Meeting of the Parliament 05 December 2024
I am pleased to close on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives, and to have listened to such impassioned speeches from members on all sides of the chamber in agreement on what we are trying to tackle. I was also pleased to hear Kaukab Stewart’s opening comments about the importance of a collective response. If anything is ever going to demonstrate how important the Parliament considers this issue to be, it is the fact that the First Minister is in the chamber to make a speech, as is the leader of the Scottish Conservatives. It is also the number of colleagues, across the chamber and online, who think that the debate is important enough to attend on a Thursday afternoon, which—as we all know—is not the norm. We should be proud of that.
I will focus a lot of my comments on prevention strategies. We have heard from many members today about the importance of adults setting examples to young people, and to boys in particular, because traits such as racism and sexism are learned behaviours. It is not enough for us to recognise misogyny—it is time that men are challenged openly, as we have been challenged in the chamber today, to set the standard for our children and their peers.
That is important, because casual misogyny exists. We know that we have made great strides in tackling things such as casual racism and casual homophobia, and we have to do the same for misogyny. The debate is timely, considering what has been covered recently in the press. Am I surprised that misogyny at that level still exists? Absolutely not. However, it is the attitude of the establishment to the reporting of such behaviour, and the willingness to allow it to continue unchecked and to sweep it under the carpet, that is the most shocking and repulsive thing. That attitude simply emboldens those who perpetrate that kind of obnoxious behaviour.
I want to talk about the perception of sexism in society. We have come a long way, and I make no apologies for using sport as a reflection of society. Sport is such a fantastic vehicle for tackling all kinds of inequalities and behaviours such as racism, homophobia and religious bias, because the focus on performance and achievement delivers a mutual respect that transcends any colour, creed, race, religion or sex.
However, I remind members that it was only in 1984 that women were first allowed to run in the Olympic marathon, when the race was won by Joan Benoit. In those Olympic games, women were not allowed to run any further than 3,000m or take part in the hammer, pole vault or triple jump events—all measures that were put in place by men.
We are starting to move the dial. Attitudes to women are starting to change. I found out recently at a Caledonian Gladiators women’s basketball match that the only two professional basketball teams in the whole of Scotland both get paid exactly the same, while they are trying to raise the number of people who watch the women’s basketball to reflect the number that watch the men’s sport.
It can be done, but I have a word of caution, and Elena Whitham put this extremely well. The 2024 Girlguiding attitudes survey highlighted that, for girls aged seven to 10, the number of ways in which girls believe that they are expected to behave differently because they are girls has increased significantly in the past 10 years. Those ways include the way that they look, the things that they like at school, the games that they play, the things that they say, the books that they read and yes—the kind of sport and exercise that they do.
Attitudes to women and women in sport have come a long way in the past 10 years. Women’s sport has gained much more kudos and credibility, with all the role models that have shone through. However, there are still trends that need to be reversed, and that is important. The survey demonstrates that society is undervaluing women and girls, and that pervades and seeps into young girls’ perception of themselves, creating limits for them as well as strengthening that belief and inequality in society. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics—STEM—subjects are stubbornly male dominated. I suspect that that is very much related to the perception of the working environment—with those greasy overalls and the newspaper cuttings that we all know are on the walls—and the way in which women perceive that they will be treated in that environment. We have to work to change that.
Girls face sexism and extreme views more commonly in the media—