Jenny Marra MSP
13 June 2012
Scottish Labour will use some of its allocated debating time in the Scottish Parliament to launch a national debate in support of gender quotas on the boards of public bodies.
The debate comes a week after the SNP and Tories in the Scottish Parliament combined to vote down a specific proposal to ensure that the board of the new single police service contains 40% women and 40% men.
Labour’s debate on Thursday will call for wider consideration of gender quotas on boards across the public sector – something that happens in other parts of Europe.
Labour MSP for North East Scotland Jenny Marra, and deputy convenor of the justice committee, said:
"It is clear that the SNP needs to take action so people are fairly represented on public bodies.
“As one MSP said this week, voluntary action to bring women into these positions has not worked, so it is time to help it along.
"This is why I tried to get the SNP Government to put a gender quota on police boards last week.
“I discovered that many police boards in Scotland have only a couple of women on them, and some did not have any women at all.
“If women’s voices are not being heard in decision-making, that will have an inevitable impact.
“Police deal with gender issues like domestic violence, sexual crimes and prostitution every day, so having that perspective on boards is extremely important.
"Other countries have gender quotas on every public body with decision making powers, and some go further, by extending the requirement to public limited companies.
“More equal societies tend to be fairer societies.
"The chair of the Scottish Government’s University Governance Review has recommended the same gender quotas for University governance.
“Hopefully Alex Salmond will take his advice and then look to putting quotas in place across all public decision making bodies.
"It would be a striking move if Scotland could start with one of our most important public services – the police – to make sure that the scrutiny of the new single service is representative of everyone in Scotland, and then extend that across the public sector."
Judith Robertson, Head of Oxfam in Scotland said:
"The right to gender equality underpins all of Oxfam’s work around the world.
"Women’s participation, and indeed leadership, is a matter of justice and an effective means of promoting accountability.
"We should do everything we can to remove barriers to equal participation.
"Measures such as the 40% quota being proposed by Jenny Marra MSP have proven a useful tool in boosting women's participation in governance in many countries and will give a much-needed boost to women's representation on public bodies within Scotland."
A spokesperson for Scottish Women’s Aid said:
"Scottish Women’s Aid works to end domestic abuse by tackling its root cause – women’s inequality.
"Increased representation of women in public bodies has proven far-reaching benefits, not just at an organisational level, but throughout society.
"Therefore, we support the call by Jenny Marra to introduce gender quotas."
Ann Henderson, STUC Assistant Secretary, said:
"The issue of women’s representation on boards is becoming a hot topic across Europe.
"When we look to countries like Finland and Norway we can see that gender quotas have worked at reducing inequality at the highest levels of decision making.
"The STUC led the 50/50 campaign in Scotland in the 1990s which brought far more women into the Scottish Parliament.
"We urge we urge the Government to think seriously about implementing them in Scotland’s public sector boards."
