Hansard

On international women’s day 2022, it is time to break the bias that holds women back, be it deliberate or unconscious. We must call it out. We must not put up with it for any longer. That is the message behind today’s motion and the fact that gender equality is at the heart of the Scottish Government’s vision for a fairer Scotland. Who could disagree with that? I am glad that a consensus has been struck among members. As the last speaker in the open debate, I say that all the speeches have been amazing and inspirational.

However, on this day, my heart—like the hearts of so many other speakers—is with the women of Ukraine, who are being forced to flee their homes with their children and elderly parents in order to keep them safe. It defies belief that that is happening in 2022. None of us can imagine how hard it must be to summon the strength to keep going in the face of such adversity. Those ordinary women are the heroes of today, and I know that they have the hearts and hopes of everyone as we watch their desperate plight, which has been caused by a deranged dictator. I agree with my colleague Gillian Martin, who said that we need action now, in order to help those courageous women.

We have come a long way since the days in which the suffragettes fought so hard and sacrificed so much to win for us—more than half the population—the right to vote. I will highlight the inspirational women who live ordinary lives—just like those of the women of Ukraine, which have been turned upside down.

I start on a personal note. My maternal grandmother came to Scotland from Tullamore in the south of Ireland, in the 1920s. She was unable to read or write, but she was smart—smart enough to know that education was a passport out of poverty for her four children. She also dealt with the stigma and discrimination that Irish people faced at that time by ensuring that my mother and her brother and sisters were always immaculately dressed and well mannered. She was proud, feisty and funny, and she was my inspiration as I grew up.

However, as we know, not all children have the good fortune to grow up with inspirational role models. That is why, the more we learn about adverse childhood experiences and attachment, the more we know how vital growing up with such role models is.

For much of my lifetime, and until recently, Scottish heroines were virtually airbrushed from history—women such as Elsie Inglis, the founder of the Scottish women’s hospitals and the subject of my colleague Jenni Minto’s members’ business debate tomorrow; Ayr’s Marion Gray, a mathematician who influenced the telecoms giants of today; and the geologist Maria Gordon from Aberdeen. I could go on, but time will not allow.

The value that ordinary and extraordinary women have made to society is incalculable. However, today, despite the progress that has been mentioned, we know that women bear enormously the brunt of gender inequality.

A helpful briefing from Engender tells us that UN Women estimates that the impact of Covid-19 could mean the loss of 25 years’ worth of progress for women’s equality. Of course, Scotland is not immune to that. Measures to respond to the pandemic have disproportionately affected the access that women, especially younger women and women of colour, have to paid work and the volume of care that women provide. Women disproportionately make up our army of unpaid carers, are disproportionately in low-paid jobs and still, despite the Scottish Government’s innovative early years education policy, disproportionately manage childcare.

The Scottish Government has a proud record of promoting women’s equality and I am delighted that today, on international women’s day, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC’s report on misogyny and criminal justice in Scotland has been published. That immense piece of work includes an examination of whether there are gaps in the law that should be addressed by a specific criminal offence to tackle misogynistic behaviour. I am delighted that the Scottish Government will now consider the report’s recommendation to create a misogyny and criminal justice (Scotland) act containing: a public misogynistic harassment offence; an offence of stirring up hatred against women and girls; an offence of issuing threats of, or invoking, rape or sexual assault or disfigurement of women and girls; and a new statutory aggravation of misogyny.

We fight on to banish the gender pay gap and to gain equal access to the boardroom. We fight on for an end to sexual harassment and bullying at work. We fight on for an end to the curse of violence against women with our equally safe strategy and £5 million of new funding to rape crisis centres and domestic abuse services to help to cut waiting lists. We fight on for an end to the bias against LGBTI women, disabled women and women of colour, and we recognise the inhumane treatment of women who were forced to give up their babies just a few decades ago.

I celebrate all women—mums, grans, aunts, sisters and carers. I celebrate women who are an inspiration to someone, somewhere. I celebrate the many amazing women who work tirelessly in the third sector to protect and improve the lives of women. We should celebrate how far we have come but know that there is much more to do so that our daughters and granddaughters are shown the respect that they deserve and have the best possible future. When that happens, our work and that of our pioneering sisters will be done.