Hansard

The 16 days of activism against gender-based violence campaign originated from the first women’s global leadership institute back in 1991. There will be a wide range of activities across the world hingeing on the “Orange the World: End Violence against Women and Girls” banner.

It would be remiss of me not to mention and commend Ann and her team at Rape Crisis in Hamilton, who serve all of Lanarkshire, and Heather and her team at Women’s Aid in Hamilton, who also serve all of Lanarkshire. They have done absolutely fantastic work, in conjunction with me and other organisations in the Lanarkshire area. I see that you have a smile on your face, Presiding Officer, because you know the very people I am speaking about and the work that they do.

It is no accident that the campaign uses the number 16. From 9 November, women in the European Union symbolically stop earning for the rest of year, because there remains a gender pay gap of 16.3 per cent. On average, women who are working part time earn 34 per cent less per hour than men who are working full time. We still have to make a lot of progress on that.

Back in 1968—which I should say was a fantastic year, because it was the year of my birth, if I can be so twee—187 women sewing machinists at the Ford Dagenham factory in east London struck against sex discrimination in job grading. The women had been placed in the unskilled B grade, although they did the same level and quality of work making car seat covers as the men, who were placed in the semi-skilled C grade. The women were, at the lower grade, also paid only 85 per cent of the male B grade.

Those women met a lot of hostility from their male colleagues and a confused response from the trade unions, but they held firm and gained in confidence. In the end, the Ford women won 92 per cent of the men’s rate, although it took another 16 years and another strike lasting seven weeks to win a proper regrading.

The strike gave a huge impetus to the women’s movement. In the years that followed, women’s trade union membership soared, and the Equal Pay Act was passed in 1970. It is interesting that the Trade Union Bill that is going through the Westminster Parliament now would probably have rendered those sewing machinists’ strikes illegal. That is just another reason why we should think very seriously about whether we should support a Trade Union Bill that will take away the rights of women who fought for them 47 and a bit years ago.

When it comes to women in the workforce, families and education, we are not seeing the progress that we need on pay, skills, opportunities and cultural attitudes. The Welfare Reform Committee has found that women are disproportionately impacted by welfare reform across a range of issues and benefits, because 85 per cent of all welfare cuts fall on women and children. In 2006, Britain was placed 9th in the world’s equality stakes, but last year it dropped to 26th. That is a sad indictment of the Britain in which we live today.

It might be nice to think that we did not need a campaign such as the 16 days campaign, but that would be complete fantasy. It is certainly a blight on our so-called western democratic society that we are still fighting to move forward the struggle for equality, but we are not giving up the fight, as I heard in previous speeches.

We take a lot for granted: we are used to thinking that education is a public good and a fundamental human right that is recognised in article 26 of the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In Scotland, we have a far longer tradition of supporting free education for all, but the Tory Government that is in power at Westminster continues to deny that freedom to students and looks set to reduce the human rights by which we live. The repeal of the Human Rights Act 1998 is a repeal of women’s hard-fought-for rights. If we make the world a better place for women and girls, we make it a better place for men and boys.

In spite of the universal declaration, many children across the globe miss out on an education. With the increase in radical Islam, more and more girls are denied the opportunity to learn. We saw the fierce fight that Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest ever Nobel prize laureate, put up. She stood up for education and was shot by the Taliban for doing so, which is a vicious reminder of the price of learning in certain countries. A little girl with a book was so dangerous that men with guns sought to end her education. That says a lot about our world.

In 2014, global military spending stood at $1.8 trillion, while experts cite a $26 billion finance gap to achieve basic education for all by the end of 2015. Children and young people of all genders can face further disadvantage due to disability, race or ethnic origin, economic difficulties and family, whether in times of violent conflict, after an environmental disaster or during relative peacetime.

Girls and young women face early or forced marriage, which can cut short their education. They also face the threat of different forms of school-related gender-based violence, including sexual violence and abuse on the way to or within education settings, as well as discrimination in the availability of essential infrastructure such as adequate and safely accessible sanitary facilities.

“The political, economic, and social implications of the right to and denial of education must be at the forefront of the agenda for policymakers, communities, and concerned individuals. When we have women, girls, people with disabilities, LGBTQI people, migrants,”

refugees

“and indigenous people denied the right to education in safe and equal spaces, we as a world community stand to lose. It is imperative that for gender-based violence to end, we work to end all forms of discrimination.”

That was said by Krishanti Dharmaraj, the executive director of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, which is the global co-ordinator of the 16 days campaign.

The Scottish Government has a duty to end discrimination and a commitment to doing just that. We have heard about that commitment and how the Government is working hard to fulfil it. The progressive approaches that we have taken to banning revenge porn—a personal campaign of mine in the Parliament—providing better support for the victims of violence and outlawing human trafficking are all important achievements and we are right to be proud of them.

Recent data show that about 38 million people are internally displaced worldwide, and that 16.7 million are refugees. Girls and young women in particular are the most adversely impacted by insecurity and crisis, with the most recent estimates showing that 31 million girls of primary school age and 34 million of lower secondary age are not enrolled in school.

Nearly two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults are women—a proportion that has remained stubbornly unchanged for the past 20 years, according to “The World’s Women 2015” report. It is that lack of ready access to education that has prompted the global theme of the 16 days of activism campaign, whose slogan is

“From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Make Education Safe for All!”

Now is the time for all of us to join in advancing the right to education and challenging violence, discrimination and inequality in education at the intersection of gender, race or ethnicity, religion, real or perceived sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and the other identifiers.

Elaine Murray mentioned the colour orange. In ancient China, orange symbolised transformation and, in Buddhism, orange—or saffron—is the colour of illumination and the highest state of perfection. So, in orangeing the world, let us illuminate the world with education and transform it to its highest state of gender perfection. I hope that we can make some progress on that.