Hansard

Speaking on international women’s day is one of my favourite moments in the parliamentary year. It is an opportunity to celebrate women and the contribution that they make, to be proud of the progress that we have made on women’s equality and to be hopeful about the changes that are still to come.

There is much to celebrate. Scotland is rich with talented, inspirational and fantastic women. Just this morning, Glasgow’s own Jamie Genevieve was added to the Forbes 30 under 30 list, following the global success of her Vieve make-up brand. Last week, runner Eilish McColgan broke the 10,000m record, beating Paula Radcliffe’s time.

Young girls across the country are looking on as Scotland’s women tear down barriers, reach new heights and give us reason to celebrate every day.

Today is an opportunity to be proud of not just the women who are making the headlines but those whose achievements often go unnoticed—women who are unpaid carers, women who keep the family wheels turning and women in the NHS and social care, who give their all, every day, no matter how hard things get.

Last night, I was grateful to have the opportunity to hear from unpaid carers at an event for the A Scotland that cares campaign. The women from whom we heard shared their experiences of giving up careers, making sacrifices in education and going without, so that they could properly look after someone who they loved when help from the state just was not there.

Some of the women’s contributions were harrowing, but they gave us reason to hope. We do not need miracles if we are to improve those women’s lives; we just need to listen to what they tell us they need. They need respite, so that they can take time for themselves. They need less bureaucracy, so that they are not overburdened with unnecessary administration. They need an end to unfair rules on carers benefits, such as the full-time-study rule, so that they can participate fully in education and work without fear of losing support.

I take this opportunity to thank all those women for all that they do and for being so candid with us. It is only by listening to people’s lived experience that we can deliver the transformative change that so many women need.

I reiterate my commitment and that of my party to fight for that change. Our Labour movement has a long history of supporting women’s rights and pushing forward the march towards equality. Labour Governments brought about the Equal Pay Act 1970 and the Equality Act 2010. In Scotland, it was Labour’s Monica Lennon who helped to change the law on period poverty. We have always embraced equality, not just in our words but in our deeds. Together, we have come far, but the progress cannot and will not stop here. We will continue to embrace equality.

I am pleased to see the First Minister here to lead what might be one of her final debates as First Minister. We might have political differences—there might be many—but I know that she is in the chamber because she cares passionately about women’s equality. As Scotland’s first female First Minister, she has been an inspiration to many young women and girls across the country.

I have spoken many times about the importance of representation and the need for people to see someone just like them in a room if they are to know that they can be there, too. The First Minister was that woman in the room for many of the young women who are entering politics today. I take this opportunity to thank her personally for helping me and my husband when she was our MSP a number of years ago. She helped us to access the care and support that we needed, without which I would not be here today, so I want to say thank you. [Applause.]

Presiding Officer, I sincerely hope that, whoever the next First Minister is, they will protect and progress women’s equality. That will mean supporting women at every turn, embedding gender analysis into our policy-making and spending decisions, and making the changes that women tell us they need because, in the words of Cher,

“Women are the real architects of society.”

Some of this means bold but necessary structural change, but we are not talking just about big-ticket or expensive items. This is also about the smaller and societal changes that are needed to tear down the barriers that women still face and that are still restricting their ability to reach their full potential.

As we heard in yesterday’s debate on women’s and girls’ safety on public transport, women too often do not feel safe going to or from work for fear of being harassed, intimidated or threatened on public transport. However, we can make decisions both here in this Parliament and in local authorities to stop that and to stop the disadvantages that women face right across Scotland by ensuring that councils do not have to scramble for funding to properly light streets and parks; by delaying the implementation of low-emission zones in Glasgow to protect the black cab trade; and by making public transport more accessible for disabled people.

We can give women in low-paid households their financial independence by introducing split payments for universal credit and other household benefits. We have had the power in Scotland to do that for a number of years now. The next First Minister must use the powers that Scotland has to end the outdated and punitive system of paying universal credit to households, leaving far too many women trapped and financially powerless. I hope that the Government will support the Labour amendment to its motion on that today.

We can defend women’s right to choose by supporting Gillian Mackay’s buffer zone bill to protect them from harassment and intimidation outside abortion clinics. I welcome the victory in Westminster yesterday for people accessing and providing abortion services in England and Wales. However, it means that Scotland is now officially lagging behind other United Kingdom nations in introducing buffer zones, so I hope that we pick up the pace on that soon.

We can pull women out of poverty, too, by growing the economy and driving up wages in low-paid sectors. We all know that women are disproportionately in low-paid work, often in jobs that are dreadfully undervalued such as care, so our future progress on equality relies on changing that, too. We must rebalance the economy by addressing the disproportionate number of women in those sectors by investing in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, properly resourcing STEM education, and preparing women for jobs for the future.

There is no magic wand that we can wave that means that we will wake up to a more equal world tomorrow. We cannot just expect policy to catch up by accident, either. We need to fix it by design and take action everywhere. It is the little stuff that adds up to the big stuff—listening to women about where change is needed, working out what is not working and fixing it, and making changes across every single area of Government. That is how we can continue to progress women’s equality.

I move amendment S6M-08137.1, to insert at end:

“; believes that using Scottish choices to implement split payments for Universal Credit is key to this, and calls on the Scottish Government to provide an update on progress made on this within this calendar year.”

[Applause.]