first woman to take her seat, in 1919. In 1923 the first Scotswoman was elected to Breitenbach: Scottish Women andPolitical Representation in the UK andScottish Parliaments (1918-2020) 5 low throughout the twentieth century, the longer-term pattern in Scotland has been close to that for the UK. Baxter (2008) has commented of the earlier twentieth century that the proportion of Scottish women MPs was sometimes higher than for UK as a whole; however, electing one more or one less woman MP could have a big impact on percentages. Women candidates were rarely selected to stand for safe seats and were often elected at by-elections. Indeed, between 1918 and1995, 11 of the 24 Scots women elected to Westminster were first elected at by-elections, as listed in Table 2 below.
Over time, the proportion of Scottish seats held by women has slowly increased, as  Table 3. While it increased in 1997 to 16.7 percent from 6.9 percent in Breitenbach: Scottish Women andPolitical Representation in the UK andScottish Parliaments (1918-2020) 7 1992, the proportion of Scottish women elected was below the UK average, and apart from the high achieved in 2015, it is still slightly below the UK average.
Women's representation in the UK Parliament does not rate highly in international comparisons, and this is true for Scottish representation as well. Following the 2019 general election, the UK was listed in 39 th place in global rankings, with 33.9 percent  Craig (1977;1983;1984), and C. Rallings and M. Thrasher (1999).  (Burness, 1992;Ewan et al., 2018). Mrs Hope, of Luffness, attempted to stand against Asquith, but an inaccuracy in her nomination paper disqualified her (Baxter, 2008 Before World War II the highest number of women candidates at any election was ten, in 1931; only two were elected, both Unionist. In the 1950s and 1960s the number of candidates was usually in the teens, and then began to increase from 1970 onwards. As Table 4 below indicates, the number of women candidates standing at general elections has increased substantially, and did so long before the numbers of women elected began to increase. The increase in women's representation since 1997 seems to have had the effect of pushing up further the number of women candidates. In 2019, as for the UK overall, a record number of women candidates stood; 34 percent of UK candidates were women, while in Scotland there was a total of 293 candidates, with women making up 38.9 percent of the total.  (2008), Craig (1977;1983;1984), Rallings and Thrasher (1998;2005), Morgan (2001), and BBC News (2010; 2020). 1974 (F) refers to the election held in February, and 1974 (O) to the election held in October. * Two candidates were Liberals, and one a National Liberal. candidates in 1983, and have increased their support in both Scottish Parliament and UK general elections, although failing to win any Scottish seats in the latter.
The SSP ambitiously fielded candidates for most Scottish constituencies in 2001 and 2005, including a considerable number of women candidates. No doubt this was encouraged by their success in returning several MSPs to the Scottish Parliament, facilitated by the system of proportional representation. However, the subsequent bitter disputes over the conduct of its leading member, Tommy Sheridan, resulting in a 'spectacular tabloid scandal' (Keating, 2010: 75), did much to undermine the party.
Generally speaking, in the earlier decades after enfranchisement it was difficult for women candidates to be selected for safe, or winnable, seats. There is evidence of women experiencing prejudice on the basis of their sex in earlier years, but also of women being encouraged to stand (Baxter, 2008). How many women may have come forward and been rejected is not known, but getting women candidates to come forward could also be difficult, as the Liberals found in the inter-war years (Burness, 1992). It was not until the 1980s that the debate around Labour's failure to select women for winnable seats came to prominence. Criticisms were made of sexist attitudes, party selection procedures which chose 'favourite sons', the influence of male-dominated trade unions, and a party culture that meant many able women effectively selected themselves out of the process (Brown, 1996;1998).
Given the Labour Party's dominance in Scotland at the time, any progress in women's representation was likely to lie primarily with it.
As Table 4 above indicates, there has been growing interest in standing for office among women. Of the greater numbers of candidates coming forward now, many will have only limited chances of success. However, standing for election without expectation of winning a seat has also served to build parties and political careers. This can be demonstrated by the rise of the SNP and the role of prominent women politicians in the party's early electoral successes. The numbers of candidates coming forward have also reflected moments of success for smaller parties, such as the SSP.
