Hansard

I am delighted to speak in this international women’s day debate. Sunday is, as we have already heard, international women’s day, when people from all over the world will celebrate the economic, cultural, social and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

As I am here in the chamber today, it is only right to give a nod to the steps that all political parties have taken in recent years to encourage more women into politics. I am very proud of my party’s women to win campaign: ask her to stand. I have seen its emerging success and I know that in 2021 it will be greater than ever.

The first officially named international women’s day event was held in 1911. Each year, there is a different theme and, as the motion says, the theme this year is each for equal, which encourages us to reinforce that an equal world is an enabled world and asks us in our everyday lives to challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden perceptions, improve situations and celebrate women’s achievements.

The motion acknowledges that this year is

“the 25th anniversary of the 1995 UN World Conference on Women, which produced the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action”.

That platform established that power should be shared between men and women at home, in the workplace and in the wider national and international communities. To celebrate international women’s day this year, the United Nations is focusing on generation equality for those who grew up in the age of the platform for action.

All in all, Scotland is performing well in achieving the aims set out in the each for equal theme. However, there is always room for improvement. According to the Office for National Statistics annual release in 2019, the gender pay gap in Scotland rose from 5.7 per cent to 6.7 per cent. Although that is lower than the UK figure of 8.9 per cent, it reminds us all that we cannot rest on our laurels. It is always useful to remember that the gender pay gap is different from equal pay, which, as the motion says, has been enshrined in law in the UK since 1970. The PricewaterhouseCoopers “Women in Work Index 2019” reported that Scotland remains the top-performing part of the UK in terms of representation of women in the workplace, which is a feat that should be celebrated.

In terms of the global picture, the World Economic Forum’s “Global Gender Gap Report 2020” revealed that in terms of economic participation and opportunity, it will take 257 years to close the gap between women and men. That forecast is up from the 202 years predicted in the previous report, so that is a step in the wrong direction. Several economic commentators have pointed out that there is a direct link between gender parity and the success of an economy. Increasing equality benefits everyone in society and that is why it is important that the push for greater female representation happens in all parts of the economy, including in the STEM sectors, which have historically struggled in that regard.

A Skills Development Scotland report in June last year revealed that a huge 91.1 per cent of modern apprenticeship starts in STEM frameworks are male. That could lead to longer-term problems when it comes to women getting into senior positions in the STEM sectors and could therefore affect measures such as the gender pay gap. There is a current focus on challenging gender stereotypes in Scottish classrooms. I spoke to a primary school teacher recently who said that when children were asked to draw a scientist, they tended to draw a man in a lab coat with wacky hair. Although it is all fun and games, that is the natural image in their minds.

I am aware that the gender equality task force in education and learning met for the first time last week. I will be very interested to watch the strategy that it develops over the next 12 months. Getting rid of gender-based stereotypes can have a huge impact on the number of girls taking on STEM subjects throughout their school career, which will improve representation in workplaces when they become women. We need to ensure not only that girls are encouraged to take STEM subjects, but that the school curriculum is able to accommodate those decisions. That is a focus that I would like to see here in Scotland.

Globally, many countries are yet to take large steps in bringing about gender equality. In Scotland and the UK, we are fortunately at the point where those larger steps have mostly been taken. At the same time, we should also take the remaining smaller steps so that we accomplish a gender-equal world where no matter what someone’s job is, they take part on equal terms, irrespective of their gender. The world in which my children grew up is very different from the world in which I grew up and I know that the world of the next generation will be different again. We must all keep pushing to make that difference in gender equality. On international women’s day this year, we should celebrate how far we have come and consider the next generation and the world in which we want them to grow up.