Local MSP Jackie Baillie has welcomed new analysis which shows that more than 50% of Scottish Labour’s candidates for May’s Holyrood election will be female.

The Women 50:50 campaign has published research which shows that Scottish Labour has the highest percentage of female candidates of all the parties in this election campaign. 52% of Scottish Labour’s constituency candidates are women compared to 41% for the SNP and only 15% for the Conservatives.

Jackie Baillie is the first ever woman to represent this area in any parliament and has been the local MSP since the Scottish Parliament was created in 1999.

Jackie said:

“When I was elected in 1999 I was the first ever woman to represent our area in parliament. However the progress we have made in recent years to achieve equality for women in Holyrood has stalled. That’s why Scottish Labour goes into this election with pride that at least half of our candidates will be women – it’s a list of candidates that looks like Scotland.

“We have female leaders of the three main political parties in Scotland. That’s a great thing and it’s something to shout about, but we can never make the mistake of thinking that the fight for equality for women in Scotland is over. There is still so much work to do to shatter the glass ceiling for women in politics and business.

“I had hoped that other parties would rise to the challenge as Scottish Labour has, but in the case of the Conservatives that hasn’t happened. It looks like the same old Tories.”

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