Only council in Scotland not to have women to discuss how they deal with gender issue

The only council in Scotland with no women is to meet next week as it seeks to deal with gender specific issues.

The new Western Isles Council is to meet for the first time on Tuesday without a single women for the first time in its history.

All seven female candidates failed to win a seat – even when four of them stood in one ward – Na Hearadh agus Ceann a Deas nan Loch. They included Catherine Macdonald who was seeking re-election.

But three of the five men took the available seats.

The most women the council had was between 2007 and 2012 when there were five.

But ahead of next week’s first meeting, a spokesman for the authority said: “There are issues with having an all male council. We are giving consideration to how we will deal with this – and it will be up to the new council to decide how to approaches the matter,” said a spokesman.

“There are wider issues. For example, just over ten percent of the 60 candidates that stood were women.”

Independents dominated the Western Isles election, as they have done previously, with 23 Independent candidates being elected, followed by seven SNP and one Conservative.