Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 04 March 2021
As someone who did not get any maternity leave when I had my two children, I absolutely take on board that point. We have probably hyped up how family friendly we were right at the start, and we are now finding out that the Parliament set-up does not live up to the hype. That is our responsibility and for us all to work on.
I recognise that some aspects have moved on since I had my children, but there are still a number of ways in which we could do better as a Parliament. The whole Parliament can reflect on that in the next parliamentary session.
We have taken action across Government to choose to challenge gender inequality at its very core. Last year, a United Nations study indicated that 90 per cent of people hold at least one bias against women in relation to politics, economics, education, violence or reproductive rights. As part of our choosing to challenge harmful attitudes towards gender equality in Scotland, we commissioned Zero Tolerance to develop a model for a what works gender institute. I am delighted that Zero Tolerance will publish its results on 8 March, and I look forward to moving into the next phase of work soon.
We are choosing to challenge gender inequality in education through the work of the gender equality task force in education and learning, which is chaired by the Deputy First Minister. The task force is developing key interventions and actions to further embed gender equality in all aspects of our education system.
We are choosing to challenge gender stereotypes in the media, too, through funding for Gender Equal Media Scotland to research sexism and gender inequality in the media and to make recommendations on what future work could be undertaken.
Much of that work has stemmed from the recommendations of the First Minister’s national advisory council on women and girls over the past three years. I highly commend and thank the advisory council members for all their work.
As the international women’s day theme states, we must choose to challenge gender inequality, and we must choose to challenge ourselves to do more. The First Minister established the national advisory council on women and girls to do just that—to be a critical friend to the Scottish Government and to challenge us to be bolder in our actions to progress gender equality.
In its 2019 report on policy coherence, the advisory council made recommendations on how the Scottish Government can better ensure that gender equality is considered in the design of every policy, the calculation of every budget and the implementation of every service that we provide. I am delighted that, in December last year, as part of our response, we established the directorate for equality, inclusion and human rights to bring increased status to equality and human rights in the Scottish Government. One of the priorities for the new directorate is the development of a renewed and ambitious mainstreaming strategy, which will incorporate the recommendations made by the national advisory council on women and girls as part of wider work to weave equality and human rights into all that the Scottish Government does.
I thank some of the women who will leave Parliament at the end of the parliamentary session and, in particular, my Cabinet sisters. Roseanna Cunningham has dedicated herself to public service over many years in the Scottish Parliament and at Westminster. Jeane Freeman might have served for only one session, but what an impact she has had through the establishment of Social Security Scotland and during the Covid crisis. We can all reflect on the thoughtfulness, kindness and compassion that my friend and colleague Aileen Campbell shows when she determines her politics. We should have more of that in politics, rather than less, and I am sad to see her go.
On that sad but reflective note, I thank all the women who have contributed to this past session of the Scottish Parliament and congratulate them on everything that they have achieved. I look forward to hearing from them today.