I thank the members of the Equalities and Human Rights Committee for all their work on the bill.
It is a privilege to speak in today’s debate, particularly in a week that will see two pieces of landmark legislation change the lives of women in Scotland for the better. As the cabinet secretary said, it is a moment that the Parliament can be proud of.
Outwith the Scottish National Party, there is an assumption that to sit on these benches requires an initiation ceremony consisting of running a Braveheart marathon, chasing a haggis while clad in a kilt and bellowing “Freedom” into the abyss. For me, as a 21-year-old with no political party of preference, it was women’s representation that consistently informed my political beliefs. I saw the inequality that underpins a Scottish Parliament in which 65 per cent of all MSPs are male; the unfairness that allowed an all-male corporate body to exist; and the sexism that continues to this day in this place, given that the average salary of a female staff member at Holyrood is 11 per cent lower than that of her male counterpart.
Equal opportunity was, of course, one of the founding principles in the establishment of Holyrood. I suppose that I should declare an interest as a token woman on the SNP benches—as opponents of the bill have argued. I was elected in 2016 alongside some extremely talented colleagues including Gail Ross and Gillian Martin, following my party’s decision to take action to tackle the underrepresentation of women in the SNP. The issue has been contentious in my party historically. Therefore, the Labour Party must be given due credit for the fact that, in 1999, it twinned its candidates, because of which Holyrood has always been regarded as having a more equal number of women political representatives.
In 2005, the SNP did not have a great record on female representation. Out of our 27 MSPs, only nine were women. Across Holyrood, however, female membership stood at 39 per cent because of Labour’s use of positive discrimination—indeed, during session 2, 56 per cent of all Labour MSPs were women. At Westminster, however, the picture was markedly worse. Following the 2005 general election, only one in five of all members of the Westminster Parliament was a woman. In early 2006 the annual “Sex and Power” report found that it could take another 200 years for women to reach political equality in UK politics.
Here we are in 2018, 100 years on from when most women were first bequeathed the power to vote but less than a year after Muirfield golf club finally decided that perhaps it was time to allow women to join—only, of course, after losing the right to hold the Open golf championship. I am sure that the two events were unconnected.
According to SPICe:
“The aim of the Bill is to improve the representation of women in non-executive positions on public boards. It sets a target for public boards, the ‘gender representation objective’, that women should be 50% of non-executive board members. There is a duty to try and achieve the objective by 31 December 2022.”
In some instances, that might mean that a woman is chosen over a man if—and only if—they are equally qualified. However, as fellow members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex community here know well, we do not start from a level playing field. If we did, men like Harvey Weinstein would not exist.
Across the water, in Fife, the national health service board comprises five men, five women and—how could I forget?—a female chair in the Rt Hon Tricia Marwick. Fife College’s board is relatively similar, with seven women, eight men and a male chair.
Critics could argue—and they have argued today—that the situation is not really that bad and that we do not really need legislation to fix something that is not broken. Indeed, as Alexander Stewart—who is not in the chamber—commented at stage 1:
“Women currently make up 45.8 per cent of the membership of public boards but account for only 34.9 per cent of members of the Scottish Parliament ... That raises the question of whether quotas are the right way to tackle the root cause of gender inequality.”—[Official Report, 30 November 2017; c 70.]
However, as Alex Cole-Hamilton argued, the bill has nothing to do with quotas. Indeed, that argument misses the point entirely, because all it takes is a change in membership or another election to impact on any organisation’s equality credentials. I am sure that I do not need to remind Mr Stewart and his Conservative colleagues of his party’s dismal record on female representation, with only 19 per cent of their MSPs and just over 20 per cent of their MPs being women. That is simply not good enough for the party of opposition or, indeed, of government. As Annie Wells commented during the stage 1 debate:
“At the most basic level, those in positions of power in Scotland should reflect the society that we seek to represent.”—[Official Report, 30 November 2017; c 55.]
I agree with Annie Wells.
The bill will make Scotland the only part of the UK with a requirement for gender parity on public boards. It is a step in the right direction. As Gail Ross said,
“no one is saying that it is a panacea, but it is a start.”
We should also remember that the Government is limited by the powers of this Parliament. As the cabinet secretary said last November:
“with our current powers, we have legislative competence and ability only in relation to public sector boards.”—[Official Report, 30 November 2017; c 42.]
We are limited by the powers of this Parliament to fully progress gender representation. Imagine the possibilities if we had more powers.
We should not forget the sexual harassment allegations that rocked Holyrood to its core at the end of 2017. The Scottish Parliament Corporate Body has now been dragged into the 21st century as a result. The Deputy First Minister set a precedent by stepping up and responding as the most senior male member of the Scottish Government at the time. He said:
“it is the conduct and behaviour of men that need to change if we are to end the sexual harassment and abuse of women, whether in their workplace, their social life or their home.”—[Official Report, 31 October 2017; c 3.]
Sexual harassment is about a power imbalance. For sexual harassment to flourish, all that is needed is the conditions that enable inequality. Those conditions occur in this building every day, with all-male witness panels, women being paid less than men and a parliamentary committee with 10 male members and one female MSP—Gail Ross, who is now sitting beside me. The bill will be pivotal in tackling societal structures that prevent women from contributing fully to the wider civic life of our country.
Two weeks ago, in Glasgow, I heard the cabinet secretary address a room full of women at a Scottish Women’s Convention event on sexual harassment. She described this as “a watershed moment” in Scottish politics and said, “Let’s seize it.” That is what the bill is about. Time is up.
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