It is with mixed emotions that I rise to close the debate for the Government. I am pleased and proud to conclude a debate that has shown the Parliament at its best. We have heard powerful, thoughtful, considered and passionate speeches from women who have contributed a great deal to the betterment of our country. By their very presence here as MSPs, those women, regardless of their party, have chosen to challenge gender inequality because, despite more than 100 years of the franchise and many equality acts, women continue to be underrepresented in Parliaments around the world, including this one.
As well as feeling pleased and proud, I am sad, because this represents one of my final speeches in a Government debate as an MSP and a Government minister, and the end to my 14 years as an MSP representing Clydesdale and the south of Scotland draws ever closer.
I will use my time to reflect on achievements that have been delivered by this Government and Parliament and by female parliamentarians, and to think about the future. We must lay foundations for the next set of MSPs to build on, and empower the next generation of female parliamentarians to realise that a woman’s place is most definitely in the Parliament.
A debate like this—coming just before the end of a parliamentary session and before an election—gives us the chance to look back at and reflect on what has been achieved. I hope that we can feel that, collectively, we have chosen to challenge enough to ensure that the Parliament that we leave behind for the next generation of MSPs has made the positive difference that our country deserves.
However, I do not want the debate to be a moment when we pat one other on the back. This afternoon, we have heard that too much is still to be achieved, too much still needs to be challenged and too much work is still required for us to think that we can sit back and relax. International women’s day demands that we, as women in privileged roles of leadership, relentlessly pursue equality, agitate for change and make a difference.
There have been plenty of positive changes during this parliamentary session. In March last year, the Scottish Parliament unanimously passed the Female Genital Mutilation (Protection and Guidance) (Scotland) Act 2020; the Scottish Government is implementing the ambitious recommendations of the First Minister’s national advisory council on women and girls; the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 was passed, setting a “gender representation objective” for public boards that 50 per cent of non-executive members are women; the Scottish Government continues to have equal numbers of women and men in its Cabinet; and our 2020-21 programme for government reaffirmed our commitment to women’s health and the development of a women’s health plan.
In my portfolio, I worked with Monica Lennon to lock in the world-leading progress that we have made on tackling period dignity, and we supported her bill through the Parliament. We had already rolled out free period products nationally for those on low incomes, implemented free period products in education establishments around the country and enabled local authorities to ensure that products were available in communities. Further, we sought to tackle the stigma of and embarrassment about periods. Monica Lennon’s Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 gives our approach legislative underpinning.
I have outlined a range of policies and new laws that are designed to protect and improve women’s position in society, along with initiatives that guide us to do more. That list has been largely delivered by female parliamentarians, illustrating how important it is that women need to be in this institution and in political institutions around the world to shape decision making and make it more representative.
Although there is a lot to be proud of, we are not quite yet able to say, “Job done”. During the past year, the pandemic has exposed the deeply entrenched and systemic inequalities that exist and persist in our society, despite best efforts. The impact of the pandemic has touched us all, but not equally. In the introduction to the social renewal advisory board’s report, it noted:
“We may all be in the same storm, but we are all in different boats … and even then, too many of us are with no boat at all.”
Disabled people, minority ethnic communities, people on low incomes, older people, younger people and women are among those who have experienced disproportionate impacts, with multiple disadvantages making things even harder for many.
Staying at home has been fine for people who have a safe, secure and warm home; it has been easier for those with a garden and plenty of space. Working from home has been fine for people with a white-collar job that enables them to do so; it has been less easy for people who work in a factory or whose job depends on them being there in person. Home schooling has been more manageable for people who can rely on the support of a partner; it has been less straightforward for single parents, who have to shoulder all the work, care and educational responsibilities.
