No, not that kind, the vote-winning kind. Despite the fact that the party itself has honoured or at least admired warrior queens (in the members’ estimation) such as Winnie Ewing, Margo MacDonald and even Nicola Sturgeon, the fact remains that women are much less likely to support the SNP than men and, furthermore, this gender gap causes the party some problems.
As Lallands Peat Worrier reminded us: On the constituency ballot, 41% of the male electorate supported the SNP, compared to only 32% of women voters. On the list, 35% of men voted for the SNP, but only 27% of women.
That’s a significant gap. Jennifer Dempsie, a former Salmond SpAd, recently had a piece in Scotland on Sunday addressing this very issue. Her conclusions and recommendations are hardly surprising: more women in high-profile positions, a softening of language and the political rhetoric that many women (and men!) find off-putting , more focus on health and education (both subject to major SNP pushes in 2007) and so on.
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