Scotland announces proposals to make it world leader in gender equality

Radical proposals intended to make Scotland a world leader in gender equality have been put forward in the first annual report from the country’s National Advisory Council on Women and Girls.

The recommendations include offering two months of paid paternity leave, 50 hours of free childcare a week for all children aged between six months and five years old, and establishing a world-leading process for complainants of sexual violence.

The report, published on Friday, also calls on the Scottish government to legislate for local and national candidate quotas for all political parties by the 2021 Holyrood elections, both of which would require further devolution of specific powers from Westminster.

It also recommends the creation of a What Works? Institute to test evidence-based approaches to changing public attitudes to equality, a commission to examine how to embed gender equality at all levels of the education system, better data gathering on the impact of the media on attitudes to women and girls, and the criminalisation of misogynistic harassment.