Hansard

When I speak to journalists outwith Scotland, the first question they often ask is about what it is like to be in a Parliament in which three of the parties are led by women. Does it mean that we talk more about gender equality? Does it mean that different issues come to the fore?

I think that it probably does, but we can sometimes be quite complacent in how we talk about gender equality in Scotland because we have three female leaders. I have never in my life felt under more of a duty to try to deliver for women, because I am in a position of leadership. That is why I felt a responsibility to speak this afternoon.

Listening to members around the chamber read statistic after statistic, it is clear that we have a long way to go to achieve gender equality. I listen to Kate Forbes speak about how distant the Scottish Parliament can seem to a working-class woman in Lochaber who is trying to flee a violent partner, and I wonder what that must feel like. The stories are so powerful.

I completely support the Government’s objective to legislate in this area. However, we could get the judicial system 100 per cent right and make it the perfect experience for a victim of these crimes, and it would not address domestic violence and abuse; they would still exist in our society. As long as women are unequal in society, we will have domestic abuse.

That is why I want to broaden out the debate and explore some other issues, such as the commercial sexual exploitation of women, which Rhoda Grant raised, and everyday sexism. Ultimately, we are talking about power and control and, as long as we live in a society in which women are unequal, we will face those challenges.

Rather than repeating points that have already been made, I want to make three new ones. I will say something about austerity and its impact on women. I want to talk about the sustainability of services, particularly the advocacy services that are mentioned in the Government’s motion. Finally, I will talk about tendering and the way in which we organise services for women going forward.

First, we have to accept the impact that continuing austerity has on women. It is forcing more and more women into a position of crisis through cuts to social security and the welfare system, and it is perpetuating a culture of insecure work in which women are kept in low-paid work and are unable to escape the cycle. The less financially independent that women feel, the harder it is for them to flee violent relationships—there is no escaping that brutal reality. Austerity also leads to substantial public service cuts; we know that.

A few speakers, from Fulton MacGregor to Christina McKelvie, referred to the impact on housing, particularly temporary accommodation. I have been an MSP across the Lothians for the best part of five years and have spent a lot of time exploring the issues around homelessness. I would not let a dog sleep in some of the temporary accommodation that I see in my own capital city. I say that not to make a party-political point, because I am immensely proud that we have a Labour and SNP council in Edinburgh. It is a thoroughly good thing because it means that 80 per cent of the citizens in this city have a council administration that they voted for, and that is good politics. However, the reality is that we are failing women who live in temporary accommodation because of the places in which we leave so many of them to sleep. Fundamentally, that is about how we fund public services and the impact of austerity.

My second point is about the sustainability of funding in general. How many times in the chamber have we talked about the fact that we need three-year funding for vital public services? I was in Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre during the summer months, which is on a one-year funding cycle. That means that, for three months of the year, the staff stop providing the vital services that women need. All the workers in the organisation get a redundancy notice at Christmas—it is standard—and then they find out two weeks before the end of the financial year that they are back on the payroll. However, they will not bring on any new clients or speak to any new women in that three-month period between Christmas and the end of the financial year, because they are worried that they will not be able to give them the 12-week support package that they need. They stop doing what they are supposed to be doing, so it is not a one-year service; it is a three-quarters of the year service because we will not guarantee the organisation the three-year funding that it so desperately needs. I hope that that can be addressed.

We must also recognise some of the services that exist to support black and minority ethnic women: Shakti in Edinburgh, Amanah in Glasgow and organisations such as Sikh Sanjog on Leith Walk. Sikh Sanjog gives Sikh women, in particular, avenues out of the family home, so that they can go and do things that will let them escape the type of relationships that we are talking about today. The issue is much broader than just funding of services for domestic abuse; fundamentally, it is about how we fund services to help vulnerable women, full stop.

The final point that I want to make is about tendering. I see this happening in Edinburgh and across Scotland—indeed, I watched it happen to homelessness services in Edinburgh. We had lots of little homelessness organisations who were doing tremendous work in their own communities, but then the council decided that, to save money, it would tender those services out. What happened was that all those individual homelessness services were set against each other to fight for the contract to deliver the service, and then they disappeared altogether.

Edinburgh City Council—Labour and SNP—is about to tender for the services for vulnerable women, and we are going to end up closing down some of the best services we have. Housing associations will pick them up, because they will be able to do it cheaper, but we should not be providing services for vulnerable women on the cheap. Such services are fundamental in giving every woman the best possible start in escaping violent relationships and there is a duty on everyone in this chamber to recognise that, while we may get the justice system right, there is so much more that we must do to help women who are affected by domestic abuse.