Domestic abuse, job uncertainty and shouldering a disproportionate burden of care are just some of the ways in which women the world over have been impacted by the restrictions that were so necessary to deal with the pandemic. That is why we have sought to ensure that our approach in Scotland has recognised that uncomfortable truth, whether through providing support and funding to organisations tackling domestic abuse or through prioritising the reopening of early learning and childcare settings to children and progressing our commitment to provide 1,140 hours of free childcare, in the knowledge that that will essentially, albeit not exclusively, support women in their caring roles. That is also why we have provided additional support during the pandemic for unpaid carers, around 60 per cent of whom we know are women, who are a fundamental part of our social care system. We have set out in the budget the ways in which we intend to go further. That includes examining the structure of how care is provided, and how it is valued by us as a society, through the review of social care.
As we emerge from the pandemic, it is important that we do not allow its impact to set back women’s rights, and there should not be any regression in those rights. It does not need to be like that. Therefore, we face a choice: do we revert to a pre-pandemic normality, a normality that has failed too many for too long, or do we choose something different? Do we choose to challenge the assumption that gender bias is to be tolerated and instead work even harder to reform what we do and renew what we are? If it is the latter, that will require us to work in a different way and in a collective way, and to disregard the hostile politics, or the “gey coorse” politics, as Gail Ross described it, that has so dominated this past session, in the chamber and online.
Women, or indeed anyone, looking at how brutal and aggressive politics has become would be forgiven for wanting to give it a wide berth. The result of that will be the continuation of a poorer politics and an unnecessary limit placed on the voices that we have in the chamber, who would otherwise have helped shape the future path for our country. We need to challenge that, and the country will need politicians who are able and willing to work together. The country’s recovery will be determined on it.
We have a good starting point. The social renewal advisory board, which Shirley-Anne Somerville and I established to guide and advise the Government on how to navigate a recovery path for Scotland that leads us towards equality and fairness, has provided us with ideas and possible solutions to tackle the entrenched and systemic inequality that the country faces. The board’s calls for action aim to ensure that, as we emerge from the pandemic, we could do so in a way that allows us to rebuild and renew, with social justice, equality and human rights at the heart of that.
While some colleagues will not be here after the election to continue to drive forward that work, that does not mean that we stop caring or that we somehow turn off our aspirations for our country. The work to create a better Scotland does not begin and end in this chamber; it requires the engagement and involvement of the people and communities we are all privileged to represent.
The recent citizens assemblies and the inspiring community response to the pandemic show the assets and skills that we have across our country, and we are wise to remember that, while people are currently no longer able to gather in the public gallery to look over and judge our work in the chamber, they remain sovereign, and they are able to judge us on our conduct. They want their parliamentarians working together, scrutinising and robustly holding the Government to account, but respectful of difference. It is a pity that the collaborative work that is done in the Parliament often goes on unnoticed, because it does not drive the headlines or get thousands of likes on Twitter. That narrative is one of the things that I would like to challenge this international women’s day—a narrative that somehow assumes that politics needs to be aggressive, that it means playing the woman or man and not the ball, and that, to be a good politician, you need to be bullish, bordering on rude.
Of course you need a thick skin—we enter this game with our eyes wide open—but we risk losing the very essence of what the Parliament was set up to do: to bring democracy closer to our people, driven by compassion and by kindness. In large part, today’s debate has shown what is achievable when debate is respectful and searching and the right space is created for free-flowing exchanges of ideas.
I will miss so many of those who have taken part today, along with the immediate colleagues of my own party, and I pay tribute to them all for what they have contributed, what they have achieved and how they have advanced women’s representation in Scotland’s body politic.
My advice to whoever the new female parliamentarians might be, who will sit in this chamber in just a few months’ time, is for them to choose to do their politics how they want to, to not feel that they need to ape or copy the worst examples of adversarial debate and instead to know that one of the best ways in which we can attract a diversity of voices in the chamber and tackle the persistent imbalance with regard to female parliamentarians is to make it a place that people want to be part of—not somewhere they will feel threatened.
Kindness in politics has never mattered more, and I have been blessed to have served alongside kind, committed parliamentarians—so many of whom are here today. I thank everyone who has made my privileged time in the Parliament so enjoyable and memorable. I send my best wishes to all my fellow MSPs who are not seeking re-election this May. Although I know that we are stepping back from front-line politics, I know that we will not step back from continuing to choose to challenge.