Hansard

I thank Linda Fabiani for bringing the debate to Parliament. In my mind, there is no better person than Linda Fabiani to lead a group such as the YWL committee. I am sure that her dedication to the issue will stand the Parliament in good stead. I think we were all a little jealous when Linda talked about all the places that she had been liaising with, such as Bavaria and Quebec, but, of course, we now know that she did not leave her living room to do that. Perhaps some day she will get a chance to meet the people who have contributed to the report, which I whole-heartedly welcome. I have been calling for some time for more data not just on black, Asian and minority ethnic women’s experiences of the move from education to employment, but across the board on a whole host of issues.

Linda Fabiani said that the term “BAME” is not liked and that we have used various terminologies in the past. It is important to listen to those women in considering how we should continue to refer to them.

We know that the number of women from the BAME population in leadership roles is very poor. As other members have said, they face unique barriers, as well as other people’s unconscious bias, which can limit their progression.

The remit of the report was to investigate what measures are being taken to increase employment opportunities for women from ethnic minorities, including in recruitment, retention and development policies and practices. One of the report’s recommendations was that local authorities should promote BAME-identifying individuals to senior positions in primary and secondary schools. Representation at the top of organisations as early as possible is key to improving the systems that are in place.

It is vital that school leaders hire more diverse teachers. Many BAME students, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, lack role models and mentors whom they can identify with and look up to in the classroom. That is the classic feature of inequality, and it might explain why BAME students are less likely to get into the Russell group of universities than their white British peers are, despite having equivalent A-level results.

The report notes that the survey responses flagged up a lack of role models, with more than a quarter of students saying that they had no role models. It was staggering to read that one respondent said that most of the people who spoke to them were white men.

There is a severe lack of role models in high-ranked positions for BAME women in Scotland. As has been mentioned many times in debates in the Parliament, there are no BAME women MSPs. The fact that there have been no BAME women MSPs in the 20 years of devolution is a black mark on the Parliament’s reputation, but I hope that it will be corrected in the future. Having such role models who look like they do and who understand their experiences can be a huge motivator to people to pursue a similar career.

Unconscious biases and learned stereotypes are automatic and unintentional, but they are deeply ingrained in our beliefs and have the ability to affect our behaviour. They are a problem that we must address. Unconscious bias often prevents BAME women’s progression in the workplace. A survey that was conducted by Close the Gap found that more than 70 per cent of BAME women reported experiencing racism, discrimination, racial prejudice and/or bias in the workplace.

It is clear that we have a great deal of work to do here, and we need to ensure that the issue remains a high priority. We must make more serious progress on it in the next session of Parliament.

I again thank Linda Fabiani for championing such an important cause.