Hansard

As a former Scottish Women’s Aid worker, I pay tribute to all the women and children I supported over a decade and who allowed me into their lives. It was a really big privilege to be in that position. It is my duty to speak here today to amplify the voices of the women and children across Scotland and the world who endure men’s violence and coercion, and of those who have been victims of femicide.

I have been a feminist activist since 6 December 1989. I remember that day like it was yesterday. I had come home from school, trudging through the drizzly snow just like on any other Montreal winter day and was busy with homework with the television on in the background when a news report cut in and an unfolding act of misogynistic horror tattooed itself on my very soul.

A self-styled anti-feminist had walked into the École Polytechnique engineering school in Montreal, ordered the separation of men from women, and, in the space of 45 minutes, shot dead 14 women, injuring another 10 women and four men, before turning the gun on himself.

His suicide note was clear:

“Feminists have always enraged me.”

“I have decided to send the feminists, who have always ruined my life, to their Maker.”

He was enraged that those women dared study engineering, a career path that was denied to him due to his apparent lack of aptitude, but, to his mind, was denied to him by those women, who took his rightful place.

The magnitude of what happened that day was underscored for my 15-year-old self the following morning when I woke at 6 am to deliver my Montreal Gazette newspaper round. I was confronted by a graphic image of one of the dead women slouched on a cafeteria chair, her dinner left untouched on the table beside her. I delivered my newspapers in a daze, with tears streaming down my face. Little did I know that, four years later, we would debate the use of that image in my journalism ethics class. To this day, I am divided on whether it was a stark and brutal reality check, or whether it was blatant sensationalism.

Closer to home, CountingDeadWomen, which is a campaign on Twitter, is, today, bearing witness to the women who have been murdered in the UK so far this year. Naming a woman every five minutes from 8 am this morning will take more than 11 hours to complete. That is a staggering 126 women murdered at the hands of men. That clearly demonstrates the absolute reality of the patriarchal system that still operates here and across the world. That reality includes recent horrific murders, FGM, spiking attacks, online misogynistic abuse, rape culture and so-called honour killings.

In the decade when I supported women and children experiencing domestic abuse in North Ayrshire, it became crystal clear to me that we must prioritise prevention work while continuing to ensure that specialist support services are available across the country.

In 2014, I was dismayed when the contract held by North Ayrshire Women’s Aid was put out to tender, resulting in the loss of several key aspects of our work, including specialist addiction and children’s services. We see the same issues at play in other areas of Scotland. I strongly believe that there must be exceptions to procurement policies so that the best possible specialist support services are available when women reach out for help. I look forward to the outcome of the front-line service review that the cabinet secretary announced earlier.

According to Close the Gap, Covid-19 has disproportionately impacted women’s often precarious employment and has had far-reaching implications for women’s experience of work. Many victims and survivors of domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women have experienced significant barriers in accessing specialist services and support. Additionally, their experience might have been exacerbated by isolation and a lack of access to informal support networks.

Employers have an essential role to play in ending violence against women. The on-going crisis has provided opportunities for employers to reassess their employment policies and practices, so that they are more inclusive of women’s needs and experiences. I remind members of my entry in the register of members’ interests. As a councillor, I was proud to help develop domestic abuse policies for employees and tenants of East Ayrshire Council.

I am also heartened to hear of Close the Gap’s equally safe at work employer accreditation scheme, which has been piloted in seven local authority areas across Scotland. Such schemes complement our bold national equally safe strategy, our world-leading, gold standard domestic abuse laws, and other endeavours such as the far-reaching independent report that was published by Scottish Women’s Aid and the Chartered Institute of Housing. The report makes urgent recommendations that social landlords use a human rights-based approach to improve housing outcomes for women and children experiencing domestic abuse by prioritising their safety over the rights of perpetrators.

Today, I also think of Michelle Stewart, whose life was horrifically cut short in my constituency when she was only 17. I also think of a constituent who contacted me recently to reveal that she is continually abused from prison by phone by her abuser.

Those cases, and the pressures that are placed on the justice system during Covid, highlight just how precarious women’s access to justice remains and how important it is that the needs of families are considered at all points in the judicial journey. That is an area that I will campaign on during my time as an MSP.

Finally, it is my firm belief that the continued commodification of women’s bodies has a direct impact on our collective safety. We cannot look at commercial sexual exploitation and pornography in a vacuum and pretend that they have no bearing on the treatment of women in society at large.

My children have grown up in an era in which the most extreme forms of pornography are available in the palm of their hands 24/7. The rise in the number of women’s deaths by choking during sex is terrifying, and the pressure on young people to conform to that unrealistic and extremely gendered and dangerous portrayal of sex is damaging beyond belief. Daily, women are trafficked around the world for men to purchase. As long as that demand continues unfettered, we all continue to be at risk.