Chamber and committees

I am delighted to have the chance to speak in the debate. As a Scottish Conservative MSP, I am proud that our party is a party for women. Not only was the first female member of Parliament a Conservative, but the first three—and only—female Prime Ministers have been Conservative. We know what a woman is, and we will always stand up for the rights of women and girls, at home and abroad.

International women’s day is an annual global event that is celebrated on 8 March to recognise the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, as well as to advocate for gender equality and women’s rights.

International women’s day has celebrated the achievements of women for more than 100 years. Despite significant progress in past decades, women still face discrimination and inequality in various aspects of their lives, including access to education, employment and political representation. This year’s theme is “embrace equity” and encourages people to talk about why equal opportunities are not enough.

I want to focus on sport because, at one point, I was quite fit and active. As a former hockey player and a hockey umpire, I want to touch on some of the remarkable and recent achievements of British women in sport. To contextualise that, I recognise that hockey is a sport that has parity and equality of gender at all levels of the game. In fact, in the lead-up to the Commonwealth games in Glasgow in 2014, it was the women’s team that had greater support and investment, with players being paid as professionals.

Thank you, Presiding Officer.

The Scottish Hockey Union had limited funds, as many sports do, and it had to choose what its priorities were, and it actively chose to support the women’s side.

Far more recently, at the weekend, there was great success for our woman athletes at the European indoor championships in Istanbul. First, Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson retained her 800m title in style, despite the loss of her lifelong coach the previous week. She dedicated her win to him.

Just as Keely Hodgkinson crossed the finish line, the GB team captain, Jazmin Sawyers, won a sensational long jump gold when she jumped exactly 7m. For many, that was an unexpected win, but not for Jazmin. She had been inspired by her teammates and she was absolutely thrilled to complete her winning jump. When she saw Keely Hodgkinson on the track at that same time, there ensued massive supportive and congratulatory hugs and tears, as members can imagine. I think that that is one thing that separates women’s sport from men’s: we are far more team focused and supportive of our team mates at every level.

Also at the weekend, we had further success when Laura Muir won a record fifth European indoor championship title as she claimed victory in the women’s 1,500m final, becoming the most successful Briton in the history of the competition. Breaking down barriers—as Pam Duncan-Glancy said—and, more so, hurdles, she has surpassed Colin Jackson as the British athlete with the most indoor European titles. She spoke of coming to that tournament 10 years ago and of the great progress that she has made since then. That is a bit of an understatement—another point on which women differ from men.

On the other side of the world, we had Eilish McColgan, who set a new British 10,000m record in California. The 32-year-old Scot beat Paula Radcliffe’s time, which was set in Munich back in 2002.

Our most successful British tennis player, Andy Murray, has been a champion for women’s sport, including tennis, for as long as I can remember. Wimbledon is a great example of male and female athletes receiving equal pay, and I really hope that other sports and competitions will follow suit.

However, as we celebrate the successes that we have in so many sports, we cannot ignore the fundamental differences in biology. I will talk about one specific example. Dr Marshall M Garrett, an independent medical expert, recently authored a report entitled “Overview of Concussional Injuries in Female Rugby from a Medicolegal Perspective”, which was undertaken following instructions received in August 2022 from Aberdeen Rugby Ltd.

The objective of the review was to provide an evidence-based opinion on whether concussional injuries in female rugby players occur with greater frequency than in males and whether symptomatology in the female cohort is more severe and/or persistent. The report indicates evidence of significant anatomical and physiological differences between men and women as regards head and neck function, resulting in a lower ability to withstand abrupt head blows and neck acceleration. It stated:

“there is a significant advantage in neck strength and head support ability between appropriately height and body weight matched males ... and females.”

Therefore, when it comes to contact sport, in particular, it would be unfair and even unsafe if men were to take part in women’s sport.

We cannot escape biology when it comes to sport. From head and neck anatomical differences to differences in bone density and muscle volume, biology makes a difference to performance, and we cannot pretend otherwise.

Although the status of women in Scotland and in the rest of the UK in general has improved, far more work needs to be done to achieve absolute equality between the sexes.

International women’s day 2023 provides an opportunity to raise awareness about the issues and to promote a more inclusive and equitable society. Whether it is through advocacy, activism or simple acts of kindness and support, we can all contribute to building a world in which every person has equal opportunities to thrive and succeed, regardless of their gender.

In Scotland, 12 per cent of students have experienced homelessness and others have been forced to live in makeshift accommodation. At the beginning of this academic year, the University of Edinburgh converted a common room into makeshift accommodation to house students on a short-term basis.

What guarantee will the minister give to first-year students enrolling in Scottish universities that they will be able to access student accommodation?

Please answer briefly, as we have one more question to ask.

The deputy convener will drill down more on the finance questions later.

I think that your words were:

“We might have got our figures wrong”.

That is what you said.

We move to questions from Ross Greer.

You do not have long to answer that, Mr Scott.

That was brief—lovely.

Michael Marra has a supplementary question.

We heard that dipping in and out of support would be important to young people during the transition period.