Still Counting? Women and the 2012 Local Government Elections

Meryl Kenny (UNSW) and Fiona Mackay (Edinburgh)

In the run-up to the May 2012 local government elections, we argued that the face of local politics in Scotland was decidedly ‘male, pale and stale’, highlighting the fact that less than 1 in 4 council candidates and elected councillors were women. The announcement last week that parties are running yet another all-male candidate slate to contest the upcoming by-election for a seat on Moray Council – following the resignation of councillor Carolle Ralph (SNP) – raises serious questions as to whether the lessons of the 2012 elections have been taken forward, or whether, as the SPICe briefing on the elections notes, ‘little has changed’ in Scottish local politics.

This disappointing news provides an apt opportunity to revisit the results of the 2012 local government elections. We have now completed our full analysis of the election results and give headline figures below, as well as detailed gender breakdowns by local authority. A more detailed analysis of the results has been published in Holyrood Magazine and Scottish Affairs.

One thing remains clear: there is a need for more transparency and public accountability about each political party’s and local authority’s performance on women’s representation (as well as other marginalized groups). Despite the espoused concern from most Scottish political parties about women’s political under-representation, it is left to others to count women, because parties and councils don’t. Indeed, several political parties have asked for our data, as a gendered overview of this detail does not otherwise exist. There is no official requirement for the Electoral Commission, political parties or councils to collate or report on the gender (or ethnicity) breakdown of candidates and elected councillors. We have compiled these breakdowns ourselves, in what proved to be an often difficult and time-consuming process. Candidate information was obtained from the official Notices of Poll for each local authority. Where possible, the sex of the candidate was then confirmed using local media reports or party websites to compile gender breakdowns by party and local authority.  These figures were also confirmed with political parties (where possible), although only the Liberal Democrats and the Greens provided candidate gender breakdowns. The breakdown of male and female councillors was collated through analysis of the election results. Our figures have been confirmed by checking against the official council website profile for each councillor.

Publicity, through media reporting, and visibility, through the efforts of academics and campaign groups to ‘count women in’, appears to provide a spur to action for political parties. One way in which political parties and political institutions could be held to account would be to require them to ‘count for themselves’ and report their performance on a regular basis. The Westminster parliament Speaker’s Conference on parliamentary representation which reported in 2010 recommended that parties be required to report candidate gender and ethnicity breakdowns every six months (recommendation 25) and that parties should publish a gender/diversity breakdown, together with targets (recommendation 26). There are calls for the Conference and its recommendations to be revisited - and expanded to or replicated by the devolved jurisdictions.[1] We argue that it is important that all political levels should be included: the public reporting by political parties, local councils and parliaments of the gender and ethnicity breakdowns of candidates and elected members would serve to keep the issue and party performance in public view.

We will be discussing these wider issues in greater depth at this week’s Women and Constitutional Futures Seminar: Gender Equality Matters in a New Scotland. For more details & to register, click HERE (there are still a few remaining places).

All Tables and Figures © Meryl Kenny and Fiona Mackay, unless otherwise stated.

HEADLINES

 

• Fewer than 1 in 4 Scottish councillors is a woman. Women are 297 out of 1223 Scottish councillors elected in 2012 (24.3%).
• Only one of the 32 local authorities in Scotland is led by a woman (Rhondda Geekie, Labour leader of East Dunbartonshire Council) – compared to 3 in 2007[2].
• 136 out of 353 council wards in Scotland are only represented by men (38.5%). 4 council wards are only represented by women (1.1%).
• There are just 17 ethnic minority councillors in Scotland[3] (1.4 per cent).
• Disaggregated by party, women are (see Table 1):
  • 103 of 394 Labour councillors (26.1%)
  • 105 of 425 SNP councillors (24.7%)
  • 26 of 71 Liberal Democrat councillors (36.6%)
  • 28 of 87 Conservative councillors (24.3%)
  • 4 out of 14 Green Party councillors (28.6%)
  • 31 of 204 Independent/Other councillors (15.2%)
• Only 5 of the 32 local authority councils have achieved levels of women’s representation of 30% or more: Aberdeenshire (33.8%), Glasgow (30.4%), Moray (30.8%), South Ayrshire (30%) and South Lanarkshire (34.3%). No council has achieved gender parity.
• Inverclyde (previously an all-male council) lags at the bottom with only one woman elected (Vaughan Jones, Labour) out of 20 councillors overall (5%). Other ‘laggards’ on women’s representation are: East Lothian (2 women councillors, 8.7%), Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (3 women, 9.7%), and Orkney (2 women, 9.5%).
• Over a third of all councils in Scotland have failed to break through the 20% barrier in women’s representation. In addition to those listed above, this includes Dumfries and Galloway (17%), East Renfrewhire (20%), Falkirk (18.8%), Midlothian (16.7%), North Lanarkshire (20%), Scottish Borders (17.6%), and Shetland (13.6%).
• Women were fewer than a quarter of total candidates in the local government elections (23.4%). All of the major political parties fielded fewer than 30 per cent female candidates. Disaggregating by party, women were (see Table 3):
  • 136 of 497 Labour council candidates (27.4%)
  • 147 of 467 SNP candidates (23.9%)
  • 69 of 247 Liberal Democrat candidates (27.9%)
  • 94 out of 362 Conservative candidates (25.9%)
  • 35 out of 86 Green candidates (40.7%)
  • 103 out of 691 Independent/Other candidates (14.9%)
• 1 in 7 council contests was male-only. Of particular note was Inverclyde Council, where only one woman stood out of 38 total candidates (2.6%)

  

CANDIDATE AND COUNCILLOR BREAKDOWNS

For further information, including detailed gender breakdowns by local authority and party, click HERE.

