WOMEN make up over half of the population in Scotland but only 35% of those elected to the Scottish Parliament. That needs to change.

Women are impacted by every decision that is taken in any parliament or local authority in Scotland. To allow decisions to have the best outcome for women our elected members should be representative of the communities they represent and made up of as many diverse voices as possible.

The SNP already has a strong record on enabling women to stand but we can and must do more. So in order to encourage more women to stand the SNP has put in place measures that will remove the barriers that women face when they stand for election.

Starting now any woman thinking of standing will be supported through the candidate self assessment process through the SNP Women’s Mentoring Project. The project that I am leading is specifically for women who are interested in standing in the Local Government Election in 2022. The aim is that by the end of the project they will be confident enough to successfully stand to be selected and elected.

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The project takes place over eight meetings. An initial meeting, six task based meetings and the final evaluation meeting. The project is fully supported by the Mentoring Handbook for Mentors 2022 and The SNP Women’s Mentoring Project Workbook 2022 for mentees.

More immediately for those who are wanting to put themselves forward for the Scottish Parliament I have hosted online information sessions on the selection process that’s allowed women to support each other with helpful ideas and guidance on everything involved in selection such as how to prepare for online hustings.

And I’ve been supporting branch Women’s Officers to develop a Digital Support Pack that shares best practice from across the country on getting more women involved in politics, out campaigning for independence, getting involved in policy development and of course getting more women into elected office.

As the SNP lead the campaign for independence it is important that we do so in a way that shows how we mean to go on, with fairness and equality at the heart of everything we do.