Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 08 March 2022
I take that point. There is always a delicate balance to strike. We must ensure that we hear women’s voices, but I think that men—as Paul McLennan powerfully said—have an important role to play, particularly when it comes to influencing the decisions of other men in society and calling out some of the appalling acts that we still see.
One thing that saddens me is that, when we talk about women here in Scotland and around the world, we realise that progress on establishing even the most basic of rights is painfully slow. As Maggie Chapman and Gillian Martin pointed out, being a woman is a risky business that still results in many women ending up dead as a result of standing up for basic rights or, in some cases, just for existing. That is wrong. It shames our society.
Every time we discuss this subject, we hear countless examples of women being pushed into secondary roles—women who, as we have heard many times in this debate, are expected to play a merely domestic role or who are not seen in the same way as men. That came home to me again as I listened to Michelle Thomson’s speech last week, and my colleague Tess White’s contribution today, about the challenges that women face during wartime. We all fall into the lazy habit of watching television and thinking that it is men who are at the front and who face the brunt of conflict, but we do not have to look far or try hard to see the harms that are inflicted on women, many of which remain with them long after the conflict is over.
As we take part in the debate, war has moved closer to our shores. As Gillian Martin and others have said, it is not a new issue. Women around the world have always faced war. For many, there is no escape, and our words of solidarity alone are not enough.
In last week’s members’ business debate on the subject, my colleague Pam Gosal gave a personal account of some of the barriers that she had faced in getting into this place. That is something that I admire about Pam in particular, and about all the women in this Parliament: they are not wasting the opportunity to help others to follow them. It is no coincidence that, with each new Parliament, we hear new voices. We must work harder to ensure that everyone feels safe to participate in our politics.
In the time that I have left, I will touch on something personal. Although I cannot speak as a woman, I do not want to miss the opportunity to highlight some concerns that I have seen for myself. They might not fit neatly with this year’s theme or with my party’s amendment, but it is important that they are heard.
Natalie Don has already touched on one of the issues. I previously mentioned it during a debate on whole-family support and have asked questions about the issue throughout the pandemic. It is an issue that I feel very uncomfortable about: the support that was given to expectant and new mums during the worst of Covid.
I have seen how tough this time has been for my own family, and that has also come through from my inbox. Too often, the rules and guidance that we in this chamber have sought to impose for public health reasons have left all parents and carers, but particularly women, to struggle without a support network. In many cases, they have been separated from their families and left without access to the medical support that they would have had in the past. At times, it seemed that, in trying to do something good, we lost the balance between protecting physical health and protecting mental health.
There is a group of women out there who got no face-to-face maternity classes. Others got no support at appointments or scans. Some were left to give birth, wearing a face mask and without anyone there to help and support them. We were able largely to dodge those issues for the birth of our second child, but I am painfully aware of the impact that this had, and continues to have, on others.
As with so many caring and other family and domestic responsibilities, the physical and emotional burden throughout the pandemic has fallen disproportionately on women. I remain concerned that we sometimes see such decisions as being somehow less important or that we take it for granted that there will be no real pushback. We must do better on that in the future.
I was going to touch on another issue, but I am out of time, and it has been covered in part.