Women and Contemporary Scottish Politics: An Anthology 9781474465403

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W o m e n a n d C o n t e m p o r a r y S c o t t is h P o l it ic s

W o m en

and

C o n tem po ra ry

S c o t t ish P o lit ic s A n A n t h o lo g y

Edited by E

st h e r

B

r e it e n b a c h

a n d

AT ED IN B U RG H

F

io n a

M

a cka y

To bissums wi’ smeddum

© editorial matter and organisation Esther Breitenbach and Fiona Mackay, 2001. © in individual chapters as indicated. Transferred to Digital Print in 2007 Polygon at Edinburgh An imprint of Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh Typeset in 11 on 13pt Goudy Old Style by Hewer Text Ltd, Edinburgh, and printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe Ltd, Eastbourne A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN-10 1 902930 24 X (paperback) ISBN-13 978 1 902930 24 4 (paperback) The right of the contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Contents

Acknowledgements Contributors Forewords

Introduction: Women and Contemporary Scottish Politics

vii ix xiii

1

Esther Breitenbach and Fiona Mackay

Section I

The Women’s Movement in Scotland

25

Chapter 1

Why Engender? Leslie Hills Bridging the Gap: Feminist Development Work in Glasgow Jan Macleod, Patricia Bell and Janette Forman A Liberating Event for Scottish Women Sue Innes Black Women’s Agency in Scotland: A View on Networking Patterns Anita Shelton Women’s Aid in Scotland: Purity versus Pragmatism? Jean Cuthbert and Lesley Irving Rape Crisis Movement in Scotland, 1977-2000 Aileen Christianson and Lily Greenan The Women’s Movement in Scotland in the 1990s Esther Breitenbach

27

Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7

35 43

47 55 69 77

Section II Keeping Gender on the Agenda: Feminist Politics and Local Government

91

Chapter 8

93

The Future of Women in Scottish Local Government Ellen Kelly Chapter 9 The Case of Zero Tolerance: Women’s Politics in Action? Fiona Mackay Chapter 10 No Man has the Right Katie Cosgrove

105 131

C ontents

Chapter 11 Keeping Gender on the Agenda - The Role of Women’s and Equal Opportunities Initiatives in Local Government in Scotland Esther Breitenbach and Fiona Mackay

147

Section III Women and the Campaign for the Scottish Parliament

163

Chapter 12 A Woman’s Claim of Right in Scotland Kathy Galloway and Judith Robertson Chapter 13 Constitutional Change and the Gender Deficit Isobel Lindsay Chapter 14 A Woman’s Place? The Future Scottish Parliament Catriona Levy (now Bumess) Chapter 15 Gender Goes Top of the Agenda Tom Naim Chapter 16 Women and Politics in Scotland Alice Brown Chapter 17 Deepening Democracy: Women and the ScottishParliament Alice Brown Chapter 18 Networking for Equality and a Scottish Parliament: the Women’s Co-ordination Group and Organisational Alliances Ronnie McDonald, with Morag Alexander and Lesley Sutherland Chapter 19 Taking their Place in the New House: Women and the Scottish Parliament Alice Brown Chapter 20 ‘Quietly Thrilling’: Women in the New Parliament Sue Innes

165

Biographies Bibliography Index

171 179 195 197 213

231

241 249

255 281 295

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Alice Brown for her support and enthusiasm over the years, and for her generous encouragement in taking forward this particular project. We would also like to thank Louise Tait and Jen Ross for their skill, patience and stamina in helping prepare the typescript, and Nicola Carr of Polygon at Edinburgh for her advice. The editors and publishers wish to thank the following for permission to reproduce material as below; full details of the original source are given at the beginning of each chapter. Leslie Hills and Chapman for ‘Why Engender?’; Zed Books for Macleod, Bell and Forman, ‘Bridging the Gap: Feminist Development Work in Glasgow’; Sue Innes for ‘Maryhill Women’s Centre’; Ellen Kelly for ‘The Future of Women in Scottish Local Government’; Edinburgh University Press for Cosgrove ‘No Man has the Right’; Polygon for Galloway and Robertson ‘Introduction to a Woman’s Claim of Right’ and Lindsay ‘Constitutional Change and the Gender Deficit’; Catriona Bumess (formerly Levy) for ‘A Woman’s Place? The Future Scottish Parliament’; Tom N aim for ‘Gender Goes Top of the Agenda’; Alice Brown and Oxford University Press for ‘Women and Politics in Scotland’; Alice Brown and Frank Cass for ‘Deepening Democracy: Women and the Scottish Parliament’; Alice Brown for ‘Taking their Place in the New House’. We would also like to thank Campaign Information Ltd for access to the LOBBYcontact MSP Database.

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V ll —

Contributors

M orag A lexander is Director of the Equal Opportunities Commission’s Office in Scotland. She is a member of the Scottish Executive Women’s Issues Research Advisory Group and was a board member of Scotland Forward, the all-party and civic organisation which campaigned for a ‘Yes, yes’ vote in the referendum on a Scottish Parliament. She writes in a personal capacity.

