Meeting of the Parliament 12 March 2014
I thank the Labour Party for using its time to talk about the role of women in Scotland. I associate the Conservatives with everything that has been said about Ailsa McKay and I commend Johann Lamont for a passionate and well-considered speech.
When we debated women and work in December, I cited statistics about gender equality among members of the Parliament. Given that this is my last week as a Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body member, I will pay tribute to the drive for greater gender balance among security officers in the Parliament. That role has traditionally been highly male dominated. It is easy for us as parliamentarians to preach to others, but we have led by example in achieving a much-improved gender balance among security officers.
On the day when the Parliament opened in May 1999, 16 per cent of security officers were women. Now, 15 years later, 41 per cent are female. In 1999, there was one female manager in security. Now, three out of eight are female and our head of security is female. I thank all the security staff—male and female—for their thoroughly professional approach to security, which we can easily take for granted.