Arguably the growing number of women candidates contributes to a process of normalising women's presence in political life. Nonetheless, there has not yet been a general election in Scotland in which every constituency has had at least one woman Breitenbach: Scottish Women andPolitical Representation in the UK andScottish Parliaments (1918-2020) 12 candidate. There have, however, quite often been multiple women candidates in several constituencies. It may be that the success of a woman candidate attracts other women to stand against her, or that parties perceive this as a strategic choice.

Parties and women: voters, members, representatives
Women's support for parties has at times differed from men's. Although the extension of the franchise in 1918 favoured middle-class voters, Dyer has argued that evidence of Unionist bias among women is less than circumstantial (Dyer, 1996). It may be that women voters contributed more than male voters to Unionist success, because of the apparent greater effectiveness of Unionist women's organisation, compared to other parties, and perhaps because of a greater propensity of middleand upper-class women to vote. Norris's (1996)  voters. However, more women than men supported the Conservative party until the 1990s; by then there was little difference in women's and men's voting behaviour relating to the then-dominant parties (Breitenbach and Wasoff, 2007).
As elsewhere in Britain, from the 1880s onwards, women began to join political parties, or party-affiliated organisations, where admission to full party membership did not occur until 1918. As Burness (1992) has noted, parties' reactions to women's enfranchisement varied in their organisational responses, with Liberal and Unionist parties creating structures that made women members more visible than they were in the Labour party. Little is known, however, about levels of women's membership of parties in the earlier decades of the twentieth century. Baxter (2008) has cited evidence of high levels of women's membership in local parties, while Burness (1992) has noted that, given the dominance of male trade unionists, women's membership of Labour was low. For recent years data on party membership remains scarce, and data giving a gender breakdown at Scottish level is even more scarce. Mackay (2003)  Since 1918 a total of 66 women have been elected as MPs for Scottish constituencies. Table 5 below indicates their distribution by party. The Labour party leads with 29 women MPs, followed by the SNP with 26, the Conservatives with  Craig (1977;1983;1984), Rallings and Thrasher (1998;2005)

Political careers and policy interests
It is possible to offer here only very limited commentary on the careers of Scottish Scotland missionaries) (Pedersen, 1991), and opposition to self-government in India based on her belief that Indian women and children required the protection of British rule. Her subsequent support for Spanish civil war refugees was connected to her anti-appeasement stance, and resulted in the loss of her seat in 1938. She opposed equal pay in the civil service, and the extension of the vote to all women in 1928 (Burness, 1992). Florence Horsbrugh, also Conservative, was regarded as a competent minister, who, among other things, had responsibility for the evacuation of children during World War II. She also sponsored two private members' bills, on the curbing of drinking methylated spirits, and on the regulation of the adoption of children (Baxter, 2008).
Of Labour MPs, Jennie Lee's perceived support for the provision of contraception contributed to the loss of her seat in 1931, on account of Catholic hostility (Burness, 1992). Agnes Hardie, Alice Cullen and Jean Mann took up concerns of working-class women, such as pay and prices, health services and housing (Burness, 1992). In the 1960s, Judith Hart supported legislation empowering local authorities to provide family planning advice (Davidson and Davis, 2012). Of Scottish women MPs in the House of Commons at the time of its passage and in the years immediately following, only Judith Hart voted for the 1967 Abortion Act and against subsequent attempts to restrict it (Chambers and Cossey, 1982). Subsequently, Maria Fyfe was active in organising opposition to the 1988 Alton Bill, which sought to reduce the time limit for abortions (Fyfe, 2014 housing; law and order; local government; and sports and the arts. Some forms of taxation and aspects of transport were also devolved. There has been further devolution of powers more recently, including other forms of taxation, and some responsibilities relating to welfare benefits. Significant powers remain reserved to Westminster, such as defence and foreign policy, but also powers including a number of areas having important impacts on women's lives, such as social security, pay and employment rights, equality legislation, and abortion.

