Workshopping women into power!

By Kirsty Fraser

Last week, we hosted two sessions of our “How Can I Become an MSP” workshop. In preparation for the upcoming 2026 Holyrood elections, this workshop was created to give attendees the knowledge and learning to confidently approach standing as an MSP.

The workshops worked in tandem with our recently produced “How can I be an MSP” written guide which focuses more heavily on the roles and responsibilities of an MSP, whilst these workshops aimed to offer a more participatory and interactive approach.

Attendees had the opportunity to hear from 4 outstanding women MSPs - we were lucky and grateful to have for our lunchtime session Roz McCall, from the Scottish Conservatives, and Gillian MacKay Scottish Greens MSP, and then for the evening session we had SNP MSP Emma Roddick and Scottish Labour MSP Carol Mochan 😊.

The workshops kicked off with some breakout sessions in which participants had the chance to connect with each other and share a little bit about themselves, ‘who am I’ and ‘why am I here?’, ‘Where am I on my political journey?’ and ‘What questions do I have that I'd like to ask today?’. Our MSP guest speakers then jumped into the groups with some of our participants, listening to what they had to say and having a chance to connect before moving on to hearing from them.

Our guest speakers did an incredible job of speaking about their experiences as MSPs, and their journey into political office. We discussed some areas like their “why”, some of the barriers they faced, collaborating with other women (even from different political parties), selection and election, and some advice to give to participants about standing for elected office in Holyrood.

After we had heard from the guest speakers, we moved onto a Q&A. Our guest speakers did a fantastic job of collaborating on answering the questions and offering two different perspectives to a question. The questions were wide ranging with participants asking around the topics of

Standing as an MSP as someone with a disability,
Managing the role in tandem with family life and childcare,
Building healthy relationships with other MSPs,
If there are any differences in the application and nomination process compared to council and Westminster elections,
The day to day time commitments,
Party whips,
And some top tips for when you are first elected to Holyrood!

These conversations were great and overall it showed that we are all just women who wish to make a difference!

After our Q&A, we discussed some next steps and how Elect Her can support participants in their next stage of their political journey. We then jumped back into some breakout sessions to wrap up the session. Participants discussed what they felt are their next steps, and what support they need to get there.

Thinking back on our workshops, it was an incredibly rich experience, the women attending gained some more confidence in that final push to stand for selection, something that is approaching fast in the political parties in Scotland.