Updated Monday, June 12:
The UK held a snap election last week, with three major parties in Scotland battling for the majority of representation. Ultimately, the Scottish National Party (SNP), lead by Nicola Sturgeon, came away with the highest amount of seats, claiming 59.3% of the seats with 36.9% of the vote. The Conservatives took 13 seats, and the Labour party claimed 7, according to the BBC.
However, the SNP also lost 21 of the 56 seats that it gained in 2015, making this year's election not quite a clear-cut victory. On the other hand, the Conservative party did a lot better in this year's election than two years ago — in fact, their election results were the best they've been since 1983. In the wake of the election, Conservative party leader Ruth Davidson has been celebrated for the "historic win," while Sturgeon has commented that she will be reflecting "carefully on the result."
Previously:
Countries around the world have seen recent elections, and another is set to on occur June 8, this time in the United Kingdom, which includes England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Some of Scotland's politicians hope the elections will bolster their plans to hold a new referendum on whether to become a completely separate political entity from the U.K., and others are vehemently against breaking the union and a new vote. One thing they do have in common, however, is that those heading Scotland's three major political parties — the Scottish National Party (SNP), Labour, and the Conservatives — are all women.
Scotland may be tiny, but the ambitions of its female leaders certainly are not. Teen Vogue spoke to the three parties ahead of the main election to find out about female representation in Scotland, and what’s been done to bring gender parity so far.
Politics in Scotland differ from those in the United States, as the nation has a a devolved parliament. This means they have the power to make laws in Scotland about certain things, but issues like defense, social security, and economic policy are still controlled by the British government. They also have a multiparty system, wherein people use a proportional voting system to elect representatives in their own constituency and region. One party forms the government when it holds the most seats. Currently, the party in power is the Scottish National Party.
Nicola Sturgeon is the first minister and leader of the SNP. She told Teen Vogue that her focus is “taking action to support more girls to take up STEM subjects; helping more women back into work by increasing free child care; legislating so all public boards will have 50-50 gender balance; and encouraging the private sector to do the same.” Sturgeon introduced a gender-balanced cabinet as soon as she became leader.
“When Justin Trudeau was asked why he had appointed a balanced cabinet, he replied, ‘Because it’s 2015.’ And he is right — it’s incredibly frustrating that gender equality is even still an issue for debate when you consider how many women before us campaigned for equality," she says.
Sturgeon has called for a second referendum on a split from the rest of the United Kingdom (in 2014, Scotland's voters chose to remain a part of the U.K.), while the two other major parties, Labour and the Conservatives, oppose a second vote. Britain is leaving the European Union (an exit also known as Brexit, and Sturgeon has made headlines for going toe-to-toe with U.K. prime minister Theresa May on the exit, as well as on welfare cuts.
As a prominent figure, she has dealt with a great deal of sexism from the press. National tabloid The Sun superimposed her head over an image of Miley Cyrus wearing a tartan bikini, and others have published cartoons of her with enlarged breasts and short skirts. In March, The Daily Mail casually glossed over a historic meeting she had with Prime Minister May and instead made its front page about her legs, with the headline “Never mind Brexit, who won Legs-it.”
Despite the sexist rhetoric, she said she still holds a strong a commitment to boosting women up and actively embracing the term feminist. When Scotland first became devolved in 1999, leaders said Parliament should be "family-friendly", and equal opportunities became one of four key government principles. Sensible hours that allow women with children to work in politics are a major element, but each party in power (Labour and the SNP) has also used quotas at one point or another to ensure women were being fairly represented. In the 2016 elections, about 35 percent of those elected to Scotland's parliament were women. In comparison, women make up 19.3 percent of members in the U.S. House of Representatives and 21 percent of the U.S. Senate.
When Sturgeon first met Prime Minister May, she thought to herself, "Regardless of our political differences, the image — of a female first minister of Scotland meeting with a female prime minister of the U.K. — was quite a powerful one for other women, and especially for young girls," she says. “I want to send a strong message to all girls and young women in Scotland and across the world — if you work hard, the sky is the limit.”
Sturgeon’s rivals are Kezia Dugdale and Ruth Davidson, of the Labour and Conservative parties, respectively. Despite the hugely differing stances of their parties, they have a comparable number of seats in parliament (29 for the Conservatives; 23 for Labour), and in local elections held May 5, Conservatives made major advancements. Davidson was credited in 2016 with bringing the Conservatives to hold the second most parliament seats in Scotland behind the SNP, in a country that traditionally has been very left-leaning. Davidson, who has called herself "a practicing Christian who is gay", is a member of a party where more members of parliament opposed than supported the same-sex marriage bill, which she supported. Although in the U.K. same-sex marriage is now legal (the bill passed in England and Wales in 2013 and in Scotland in 2014), it’s a mark on the Conservative party.
Annie Wells, equality spokesperson for Ruth Davidson and the Conservative party, told Teen Vogue that three female leaders in Scotland means “a positive image has been created, which in turn encourages more women into politics.” The Conservatives recently launched the Women2Win campaign at their recent party conference to address female representation within their party, and the Labour party has also started a number of initiatives including mentoring sessions for girls.
Last year, as party leader, Kezia Dugdale of the Labour party showed her support for Hillary Clinton during the U.S. presidential election. She told Teen Vogue, “I got involved, doing what I could to help [Clinton] get her pledges on workers’ rights, health care and education across to voters as well as to combat the poisonous message of Donald Trump. I was devastated when she didn’t win.” (Similarly, Nicola Sturgeon called herself a “fangirl” of Clinton when the pair met in New York recently. Even Conservative spokesperson Annie Wells told Teen Vogue Clinton was “a candidate with a huge amount of experience in the Senate and the White House.”)
While Scotland has still not hit its 50 percent parliamentary gender balance just yet, and there are clearly divisions between the parties over how to accomplish gender equality, the upcoming election will show Scotland’s young women that the option of politics is available to them if they choose. Seeing a major governmental race made up of only women leaders is exciting — and although the three party leaders may be rivals in the election, they are joined together in helping to further the cause for Scottish women in politics.
Related: Why You Should Care About the French Election
Check this out:
