Additional information about gender quotas

Scottish Parliament: In the 1999 election, women were elected to 48 of 129 seats (37.2 percent) in parliament.This increased slightly to 51 women and 39.5 percent in 2003. In the 2007 election 43 women were elected (33.3 percent) 

National Assembly for Wales: In the 2003 election 30 of 60 seats went to women (50 percent). In the 2007 election, women were elected to 29 of 60 seats (48.3 percent) in parliament. 

With regard to the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, women's groups proposed measures to promote women's representation. The Women's Committee of the Scottish Trade Union Congress proposed a 50/50 gender balance in the new Scottish parliament. This system is known as "parallelism", i.e. that each constituency should return two members, one of whom would be elected from a female list of candidates and one from a male list was preferred. All electors would vote for both. Other proposals were put forward, seeking to combine a parity principle with a proportional system.

Equality Act 2010 extends the permission for political parties to use women-only shortlists for election candidates to 2030.