IN the second part of her series on Women in Politics HANNAH RODGER considers the change in fortune for the Labour Party.

Over the last 30 years, and with the election of Kezia Dugdale as leader, the party has been somewhat of a trailblazer in terms of gender equality.

In 1999 when the Scottish Parliament opened, the party made a stand and ensured there was a 50/50 split with new MSPs, and its number of female MSPs was far higher than any of the opposition parties.

It is a balance the party has tried to maintain in Scotland – the current figure stands at 18 female MSPs out of the 36 in total – and it is something veteran party members Margaret Curran and Patricia Ferguson feel very proud of.

Margaret Curran was one of the first Labour MSPs, representing Glasgow Baillieston between 1999 and 2011.

She served in Westminster as an MP between 2010 and 2015, but was defeated this year by the SNP.

Ms Curran explained that when she was younger, politics seemed, “utterly lopsided,” which encouraged her to get involved to implement change.

She said: “It was one of the big factors which led me to getting involved actually.

“I looked at everything around me and it seemed very unnatural that it was completely being dominated by men.

“Political representation, coverage, all the journalists were – and still are- male but it was even worse then.

“It couldn’t be true representation if you did not include half of the population.

“That was a big drive for me to get involved in politics to change all that.”

Although there has been a lot done by her party to bring about equal representation in the Scottish Parliament, Ms Curran said there was a lot more work to be done on certain issues to bring about true equality between men and women.

She said the biggest challenge she faced when she started was getting across the idea that women’s experiences were different from those of men, and making issues affecting women a priority.

Ms Curran added: “Some people would say if you said men, it meant women as well and we had to fight very hard that women had different experiences and we needed to prioritise different issues.

“It could be about childcare, domestic violence, how public services work…We made progress in that.”

She said that it was “still disappointing” that there hasn’t been “quite as much progress as I thought we would have, 30-odd years ago” and said there was still “a long way to go” to address equality.

Her party, she said, crossed the Rubicon when the Scottish Parliament first formed and were the only political party to insist on a 50/50 split, but added that there was still more to be done.

“[The gender split] was absolutely fundamental, but we need to now step up again.

“We need to speak much more energetically about the issues that are facing women today - both young and older women,

“There is a new agenda. For example, the pay gap for women in their 50s is around a 30% difference, for those in their 30s its 10% ... It’s still an issue and Scotland is behind in that.

“We have a lot of work to do; we need to get moving on it.”

Her colleague Patricia Ferguson is another of the first group of MSPs who were elected in 1999, and has retained her seat in the Maryhill and Springburn constituency ever since.

Contrary to Ms Curran, Ms Ferguson said when she was first starting out she took it for granted that women were able to succeed in politics.

She said: “When I joined the labour party one of the things I was very conscious of was that there were women in elected positions.

“I joined at the point when Maria Fyfe was about to be selected as the MP for Maryhill, and that was really interesting to me as a young women.

“There was a lot of competition and it was a real fight but she won through and it was quite inspirational.

“She was the only female [Labour] Scottish MP at that time, and for quite a long time afterwards.”

Ms Ferguson said in her constituency of Maryhill there were women at every level but the party did have an issue with gender balancing and so introduced women-only shortlists.

The practice was stopped for a time after two male members took the party to court for discrimination.

When the Scottish Parliament opened, Ms Ferguson said it was the right time to introduce the 50/50 split.

And she said it seems to have paid off, with people such as Kezia Dugdale now reaching high-ranking positions within the party.

The Maryhill MSP said: “ Kezia was still at school when the parliament was established and I think it’s wonderful that young women like that are now coming forward in to leadership roles.

“ They have again a totally different perspective than I have.

“ I hope the work done in 1997 and 1999 has helped them to feel that it’s a more natural thing for them to do - that it’s a life for them.”