Meeting of the Parliament (Virtual) 14 January 2021
I join other members in congratulating Linda Fabiani not just on securing this important debate but on her work, which has brought us to the point at which we can commend the young women lead committee and all those who have been involved for their publication.
Many speeches about the important issue of employment for BAME women are peppered with statistics. We often hear about the dearth of data, which is, of course, an important issue. However, I am interested in attitudes. I know from my previous career in the police how statistics can sometimes be abused and misused. Historically, there have been fundamental misunderstandings to do with gender. Nowadays, there is no excuse for such misunderstandings in the police service, but I am concerned that we should not focus too much on numbers and percentages. We must look at attitudes and real people’s lives.
As other members have said, we must acknowledge that, fundamentally, there are a number of power imbalances, not least those relating to the toxic male masculinity that peppers our society and, therefore, the field of employment. Several members have used the term “unconscious bias”. It undoubtedly exists, but I fear that it might let some people off the hook, because it is self-evident that conscious bias—perhaps we should call it bigotry or discrimination—is sometimes at play.
Ironically, such debates are sometimes seen as being a bit problematic because they are niche and deal with equalities, rights, women and ethnic minorities. What we need is a mainstreaming of the discussions that we are having.
“BAME” is a term that is not liked by some. I think that folk are folk, but sometimes we have to group folk together. Another term that is used a lot is “underrepresentation”. I want to turn that on its head and talk about overrepresentation. I am from a group that is overrepresented—white middle-aged men are greatly overrepresented, and I have never encountered the glass ceilings that many of the subjects of the report have encountered. To our shame, it is still the case—I hope that this will change in the very near future—that our Parliament has not been blessed, as it would be, with a more diverse representative group.
Everything suggests that these young women have had restraints put on their prospects, and education is key. Other members have mentioned the education recommendations in the report, and those are the ones that I think are important.
I also want to touch on the 2019 Close the Gap research “Still Not Visible: Black and Minority Ethnic Women’s Experiences of Employment in Scotland”. We must acknowledge the sad truth with regard to BME women that it is highly likely that they are visible but that people can be seen and ignored, which is clearly what is happening. Their presence could be used as evidence of a diverse workforce when it is window dressing of the most cynical sort.
I found the information in the report—not least about the level of racism that young women experience—very illuminating. We know that, if someone experiences racism, all the other injustices such as discrimination, prejudice and bias will flow from that. We might think that we are all Jock Tamson’s bairns, but we have a way to go with regard to racism and misogyny.
It might sound as though I am being negative, but I think there is a lot to be positive about, not least of which is the energy that has been a contributing factor to the report.
We know that there are still issues in workplaces and that procedures are not great at resolving issues. As I have said, we should focus on the education section of the report. The motion
“notes the calls for the report’s recommendations to be considered in an effort to improve outcomes for everyone affected so as to create a fairer, better Scotland for all.”
I hope that that is very much the case. It is the very least that we can do.
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