SWLD is Scottish Women Liberal Democrats. It is a Specified Approved Organisation (SAO) within the Scottish Liberal Democrats. It is also affiliated to the Federal SAO: Women Liberal Democrats (WLD) and works closely with WLD to achieve common aims
What is the purpose of SWLD?
SWLD has 3 core objectives:
To increase women’s representation at all levels of the party internally
To increase women’s elected representation at all levels
To increase women’s influence on policy throughout the party
Who can join SWLD?
Any Scottish Liberal Democrat party member can join SWLD, although membership is basically made up from women and men keen to actively suppport SWLD’s objectives
There is an organising committee, with President, Convenor, Vice-Convenor, Secretary, Treasurer and 4 ordinary committee members. All posts are elected each year at the AGM and any member can seek nomination to the committee
What does SWLD do?
SWLD has just undergone a relaunch and will be expanding its range of activities over the coming months. These include:
Submitting motions to Scottish conference (autumn & spring)
Organising networking events for women in the party
Arranging training events for women in the party
Running fundraising stalls at conference (autumn & spring)
Planning a major Reception for spring conference
Encouraging women to stand for elected positions in the party, particularly the national committees of Conference, Executive, Policy, Campaigns & Candidates
Talent spotting women with potential to succeed and actively supporting them to progress
Actively promoting the party’s new Leadership Programme to women with potential to succeed
Seeking contributions to the SWLD blog
Why do we need SWLD?
Because we need to look at our party structures and consider whether the lack of balanced representation internally is impacting on our ability to select women in winnable seats to achieve election success externally
Because the level of elected representation amongst women in the Scottish Liberal Democrats, particularly at MP & MSP level is far too low and we need to actively campaign to improve this. We currently have the lowest percentage of women MSPs (20%) of all the major parties and we have an even lower percentage at MP level in Scotland (9%)
Because policy making that doesn’t actively involve women is less likely to take women’s needs into account
What is this site for?
This site aims to be a Liberal Democrat marketplace, where ideas can be exchanged, discussions generated and sometimes heated debates set off. It should be the place to come to to find out how you can help increase female representation inside & outside the party, where you can discover what the latest SWLD events and activities are and where and should make it easy for you to become actively involved. We welcome feedback on all aspects of the site
