Voting For A New Britain: Assemblies may have world's highest proportion of women

SCOTLAND AND Wales could be represented by more women than in any other parliament in the world, analysts are predicting.

About 45 per cent of assembly members in Wales are expected to be female, and the proportion could be even higher if the vote for Labour, which achieved a 50-50 balance between its candidates, holds up.

In Scotland, half the candidates for both Labour and the Scottish National Party are women, though smaller proportions in the Liberal Democrat and Conservative camps could bring down the final figure to about 42 per cent. By comparison, just 18 per cent of MPs at Westminster are women and 43.6 per cent in Sweden, which has the highest proportion in Europe and probably the world.

Among the high-profile women who will gain seats in the new Scottish Parliament will be Labour's Wendy Alexander, tipped to be finance minister, the Scottish Conservative deputy leader, Annabel Goldie, and the SNP's "Madame Ecosse", Winnie Ewing, as well as the younger and equally glamorous Nicola Sturgeon.

In Wales, the former Merseyside assistant chief constable, Alison Halford, is standing for Labour, which is also fielding Cherry Short, a social worker who could become the only black woman in either of the two new assemblies.

Labour achieved its high proportion of women through a controversial "twinning" ar-rangement under which one in each pair of seats had to be contested by a woman.

The Liberal Democrats debated "zipping" - alternating between men and women on party lists - but rejected the measure, ending with three women among 18 Scottish seats but with three out of six in Wales, on the basis of the recent polls.

Plaid Cymru is predicted to have women in eight out of a total of 14 seats, and the SNP 19 in a total of 40.

The Conservatives are expected to have just two women in a total of about 16 in Scotland, and none at all among a projected seven assembly members in Wales.

The new sex balance is bound to cause a few raised eyebrows. In Wales, just seven of the 248 MPs who sat between 1918 and 1997 were women and in Scotland the picture was little better, with 25 women MPs during the same period.

Whether the higher proportion of women will make a difference is still a matter for debate, although many observers feel that once a critical barrier of about 25 per cent has been broken, real change will be noticed.

Already the Scottish Parliament has adopted "family friendly" hours, with members working from nine till five and with proper creche facilities being provided.

Wendy Alexander believes the Scottish Parliament will bring about a different type of politics, and that women will play a big part in that. Issues such as domestic violence and teenage pregnancies will have a higher profile, she believes.

Ms Alexander also feels the atmosphere will be very different from the boys' school aura that surrounds Westminster.

"The Scottish Parliament will take on more the nature of a campus university, which you can travel to daily rather than staying over," she said.

"I think that it will want to get back to a policy agenda that is right for women. There are a lot of people involved in this who have a very long track record of campaigning for a different type of politics that delivers for women."