Chamber and committees

There is absolutely no doubt about the Scottish Government’s commitment to net zero. I was pleased to hear the detail on that in the cabinet secretary’s contribution earlier in the debate; however, I still seek reassurance on timescales, as I set out earlier.

A debate on oil and gas cannot pass without reference to the hundreds of billions of pounds that have flowed from the sector to the UK Treasury. It is deeply disappointing that, in the light of that enormous contribution, the UK Government chooses not to match the—

I thank members for supporting the motion on increasing the participation of women and girls in STEM, as well as colleagues who will be speaking in the debate.

I am grateful to the wonderful women whom I was privileged to speak to during my research, and I extend my thanks to the organisations that submitted informative briefings ahead of the debate.

STEM—science, technology, engineering and mathematics—subjects are integral to almost every aspect of modern society, from food production to advancements in medicine, economic forecasting, our growing space sector and arts and culture. STEM is a key driver of economic growth in Scotland.

My personal interest in the subject is deeply linked to the north-east’s energy sector and the rapidly growing demand for a strong STEM workforce to help to facilitate our ambition to become a global energy hub. In his report, “Making the Switch”, Professor Paul de Leeuw of Robert Gordon University reminds us that the north-east hosts a workforce that

“possesses the specialist knowledge, experience and expertise required to deliver and accelerate the energy transition.”

However, women make up only about 25 per cent of the oil and gas industry workforce and approximately 18.5 per cent of the offshore wind sector. Of course, that is seen elsewhere, with women underrepresented in STEM on multiple levels. Although progress has been made in closing the gender gap, the gap still exists. The parity in STEM learning between boys and girls diverges as children move through secondary school, with girls being significantly less likely than boys to learn STEM subjects beyond higher stage—the leaky pipe analogy.

In its briefing, Close the Gap highlights that

“fewer girls take STEM subjects at Higher level such as physics ... computer science ... and engineering science compared to boys.”

Close the Gap also points out that

“73% of female STEM graduates do not pursue a career in this area”

and that only

“9% of STEM professors are women and women account for 11% of directorships in the STEM sectors.”

Gender stereotypes, a lack of role models, a lack of access to STEM programmes and challenges around work-life balance and family responsibilities all play their part.

I spoke to many women working in the STEM sphere, who spoke about how children’s attitudes about gender and work roles become fixed at an early age and heavily influence their future subject choices, as Close the Gap sets out clearly in its briefing, and about the crucial role of inspirational teachers and lecturers, supportive parents and carers in encouraging, but not forcing, STEM learning and careers.

The Teach First report, “Missing Elements: Why ‘Steminism’ Matters in the Classroom and Beyond”, highlights that only half of the United Kingdom population is able to name a female scientist. However, the good news is that we can now buy a Barbie professor, so all is well in the world.

Beyond education, I heard about unwelcoming work environments in which stereotypes about the different roles of men and women were strong. One academic spoke of our increasingly gendered society and how some men are, as she put it, blind to the issues of gender imbalance.

Another academic spoke of the subtle barriers that women in STEM face while at the same time being constantly reminded of her role as a STEM influencer. An engineer told me of the pressure that she felt to try harder to do more to prove herself. The lack of access to flexible working and good-quality part-time jobs was evident, as was, critically, the lack of access to affordable, good-quality childcare. There are common themes in the challenges that are faced by girls and women, but there is also much consensus on how to respond and some great examples of work that is already under way.

Aberdeen City Council, Robert Gordon University, the University of Aberdeen and NESCol—North East Scotland College—have developed the Aberdeen computing collaborative, a computer science curriculum from early learning to the senior phase that is designed to encourage young people to consider a career in teaching computer science.

Shell’s girls in energy partnership is a one-year course delivered with NESCol and Fife College to showcase the energy industry’s career opportunities to girls in the senior phase. Today, the centre for health data science at the University of Aberdeen is holding the annual women in data science conference, which will coincide with the annual worldwide data science conference that is being held at Stanford University and at about 200 other locations worldwide.

I was also pleased to note that Equate Scotland is working in partnership with ConStructEd Scotland to offer a hands-on construction experience for women in graduate or postgraduate engineering. I look forward to hearing other examples of progress during members’ contributions today.

I welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to the careerwise programme and the women into STEM pipeline project, and I am encouraged that more female students are enrolling in maths and science college courses and that female undergraduate engineering student numbers are increasing.

What needs to change? First, we need to tackle gender stereotypes. Although initiatives such as taster sessions for girls are welcome, they are insufficient to create sustainable change. Earlier intervention in early years settings is required, as is prioritising gender-competent leadership, particularly in wider education settings. We also need to actively recruit more women into roles in which they are underrepresented and to support women to access reskilling opportunities—that is particularly relevant to the energy sector.

Crucially, expanding access to affordable childcare is required. In that regard, the Scottish Government’s expansion of early learning and childcare to all three and four-year-olds and to eligible two-year-olds is hugely significant not only in improving the health and wellbeing of children and parents, but in supporting parents into work, study or training.

I very much look forward to hearing the minister’s response to members’ contributions today. Again, I thank everyone for their support in bringing forward this debate.

Following First Minister’s question time today, I will hold a members’ business debate on encouraging women and girls into science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Given the importance of STEM, particularly to the north-east economy, and its role in Scotland’s transition to net zero, what action is the Scottish Government taking to motivate women and girls to pursue careers in it?

Thank you. That is very helpful. We now open up to questions. I think that you covered this in your opening remarks, cabinet secretary, but can you confirm that the provisions that we are looking at would be for the duration of the general assembly event only and do not stretch beyond that? The policy note that we have says:

“it is necessary to grant INTERPOL the relevant privileges and immunities required to operate effectively across Great Britain and Northern Ireland on an ongoing basis.”

Can you confirm that that does not mean that, once the order is in place or if it is agreed to today, it would be a permanent provision?

A couple of members still want to come in, but I want to pick up on the discussion about data, which is an issue that the committee talks about quite a lot. I am interested in your views on what data we should collect to underpin the work on tackling gender-based violence or, in this case, tackling the online space. How do we do that when there are a lot of moving parts and different organisations have different roles and responsibilities relating to the overall work that is done? It would be helpful for the committee to understand how that underpinning data set could be developed.

Gosh, thanks very much. That brings in a whole other discussion about resourcing.

Stuart Allardyce, how can we make our collection of data as robust and targeted as possible?

Thank you. There was a lot in that answer.

Thanks, there was a lot in there. Some of our other panel members might like to come in briefly.

Our next item of business is consideration of correspondence that we have received from the Scottish Government and Rape Crisis Scotland on access to court transcripts for survivors of rape and sexual offences. I refer members to paper 4. I will begin by placing on record the committee’s thanks to one of the survivors, who we met informally in November 2021, for her bravery in telling us about her experience of the criminal justice system and for raising the important issue of the lack of access to court transcripts for survivors of rape and sexual offences and how that can impact on their recovery.

I very much welcome the commitment made by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs in her letter to the committee, and by the First Minister last week, to consider a pilot to support access to transcripts for complainers in sexual offences cases.

I seek members’ views on the correspondence that we have received.

On that note, I thank the cabinet secretary and her officials for their time. I suspend the meeting briefly to allow for a changeover of witnesses.