Women, gender and politics in Scotland

What progress has been made for women’s representation and gender equality in post-devolution Scotland? Scottish devolution opened up new institutional, political and discursive spaces for actors to gender mainstream debates and shape broader processes of institutional and constitutional restructuring. Yet while in many respects Scotland has been a successful case of feminist constitutional activism; there have also been setbacks, reversals and stagnation in both the descriptive and substantive representation of women. This chapter explores these dynamics through several key dimensions of representation and power over time, focusing on opportunities for change, but also highlighting underlying continuities and resistances. We conclude by reflecting on the uneven progress for women as political actors and gender as an issue in post-devolution Scottish politics.