Hansard

On this international women’s day, I am extremely proud to stand here in the most representative Parliament that this country has ever seen. As a woman from a working class background, I never thought that I would be standing here. It is proof that we are moving in the right direction, but we have a long way to go.

It is right that recognition has already been given to the horrors that women are facing right now in Ukraine and I join others in emphasising my dismay over that. It has been heartbreaking to see the displacement of more than 1.5 million citizens, most of whom are women and children, and in terms of those who have been unwilling or unable to flee, we are hearing about allegations of rape, women giving birth in underground stations and newborns being treated in makeshift bomb shelters. The strength and bravery of those women cannot be overstated.

I welcome the First Minister’s apology to the people who were convicted under the Witchcraft Act 1563. I am in the process of beginning a member’s bill to pardon those victims, who were mostly women, and I am sure that it will go a long way in tackling bias and sending a message across the world that that is not acceptable.

Turning to the present day, I pay tribute to the contribution and sacrifices that women have made throughout the pandemic. Women have played a huge role in keeping society together during the toughest of times, undertaking the majority of front-line roles and taking on an increase in caring within the family setting. However, that has come at a cost. The UN Women organisation has estimated that the impact of the pandemic on women’s equality could mean a roll back of 25 years of progress on women’s rights.

The majority of women are expected to be managers in our own homes, taking on the majority of caring responsibilities and everyday mundane tasks including cleaning and cooking, and the pandemic has served only to strengthen that expectation. A publication from Engender noted that if all that uncounted labour was recorded in national accounting, it would be worth an estimated £1.1 trillion, or around 56 per cent of gross domestic product.

New mothers have also missed out on a whole range of experiences with their little ones and, over the past two years, pregnant women have experienced pregnancies like no other, with limited visits from birthing partners, missed antenatal classes and face masks during birth. With a two-year-old daughter and a seven-month-old son, I have experienced some of that myself and I have heard at first hand, both through my personal relationships and from my constituents, how difficult mothers and pregnant women have found it. It is no wonder that mental health issues among women are soaring—an issue that I am confident that the Scottish Government is committed to improving.

As my colleagues have rightly highlighted, we have seen an increase in cases of domestic abuse during the pandemic. That was especially heightened during severe restrictions. Eradicating violence against women and girls is a priority for the Scottish Government. In our first 100 days in government, funding was directed specifically to rape crisis services, and the delivering equally safe fund will see funding go directly to front-line services and prevention. It is absolutely right that tackling violence against women is, and remains, a priority.

With all of those issues put upon us, it has been an extremely hard time for so many women and I pay tribute to each one who has given everything that they have during the pandemic.

I move on to this year’s theme for international women’s day: “break the bias”. Structural barriers and prejudice continue to cause inequality in our society and that theme challenges each one of us to take action against prejudice whenever we see it. I believe that in Scotland we have come a long way with gender equality but, despite that, bias continues to surround our everyday lives, and breaking it can be difficult.

Stereotypes fuel misogyny and women should not have to act or behave in a certain way to conform to outdated stereotypes. Women face judgment, stigma and criticism for everything we do, everything we say or dare to speak about, the clothes we wear, how we style our hair, our weight, our height and how we conduct ourselves on social media. We are expected to go above and beyond to help, and to keep a smile on our face while we are doing it.

We get judged if we choose a career over a family. Likewise, we get judged if we decide to start a family and, if we do, even more questions come.

How are we going to cope with work? Are we even going to bother with work? How do we raise our children? Are we going to bottle feed or breastfeed them? The list is exhausting, and it goes on and on.

So much more is expected of us women, and there are so many ways in which we are expected to behave. Whether someone is a young girl, a woman, a mother or grandmother, I have no doubt that they have faced that kind of judgment, or questioning along those lines. It is tiring. Please, can we just let women be, and stop scrutinising them in a way that few men would ever be subject to? From witnessing the women in my life, I have no doubt that the majority of us are smashing it, regardless of any negativity or perceived bias. However, it takes an emotional toll, and it is unjust that women should have to fight those battles daily.

Our Scottish Government is blazing a trail when it comes to fighting for equality for women but, as with most things in Scotland, we do so with one hand tied behind our back by Westminster, which reinforces gender stereotypes with abhorrent, misogynistic policies such as the disgusting rape clause, the cheated WASPIs and the British Prime Minister’s refusal to apologise for writing in an article in The Spectator that the children of single mothers were

“ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate”,

and for calling for action to

“restore women’s desire to be married”.

To the UK Prime Minister, and to any other misogynistic man in a position of power, I therefore say, as a young woman who was raised by a single mother, that we will not stop, we will not be quiet, and we are here to be heard.

I want my daughter to grow up in a world where she is free to do what she wants and to follow any path that she wants, without fear of judgment—a world where she does not have to walk down the street with her keys between her fingers, in the way that we all have in the past. Equally, I want my boy to grow up in a world where he is respectful to women and understands that we are all equal. We have made much progress here in Scotland, but, undoubtedly, we have such a long way to go to break the bias. Until the day when we achieve true equality for women of all different backgrounds, we have much work to do.