The campaign for a Scottish Parliament from 1989 onwards involved demands for greater women's representation, both in the Scottish Constitutional Convention
(SCC) and in the proposed parliament, as well as the promotion of equal opportunities as a key principle for the Parliament, guiding its conduct and style of politics (Breitenbach and Mackay, 2001

Parties and women: voters, members, representatives
As indicated, there had been intense debate over several years about increasing women's representation, the need for mechanisms to ensure this, and the specific measures that different parties might adopt. Strategies had to be adapted to the system of proportional representation adopted for the Scottish Parliament, the Additional Member System. This combines 73 MSPs elected for constituencies by the first-past-thepost system, and a further 56 additional members with seven MSPs being elected for each of eight Parliamentary Regions. The second vote is for a party, not a candidate, and the parties are allocated additional seats to make the overall result more proportional.
The regional lists are compiled by the parties, and where candidates are placed on the Referendum of 2014 by a separate Act.
As noted above, gender differences in voting behaviour have declined with regard to Conservatives and Labour in Scotland. Historically there has been a gender gap in voting for the SNP, with men more likely than women to support the party (Johns, Bennie, and Mitchell, 2011). However, this gender gap has been declining; McCrone (2017)  Since its inception, the Scottish Parliament has had higher levels of women's representation than Westminster, and also higher than in local government. Despite the decline in the proportion of women in the Scottish Parliament since the 1999 and 2003 elections, as indicated in Table 6 below, it still maintains the record of having the highest proportion of women, compared to Westminster and local government.  Scottish Parliament 2003: Election Facts;Scottish Parliament Statistics, 2007-20082011-20122016-2017 To date, 104 women have been elected as MSPs, which is 104 in 20 years, compared to Westminster's 66 women MPs in 100 years. These levels have been achieved for the most part through the use of measures by parties to promote women candidates, including the Labour Party's use of the twinning mechanism to guarantee equal representation in constituency seats in 1999, informal measures by the SNP in earlier elections (Breitenbach and Mackay, 2001), and subsequent adoption of AWS for the 2016 election (Kenny, Mackay, Murtagh, 2016). This also includes measures such as 'zipping' on regional lists by the Green Party and by Labour, who also brought AWS into play again. However, as Mackay and Kenny (Mackay, 2004;Mackay and Kenny, 2009;Kenny, 2011;Kenny and Mackay, 2014;Kenny, 2015) have

Candidates
It is a feature of Scottish Parliament elections that there have been far higher numbers of candidates than at Westminster elections. At each election there have been more than 800 candidates, and in 2007, this reached a total of 1050. This includes over 300 candidates for constituency seats and over 500 for list seats in each election.
There have consistently been high numbers of candidates in the 'Others' category; Independents, single issue campaigns, and small groups such as left-wing splinter  Scottish Parliament Election Results, 2003;Scottish Parliament Statistics, 2007-20082011-20122016-2017. Breitenbach: Scottish Women and Political Representation in the UK and Scottish Parliaments (1918 23 groups, and so on. Very few such candidates, among whom there appears to be a substantial proportion of women, can hope to be elected. At the least, however, it indicates a commitment to taking the opportunity to have a public platform for whatever cause the candidates espouse. Statistical reports on elections from the Scottish Parliament have not offered a gender breakdown of candidates; however, an analysis for the 2016 Scottish Parliament election was provided in a House of Commons Library Briefing Paper (Hawkins, 2016).
As Table 8 above indicates, there was a higher proportion of women candidates than of women elected. Overall, about 36 percent of constituency candidates were women, and 41 percent of regional candidates. It also indicates the variation in parties' records in standing candidates, with the Labour party continuing to stand the highest proportion of women candidates, followed by the SNP . The table also indicates parties' choices for placing candidates, for example, a small party such as the Green party, which will attract a larger share of its vote through the regional ballot.

