It's time to talk about the lack of female Scottish political reporters

I’ve talked about it on our podcast Holyrood Weekly before, every time I find myself in huddles with politicians, at briefings or press conferences, even just saying hello on the corridor, I can’t help but notice how few women there are.

I must caveat this by saying I am not keeping a spreadsheet, but maybe I should be.

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When I started at The National almost two years ago and embarked on the political beat I didn’t expect it to be so heavily male-dominated. It’s stark, and politics is not the only sector of journalism with this problem.

After an incident at an awards ceremony for sports journalists where a presenter was accused of using "sexist" jokes, female journalists were outraged.

Women in Journalism Scotland (WiJS) rightly launched a campaign calling for greater diversity in May last year, after it was discovered only three out of Scotland’s 95 full-time newspaper sports writers were women.

But what about political journalism in newspapers? The numbers can’t be much different.

On International Women's Day, I wanted to highlight this because it is not talked about or written about often enough, and I don't think that the public truly knows the scale of it. 

Frequently, I’ve found myself the only woman at a press call, sometimes it’s been two, and I have no doubt there were times when there were no women at all.

Much like a tweet that went viral last showing First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, on the campaign trail during the local elections, surrounded by a huddle of male journalists in front of the SNP battle bus. 

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I was on annual leave that day, or usually would have been at Holyrood, and probably in the huddle.

It shouldn't depend on one woman to constantly feel as if she is the token reporter in the room. There need to be more opportunities for women to break into political journalism, as we can’t break down barriers if they won’t even let us in the door.

In February I noted down three occasions where there were four female journalists to 10 male counterparts; in the gallery for FMQs, the briefing after, and a press conference along the way.

There were five of us at Humza Yousaf’s campaign launch. I almost rejoiced, a record!

That isn’t to say that there aren’t many brilliant women working in political journalism in Scotland - but it’s mostly broadcast, the print lobby is a different story.

I've seen female colleagues at other newspapers come and go, moving into broadcast political journalism.

It's no surprise why. They felt shoehorned into stories on women's issues or locked out of hard politics.

I sometimes despair at how many men to women there are in the press gallery at FMQs, as I look across at the scores of school children across the chamber, do they notice like I do? Will it put them off? Will the girls sitting there consider a career in journalism if they can't see themselves running down the Holyrood corridors?

I remember a press officer once jokingly saying I was an “outlier” in the lobby pack.

He had spotted me in the background of a TV slot in the garden lobby coming down the stairs after a huddle. I was wearing a bright pink shirt.

I stood out amongst the shirts and ties. I suppose the orange hair doesn’t help either. I wasn’t offended, but I knew what the unspoken words were that there’s a stereotype of a political journalist in Scotland - a white man in a suit.

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At The National, our political team skews the trend: Three women to two men. We all bring different perspectives and experiences to our output, regardless of gender, but it’s important that women are encouraged and able to fulfil those roles.

There is no doubt that sports journalism could benefit from more women involved, and don’t even get me started on the coverage of women's sports, but the same focus must be put on politics. It’s important for our democracy, for equality, and for women in Scotland to have the same opportunities as the men.

Without change, without more jobs, education, and training made available, our media will never change, and that hurts us all - but especially us women and the girls who will come after us.