Table 1: Male and Female Councillors by Party 2012

Party	Women Councillors	Men Councillors	Total Councillors	Percentage Women(% 2007)
Labour	103	291	394	26.1%(17.5%)
SNP	105	320	425	24.7%(21.2%)
Liberal Democrats	26	45	71	36.6%(31.3%)
Conservatives	28	87	115	24.3%(23.8%)
Green	4	10	14	28.6%(50%)
Independent/Other	31	173	204	15.2%(20.8%)*
Total	297	926	1223	24.3%

*2007 candidate selection figures are taken from the Electoral Reform Society, which include the Greens in the Independent/Other category.

Table 2: Male and Female Councillors by Local Authority 2012

#	Local Authority	Women Councillors	Men Councillors	Total Councillors	Percentage Women
1	Aberdeen City	12	31	43	27.9%
2	Aberdeenshire	23	45	68	33.8%
3	Angus	8	21	29	27.5%
4	Argyll and Bute	8	28	36	22.2%
5	Clackmannanshire	5	13	18	27.8%
6	Dumfries and Galloway	8	39	47	17%
7	Dundee City	6	23	29	20.7%
8	East Ayrshire	8	24	32	25%
9	East Dunbartonshire	6	18	24	25%
10	East Lothian	2	21	23	8.7%
11	East Renfrewshire	4	16	20	20%
12	City of Edinburgh	15	43	58	25.8%
13	Falkirk	6	26	32	18.8%
14	Fife	22	56	78	28.2%
15	Glasgow	24	55	79	30.4%
5	Highland	21	59	80	26.3%
17	Inverclyde	1	19	20	5.0%
18	Midlothian	3	15	18	16.7%
19	Moray	8	18	26	30.8%
20	Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	3	28	31	9.7%
21	North Ayrshire	8	22	30	26.7%
22	North Lanarkshire	14	56	70	20%
23	Orkney	2	19	21	9.5%
24	Perth and Kinross	10	31	41	24.4%
25	Renfrewshire	11	29	40	27.5%
26	Scottish Borders	6	28	34	17.6%
27	Shetland	3	19	22	13.6%
28	South Ayrshire	9	21	30	30%
29	South Lanarkshire	23	44	67	34.3%
30	Stirling	5	17	22	22.7%
31	West Dunbartonshire	6	16	22	27.3%
32	West Lothian	7	26	33	21.2%
	TOTAL	297	926	1223	24.3%

Table 3: Male and Female Candidates by Party

Party	Women Candidates	Men Candidates	Total Candidates	Percentage Women (% 2007)
Labour	136	361	497	27.4% (20.3%)
SNP	147	467	614	23.9% (22.0%)
Liberal Democrats	69	178	247	27.9% (31.4%)
Conservatives	94	268	362	25.9% (25.3%)
Green	35	51	86	40.7% (39.0%)
Independent/Other	103	588	691	14.9% (N/A)*
Total	584	1913	2497	23.4% (22.8%)

*2007 council figures are taken from Denver and Bochel (2007) who disaggregate Independents and Others.

Table 4: Male and Female Candidates by Local Authority

#	Local Authority	Women Candidates	Men Candidates	Total Candidates	Percentage Women
1	Aberdeen City	29	83	112	25.9%
2	Aberdeenshire	39	90	129	30.2%
3	Angus	17	33	50	34.0%
4	Argyll and Bute	17	61	78	21.8%
5	Clackmannanshire	11	19	30	36.7%
6	Dumfries and Galloway	16	66	82	19.5%
7	Dundee City	12	50	62	19.4%
8	East Ayrshire	12	39	51	23.5%
9	East Dunbartonshire	12	33	45	26.7%
10	East Lothian	8	36	44	18.2%
11	East Renfrewshire	8	32	40	20.0%
12	City of Edinburgh	30	97	127	23.6%
13	Falkirk	11	42	53	20.8%
14	Fife	46	116	162	28.4%
15	Glasgow	53	172	225	23.5%
16	Highland	40	130	170	23.5%
17	Inverclyde	1	37	38	2.6%
18	Midlothian	9	32	41	21.9%
19	Moray	14	33	47	29.8%
20	Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	5	58	63	7.9%
21	North Ayrshire	17	52	69	24.6%
22	North Lanarkshire	22	104	126	17.5%
23	Orkney	8	38	46	17.4%
24	Perth and Kinross	21	57	78	26.9%
25	Renfrewshire	18	62	80	22.5%
26	Scottish Borders	16	56	72	22.2%
27	Shetland	5	38	43	11.6%
28	South Ayrshire	14	30	44	31.8%
29	South Lanarkshire	35	103	138	25.4%
30	Stirling	9	36	45	20%
31	West Dunbartonshire	12	33	45	26.7%
32	West Lothian	17	45	62	27.4%
	TOTAL	584	1913	2497	23.4%

---

[1] Engender (2011) Quotas in the Scottish Parliament: Engender’s Position. Statement prepared for the Festival of Politics 2011. Edinburgh: Engender.

[2] Lisa Beattie (SNP) was initially elected as leader of Midlothian Council, but resigned in June 2012 and was replaced by Bob Constable (SNP).

[3] ‘Racial equality in Scottish councils: less male, less stale, but still very pale’, Guardian Scotland Blog, 18 May 2012.