The Scottish National party has voted heavily in favour of introducing all women shortlists and “balanced” regional lists, reversing decades-long opposition to positive action.

SNP officials refused to disclose the voting numbers and would not allow media into the debate – fearing it would be heated, but in a closed session of the party’s pre-election conference at the SECC in Glasgow delegates gave the party’s national executive three new powers to push women candidates forward.

The vote, which saw two amendments against the motion defeated, has empowered the NEC to:

introduce an all-women shortlist for a Holyrood seat where the sitting MP stands down

ensure that any open shortlist for a constituency seat has at least one women candidate

introduce “balanced lists” on the regional list, where the list has to have an equal number of male and female candidates.

As this blog reported last week, some of these powers are conditional. The new constitution says the NEC “may” introduce balanced regional lists and “may” require all women shortlists, and it only – at this stage – effects the 2016 Holyrood election.



And, the NEC has backed off requiring regional lists to be “zipped” - a policy followed for instance by the Scottish Greens, where it alternates between female and male candidates (or vice versa). The new policy falls short of that standard, instead requiring the regional list to simply have equal numbers of male and female candidates - a position which could still see more women relegated to lower ranked places.



After this blog wrongly reported yesterday that a “balanced” list meant zipping, an SNP official says it actually means:

It’s even numbers of male and female in the list ranking but then the membership can rank as they wish - doesn’t have to be one male, one female etc.

The new policy says:

The National Executive Committee may take steps to balance the number of male and female candidates being submitted for regional list rankings, and will have authority to nominate additional candidates to achieve this.

While falling short of the tougher policies many campaigners may prefer, the vote recognises a long-standing commitment by party leader Nicola Sturgeon to positive action and gender equality, yet it has taken her election as leader and the post-referendum influx of younger, more radical activists to change approach.



Even so, her repeated endorsement of gender equality in her own cabinet, on public bodies and company boardrooms suggests the “may” could well become “will” if some branches prove intransigent.



Sturgeon backed gender equality when the policy was last pushed by SNP leaders in 1999, where it was voted down. Since then, her party has lagged badly behind Labour, the Scottish Greens and Lib Dems on positive action policy, refusing to follow their lead.



Of course, if the party’s actions in selections for May’s general election are a guide, the NEC may not need to assert its new authority. As this blog reported last week, the SNP has the second highest proportion of female general election candidates of the six main parties, at 36% compared to 43% for the Scottish Greens and ahead of Labour’s 27%.

At the last Scottish elections in 2011, however, the number of women elected to Holyrood was the second lowest on record, with 45 taking up seats – 34.88% of the total.

The role, profile and influence of women at Holyrood did change, however. One of the SNP MSPs, Tricia Marwick, was elected as its first women presiding officer. And with Sturgeon’s election as SNP leader, there are three parties led by women: Labour and the Conservatives have women in charge at Holyrood.

The SNP issued quotes after the vote from Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, who may be Scotland’s only Asian MP if a Guardian projection of likely winners is correct (she is fighting to unseat Labour’s Gordon Banks in Ochil and South Perthshire), saying:

Women represent 52% of the population in Scotland – yet for too long have been massively under-represented in Scottish public life. And while the SNP has made some progress in our selection of candidates for the General Election, it was always clear that more action needed to be taken. Today’s move will enable our party to take reasonable and sensible action to ensure gender equality amongst our candidates – and to guarantee that there are no longer any barriers to women playing a full role in the political process.

• This article, and the headline, were amended on 30 March 2015. An earlier version wrongly reported that the regional lists policy involved “zipping” or alternating male and female candidates.

