Prof Meryl Kenny
Head of Politics and International Relations and Professor of Gender and Politics at the University of Edinburgh, and a member of the Scottish Parliament’s Gender Sensitive Advisory Group (2023-2026). Her most recent book (co-edited with Elin Bjarnegård) is Gendering Party Politics (Oxford University Press, 2025).
Prof Sarah Childs
Professor of Politics & Gender at the University of Edinburgh. The author of five research monographs, her latest, Designing Feminist Institutions will be published this June. It draws on experiences when seconded to the House of Commons in 2015-16 and her drafting of The Good Parliament Report.
Scottish Election 2026
Section 4: Democracy and representation
- Looking beyond numbers: Gender sensitivity in the new parliament (Prof Meryl Kenny, Prof Sarah Childs)
- Disability representation in the Scottish Parliament: Gains, gaps, and promises (Prof Stefanie Reher)
- More progress without parity? Ethnic minority representation at Holyrood after 2026 (Prof Nasar Meer FBA, Dr Timothy Peace)
- Who represents Scotland? Class and gender of Holyrood in 2026 (Shevaun Smith)
- Questions of representation: How diverse are our MSPs (Dr Lynn Bennie)
- Over the rainbow? What next for Scotland’s new “Rainbow Parliament”? (Prof Christopher Carman)
Only a few weeks before the pre-election dissolution of the Scottish Parliament, Holyrood passed a series of standing order rule changes to take effect from the start of the new Parliament. Amongst their number were new rules: (i) ruling out single sex committees; (ii) requiring due regard be given to gender balance in committees, the Parliamentary Bureau, and the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body; and (iii) the introduction of a sex quota for the positions of Presiding Officer and Deputy Presiding Officers. The adoption of these reforms is one of the key outcomes of the parliament’s gender-sensitive audit – launched by the Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone in 2022 to address obstacles to women’s equal representation and participation at Holyrood.
A gender-sensitive parliament (GSP) is a global democratic standard that places responsibility on parliaments as institutions for ensuring gender equality across all aspects of their work and culture. In the run-up to the 25th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament, the Presiding Officer framed the GSP audit as a critical moment to evaluate the institution’s record to date and, crucially, identify what work still needed to be done. While the Scottish Parliament has been internationally lauded for its founding commitments to family friendliness and equalities, the audit highlighted both progress and regress on these initial achievements. Meanwhile, commentary from women MSPs themselves – a significant number of whom stood down in 2026 – pointed to ongoing barriers to institutional inclusion, including inhospitable institutional and party cultures, the rise of violence against women in politics, and the difficulties of balancing a political career with caring responsibilities. What matters then is not just how many women or other under-represented groups get elected to parliament, but also what happens after they get there.
By early 2026, all but three of the thirty-four recommendations (over 90 per cent) from the audit’s report A Parliament for All have been implemented (in part or in full). In addition to the above standing order rule changes, other significant reforms in comparative terms introduced new parliamentary bodies, including a women’s caucus and an oversight group – the Gender Sensitive Advisory Group. The latter group – chaired by the Presiding Officer from 2023-2026, with MSPs from the main parties, parliamentary staff, and external experts – was tasked to oversee the delivery of the report’s recommendations and the Parliament’s progress towards gender sensitivity. Gender-sensitive data collection has also been successfully embedded in routine and everyday administration, including: regular tracking of committee membership and leadership roles; chamber participation; decision and sitting time data; and member’s experiences. New research was also commissioned by the Gender Sensitive Advisory Group: including a disability audit of the parliamentary estate; research on job-share for MSPs; and the introduction of a parents and carers survey. Other recommendations are planned for the new parliamentary session, including provision planned for MSP induction. The Scottish Parliament’s GSP work is also impacting other parliaments across the UK, with an audit already completed in the Welsh Senedd (2025-26), in the form of a Family Friendliness and Inclusive Parliament Review, and a GSP audit planned for the Northern Ireland Assembly.
While on these measures, the Scottish Parliament could be considered a GSP success story, there are some grounds for caution, and the new parliament may be a less conducive institutional context for GSP. The presence of the populist radical right party Reform, and the increasing polarization of politics more generally as well as contestation around gender equality issues specifically, will almost certainly challenge cross-party working on these issues in the new parliament. Indeed, Reform’s manifesto commitments include proposals to roll back changes that have sought to make the parliament more accessible and inclusive – for example, discarding the Parliament’s post-Covid hybrid participation model in favour of imposing compulsory physical attendance and voting. Comparatively, parliaments have taken different approaches to these challenges. In Sweden, for example, the Swedish Parliament’s Gender Equality Working Group includes representatives from the right-wing Sweden Democrats. In contrast, in Catalonia, parties operate a cordon sanitaire to exclude far-right representation from gender equality and GSP efforts. John Swinney’s decision to exclude Reform UK from post-election discussions suggests that Scotland’s approach may reflect more of the latter than the former.
Progress on women’s representation in 2026 has stalled – dropping from 45% to 43% in 2026 – with only one political party (the Scottish Greens) achieving equal representation or better amongst its elected members. New members – and particularly a new Presiding Officer – may lead to different priorities. Yet, while the drop in women’s representation could reduce the demand for GSP; on the other, it could catalyse further calls for reform. The work of the previous PO and the GSP Advisory Group to date and the embedding of some recommendations in the everyday work of the parliament make it more likely that the GSP “baton” will be taken up in the new Parliament. In this, GSP is inextricably intertwined with the institutional interest of continuing to work towards a better parliament – one that is “truly representative, transparent, accessible, accountable and effective in all its functions”
