Getting involved in politics to standing in a general election - Kate Nevens

A recorded conversation with Kate Nevens

Can you tell me a bit about your background and your political interests or passions?

“I have been a member of political parties before I came to Scotland, but I had never been an active member of a political party. I have always done a lot of campaigning on social justice issues. When I moved to Scotland two of the first things I did was attend a Parliament Project workshop about women’s pathways into politics and join the Scottish Green Party. It was this Parliament Project workshop and meeting active green party women that made me realise I could be an active member”

That’s really great to hear! Did you get anything else from the workshop?

“A cross party peer group that gave me a really nice network of women. I realised how important it is to have that not just within your own political party”

That sounds really rewarding. Did you have any kind of other support networks when you decided to become more of an active member in the Green Party?

“I started going along to local party meetings and people were incredibly welcoming. I felt like I had the back-up of The Parliament Project but also clear networks of people within the Green Party that would become support networks. There is also an awareness in the party that they need more women and younger people involved”

That sounds like a good thing?

“It is a good thing but it also creates quite a lot of pressure”

You mentioned pressure there, can you tell me about that and how you managed it?

“I have to say I’m not the best at saying no, it does feel sometimes like I’ve taken on a lot of additional work on top of my day job and other volunteering. I’m learning to prioritise, and just take on the things where I can be most useful. We also have lots of conversations about wellbeing and managing the pressures within our party’s Women’s Network. Initially I ran for a council seat that was not one of the seats the Green Party were targeting in Edinburgh, so I did some limited campaigning and hustings work in my area while also being the campaign manager for a candidate in another ward. I really enjoyed it  but I didn’t realise at that point how many different things within the parties that they need people for” 

Do you think that the workload and pressure can be a barrier for women getting politically involved?

“Yes: huge, absolutely huge. I am freelance which makes my time a little bit more flexible but if you were trying to balance it against regular work and caring responsibilities, near-to impossible. One of the nice things about what I’ve been involved in is that there has been a number of women putting themselves forward and we have acted as a bit of a team. During the 2019 General Election three of our five Edinburgh candidates were women and one of us had three young children. I learnt a lot about how you can and can’t balance things like caring responsibilities but also how much better it is if you’re working as a team, listening and supporting one another where you can”

What was the process of being selected as a candidate for Edinburgh South in the 2019 General Election?

“The Edinburgh Green members selected five people for the five Edinburgh seats, using a voting system that put the top 5 candidates in a ranked order. We also have a gender balancing mechanism that we could use if needed to ensure that at least 40% of the candidates would be women.  Then through consensus between the five candidates we chose our seats we wanted to run in. We had two women voted at the top of the list which was really exciting - it feels like that is something that still doesn’t happen that often, that there is still an inclination across society for people to vote for men”

Exactly and that’s why we are here! Did you have any concerns before you were putting yourself forward for selection? Online abuse for example?

“I had some concerns and towards the beginning of our campaign we set up a wellbeing space on the online messaging system we were using, so that we could talk about it and deal with anything that emerged as a team. My concerns were not just about receiving harassment because I was a woman but also because we are a fully trans rights supportive party and I wanted to be clear on my support for trans rights and equality. This can be a beacon for abuse - much less so for me than for a trans person, but even someone who is very supportive of the trans community does attract that, so I was worried about that to an extent”

Did you experience any of that kind of harassment?

“A little bit but not overwhelmingly so. There was also a lot of support.” 

Well that’s great to hear and about the wellbeing space. Was there any other positives during your general election campaign?

“Quite a lot! I really enjoyed the door knocking. At a time when politics is pretty dark and miserable it was really reassuring. I had conversations with young families where young children were telling me about their litter picking efforts, or how they turn off the TV to save energy. There was a genuine warmth on the doorstep.  I think even if people aren’t piling on me online seeing people piling on someone else makes you worried about that happening on the doorstep, but it doesn’t translate to real life”

That’s so reassuring to hear.  What about any negatives?

“Overall the campaign that I ran and our teams ran across Edinburgh was a really positive one. We were trying to get the climate message out and I do think we were pretty successful at that. I would say it was a positive but intense experience, no markedly negative elements of it” 

Are there any wider political changes that you would like to see regarding women in politics? 

“The Scottish Parliament has never had a woman of colour elected, which is horrendous. I think it’s about not just greater representation of women in decision making positions, it’s also about greater diversity of women in these positions. This means figuring out as a white, middle class, able-bodied woman what my role in supporting that is and at what point I need to step away. Men can be vocally very supportive of women standing and we have all these balancing mechanisms but actually at some point the men need to step away, so we have more than 50% women, and I’m aware the same needs to apply to me. So more women but also greater diversity of women.” 

You can follow Kate on Twitter at: @katenevens.