P atricia B ell was a development worker with the Women’s Support Project in Glasgow when the article was first published. She has since gained a doctorate and now works as an academic researcher at the University of Teesside. Esther Breitenbach is the author of numerous articles on women and gender inequalities in Scotland and has been active in the women’s movement for many years. She is a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh, and is currently on secondment to the Scottish Executive as Women’s Issues Researcher. The contributions in this book have been written in a personal capacity.

A lice Brow n is Professor of Politics and a Vice Principal at the University of Edinburgh. She was a founder member of Engender and the Scottish Women’s Co-ordination Group. She was also a member of the Scottish Constitutional Commission and was active in drafting the electoral agreement on gender balance for the Scottish Parliament and the Labour party’s ‘twinning’ mechan­ ism. She participated in the Consultative Steering Group on the Scottish Parliament. She has published widely on women and Scottish politics and constitutional change.

C atriona Burness (formerly Levy) currently works as an adviser to Catherine Stihler (formerly Taylor), MEP, in the European Parliament, Brussels. She has held several academic posts including the Glenfiddich Research Fellowship in

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C o n t r ib u t o r s

Scottish History at the University of St Andrews and has written on women and Scottish politics since 1990.

A ileen Christianson was a member of Edinburgh Rape Crisis centre, 1978-96. She lectures in Scottish Literature at Edinburgh University, specialising in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Scottish women’s writing, and is editor of the Duke-Edinburgh edition of The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle.

K atie Cosgrove has worked around the issue of violence against women for many years. She was co-ordinator of the Zero Tolerance campaign in Strathclyde Regional Council until local government reorganisation in 1996. She is currently a Research & Development Officer with the Women’s Health Team in Greater Glasgow Health Board where she is assisting in the development of a systematic response to the issue of gender violence in different health service settings across Glasgow.

Jean Cuthbert has worked for Women’s Aid for about ten years. She currently works part-time as the Scottish Women’s Aid National Training Worker and part-time for a local Women’s Aid group. She writes in a personal capacity.

Janette Form an is a Development Worker with the Women’s Support Project in Glasgow and is involved in a range of initiatives working against male violence. This includes: public education; support for women whose children have been sexually abused; training and consultancy; developing multi-agency responses to male violence, including developing services for women abused in prostitution.

K athy G allow ay is a practical theologian, and has been involved in the women’s movement for many years. She is currently working for Vashti, which is concerned with violence against women, and she also works for the Iona Community. She lives in Glasgow and has been actively involved in campaigns for women’s participation in civic life. This included involvement in the Scottish Constitutional Convention at the time when A Woman’s Claim of Right was first published.

Lily G reenan was a member of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, 1981-8 and 1992-9, and was the first paid development worker of the collective. She currently manages the EVA project, based in Motherwell North Social Inclusion Partnership area, which aims to improve service responses to women survivors of violence and abuse.

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C o n t r ib u t o r s

Leslie H ills is a director of Skyline Productions, a television producer and writer and was a founder member of Engender.

Sue Innes is a writer and researcher and author of Making it Work: Women, Change and Challenge in the 90s (Chatto & Windus 1995). She has recently completed research on gender equality in representation and participation in the new Scottish Parliament (Keeping Gender on the Agenda, available from En­ gender) and is writing a book on social feminism in Britain 1900-1939. Lesley Irving has worked in local Women’s Aid groups since 1978 and joined the national office of Scottish Women’s Aid in 1992 as Publicity and Education Worker. She is currently on secondment to the Scottish Executive Crime Prevention Unit, working on violence against women. She writes in a personal capacity.

Ellen K elly has spent ‘more time than is sensible’ working to bring about change to a more inclusive and just society within the context of local government. She has worked in Glasgow, London and Edinburgh, and is currently Equalities Manager at City of Edinburgh Council. The article was written in a personal capacity. Isobel Lindsay is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Strathclyde. She is a long time activist in the movement for a Scottish parliament and the campaign for women’s political representation. She was a founder member and a former Con­ vener of the Campaign for a Scottish Assembly (later Campaign for a Scottish Parliament) and served on the Executive of the Scottish Constitutional Conven­ tion. She was a member of the Woman’s Claim of Right Group and the Women’s Co-ordination Group. She also works to promote the role of civic organisations in public life and is currently a Vice Convener of the Scottish Civic Forum.

R onnie M cD onald is Deputy General Secretary of the ST U C , and was previously Women’s Officer, and has been for many years a fervent campaigner for women’s rights. Fiona M ackay is a former journalist now Lecturer in Politics at the University of Edinburgh. She researches and writes on various aspects of women and politics, equal opportunities and gender and public policy. She has been active in the campaign to increase women’s representation in political and public life, and co-edited the Gender Audit for Engender 1996-2000.

Jan M acleod is a Development worker with the Women’s Support Project in Glasgow and is involved in a range of initiatives working against male violence.

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This includes: public education; support for women whose children have been sexually abused; training and consultancy; developing multi-agency responses to male violence, including developing services for women abused in prostitution,

T om N airn is an author, journalist and Fellow of the Research Institute in Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen, Recent publications include After Britain: Ne