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Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgements -- Note on Place Names and Abbreviations -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Empire and National Identity -- 3 Empire and Civil Society Organisations -- 4 Enlightening the Heathen in Religious Truth: the Scottish Missionary Movement -- 5 'Missionary Intelligence' and the Construction of Identities: Religion, Race, Gender and Class -- 6 Remembering and Reproducing Scotland: the Construction of National Identity -- 7 From 'Maniacs' to the 'Best of its Manhood': the Appropriation of the Missionary as Scottish Empire Builder -- 8 Conclusion -- Appendix I Missionary Periodicals -- Appendix II Missionaries' Biographical Details -- Bibliography -- Index

This article reviews the record of Scottish women's representation in the UK Parliament since 1918, and in the Scottish Parliament since 1999. Women candidates have stood for election to Westminster at every General Election since 1918, with the first Scottish woman MP being elected in 1923. Subsequently, there have always been women MPs representing Scottish constituencies, with the number increasing in 1997, as elsewhere in the UK. The Scottish Parliament, created in 1999, has consistently seen a higher level of representation of women than that achieved for Scottish MPs at Westminster. The article examines political parties' track records in promoting women candidates, and comments on the careers of women politicians. The article argues that the increase in women's representation in recent decades is attributable to the efforts of women activists, and to the specific strategies adopted by parties to achieve this. It also argues that the Scottish Parliament has significantly extended opportunities for women to participate in political decision-making and in policy-making.

This article contends that the shaping of Mary Slessor into an iconic female missionary exemplifies the 'deliberate acts of invention' involved in the creation of imperial heroes and heroines. It contends that there was little that was unique in her practice as a missionary. Rather, the coincidence of her location within an expanding British Empire, the tide of missionary enthusiasm flowing with this expansion, and women's aspirations for autonomous careers, combined in her selection as a symbolic figure for Scottish Presbyterians. In support of this contention, this article sets out the context of missionary practice in the UPC Old Calabar mission, and the context of imperial expansion in southeastern Nigeria in the 1890s and 1900s. It then provides an account of the process of iconisation itself. In doing so, it aims to 'deconstruct' the myth of Mary Slessor, indicating the dissonance between myth and historical reality.