Political careers
Reviewing twenty years of devolution, the Institute for Government (2019) noted that in the first two decades of its existence, 48 people had served in Scottish Cabinets, with about one-third of them being women. Of the 20 members of the first Scottish Executive led by First Minister Donald Dewar, five were women (Dalgety  Of the women ministers in the first Scottish Executive, no-one had previous experience of elected office, and not only had the challenge of learning how to run government departments, but also encountered difficulties with senior male civil servants, and much sexism from the media (Dalgety and Phillips, 2013). However, they drew support from networks in the trade union movement, women's organisations and community groups. Some of those interviewed by Dalgety and Phillips (2013) made explicit their feminist beliefs, as they did in the Scottish Parliament. The initial years of the Scottish Parliament, and subsequent support for the autonomous Scottish Women's Convention.
Policies on domestic abuse provide the clearest policy example where the presence of women MSPs has made a difference, in particular MSPs with a feminist background.
Mackay (2010)  representation. More women than men MSPs raised such 'women's issues', although not all female MSPs did, and some men did so. Chaney argued that such substantive representation was dependent not just on a ' critical mass' of women MSPs in the Parliament, but also on the presence of ' critical actors', a relatively small number of Labour MSPs with feminist views, who were most likely to promote women's interests. Breitenbach: Scottish Women andPolitical Representation in the UK andScottish Parliaments (1918-2020) 28 In general, the Scottish Executive/Government and Scottish Parliament are more accessible to Scottish interest groups and civil society organisations than are Westminster governments. As Keating (2010)  party has had two women leaders, but lags behind Labour and the SNP in the proportion of women representatives they send to either parliament, a consequence of their refusal to adopt any specific mechanisms to promote women candidates.
In the Scottish Parliament, smaller parties of the left have had some success in getting women elected through the use of specific strategies for selection, although their levels of representation have been vulnerable when only small numbers have been elected. Commentators on the plateauing of women's representation in the Scottish Parliament have expressed concern that without stronger positive action measures, further progress may be stalled, and like their counterparts commenting on Westminster have favoured taking it ' out of the hand of parties' and legislating for quotas (Childs and Evans, 2012). The changes in the political landscape in Scotland since 1999 certainly suggest that no single party can be relied on to deliver and maintain equal representation over the longer term. whether or not debated in gendered terms. Also pertinent is the question of alliances, between women and men, and across parties, particularly given the criticism that party loyalties and control have inhibited the capacity of the Scottish Parliament for innovation (Keating, 2010).
To what extent has Scottish experience been distinctive? The incremental gains made in women's representation to the UK parliament are in line with trends for the UK as a whole, despite differences in the party political landscape in Scotland, the distribution of support for parties, and the relative autonomy of party organisations in Scotland. Yet, the debates about women's representation and the adoption of formal and informal mechanisms for increasing it of necessity had to take place at local and Scottish level. This emphasises the importance of women's collective action in achieving change, particularly borne out in the Scottish Parliament, which represents the most distinctive divergence from the Westminster pattern. This has not only achieved significantly higher levels of representation for women than has the UK parliament, but has provided the opportunity for many more women to take up political careers, to act as legislators and policy makers, to convene Parliamentary Committees, and to serve as Ministers. The number of women who have served as party leaders in Scotland has also been notable. If there remains frustration at the failure to achieve equal representation, this nonetheless represents a major advance for women in their access to political office and parliamentary experience. can be argued that the Scottish Parliament may well appear more attractive to women than the UK Parliament. The chances of getting selected and elected may be higher; it is more physically accessible for Scottish residents and therefore likely to make the combination of family and political life more feasible; it may be perceived as being a more welcoming institution for women; and it appears to be perceived as the legislature with Scottish interests most at heart. If, in the current political context, the security of the constitutional settlement of 1999 cannot be guaranteed, it is to be hoped that the greater gender democracy enabled by the creation of the Scottish Parliament will provide a firm grounding for any future arrangements.