Hansard

I am pleased to close for the Scottish Conservatives.

The minister set the scene by describing some of the progress that we are making, whether on shared maternity leave or the challenge of gender representation in Parliament. That theme has been picked up over the afternoon. Today is about how we all feel about how we are progressing, and then comparing and contrasting that across the world.

Rachael Hamilton reminded us of how perceptions and expectations in agriculture have changed over the years, and we have also talked about how education has moved forward. Today, female students represent 52 per cent of the student population; in that sense, we are equal. However, looking across the subjects, we still see a difference between females and males. Engineering UK’s 2019 report states that the engineering community must work hard to instil confidence in girls and young women so that they are capable of becoming an engineer, believe that they can do that and improve their “knowledge and perceptions”, and thus increase the desirability of the engineering sector. The report states that, across key matrixes, girls continue to lag behind boys, including, perhaps most alarmingly, in the extent to which they believe themselves capable of becoming an engineer.

When my son graduated as an engineer, it struck me that, in his masters graduation class at the University of Edinburgh, not only were the majority of graduates men, but they were Chinese. We have to encourage both our boys and our girls to look to the engineering sector.

However, as we consider how to move forward, there is absolutely no doubt that the shadow of domestic violence remains, despite the significant work that the Parliament has done to tackle it. I agree with Pauline McNeill’s comment that, until women feel safe, they will never be equal. We should all hold that thought close when we consider how to address the problem.

The contribution that I will take away with me from the debate was Joan McAlpine’s passionate and brave speech about the rights of women—including the rights to be a woman and to have a safe space. We are now seeing almost a backlash against women simply for being women. Equality is about choice, freedoms, the ability to make the lives that we want to make and say the things that we want to say, and to be safe in whichever choices we make. We must ensure that such rights are protected, no matter what.

I have spoken in a previous debate on international women’s day—in 2018, when the theme was press for progress. In that debate, I expressed my concern for women across the world who did not have the freedoms and equality that we now enjoy. I said that we should press for progress on those for them, which is an aim that many speakers in this year’s debate have picked up on. This year’s theme is each for equal: the idea that we are all individually responsible for challenging and improving gender equality, but that, collectively, we can achieve great outcomes.

Emma Harper has already touched on the next subject, which I planned to mention, too. In December 2019, I had the honour and pleasure of speaking at an international festival held by the women in conflict fellowship programme of Beyond Borders Scotland, to which I think that Ms Harper referred. The festival runs tri-annually. It is a week-long event that brings women from conflict-affected countries to Edinburgh to participate in a series of workshops that explore various aspects of conflict resolution and peace building. On the day that I attended, I met 17 amazing, intelligent, courageous women from across the middle east, north Africa and south Asia, who wanted to hear about what it was like to be a woman in politics in Scotland.

Other members have reflected on those challenges in today’s debate. Of course, we will not fail to keep working to improve women’s life experiences in Scotland. However, they do not compare to the phenomenal challenges faced daily by the women whom I met—to access gender rights; to be able to go to school; to choose who to love or marry; to have the right to work; and to pursue their own lives free from the fear that they experience in their countries. Those women have dedicated their lives to resolving conflict and trying to bring about peace so that other women and their families do not have to live in fear and can begin to experience the rights that we have been discussing in our debate.

In highlighting international women’s day, I would love to tell members about all 17 of those women and to celebrate their bravery. However, as time constrains me, I will mention just one. Soudaba was born and grew up in a remote area of Herat province. She was lucky: unlike many girls in Afghanistan, she received an education, because her father wanted her to learn. Through a US embassy programme, she managed to get a scholarship to the American University of Afghanistan. Not only did she graduate from there in law and English, but she did so as the valedictorian for the graduating class of 2019.

Soudaba’s great passion is to contribute to achieving a sustainable peace in Afghanistan. She now works as a peace and reconciliation associate with the United Nations assistance mission in Afghanistan. There, she contributes to projects that promote peace and conflict resolution in remote provinces of Afghanistan, with a focus on women’s inclusion in mediation, conflict resolution and peace negotiations. Alongside that, she has been working on providing practical legal courses and legal aid clinics that focus on gender equality, and on promoting women’s access to free legal aid services and justice institutions. She does that every day, knowing that by doing so she is risking her life. Hearing that made me feel that my problems with and concerns about gender equality were nothing in the face of her experiences.

Every one of the 17 women whom I met through the programme proved the theme of collective individualism. Each was facing conflict and pressures and yet was able to listen to the stories of abuse and harassment, positive experiences and challenges that we face in Scottish politics and to see similar themes and struggles.

Those women are not angry, negative or pessimistic; rather, they are optimistic and believe that change will come if we all support one another. The message of solidarity and support that we send them can give them the strength to continue fighting for women’s rights.

Today, I will do something that I do not normally do. I will strike the each for equal pose, because I suddenly realise why such pictures matter. I hope that all members will send out their pictures this weekend, so that we can tweet them around the world and let people, such as those 17 women, know that we are thinking of them today and that we are standing in solidarity with them.