Official Report 1027KB pdf
The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S6M-16573, in the name of Audrey Nicoll, on international women’s day 2025. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament notes that International Women’s Day 2025 takes place on 8 March; notes that the theme for 2025, Accelerating Action, is in recognition of calls for increased momentum and urgency to address the barriers that women face, and notes those standing together in solidarity to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women in the Aberdeen South and North Kincardine constituency, across Scotland and around the world.
17:37
Before I begin, I warmly extend my thanks to members who supported my motion. I am delighted to bring to the chamber this debate to mark international women’s day 2025, and I thank all members who intend to speak this evening.
International women’s day, which this year was celebrated on 8 March, aims to recognise the achievements of women across the world. It brings with it an opportunity to raise awareness of the barriers and challenges that women still face, but also to celebrate the many achievements made to date in improving the lives of women and girls both in Scotland and further afield. I hope that the debate will deliver on the aims of international women’s day, and I very much look forward to hearing the contributions of my fellow members.
What better place to begin than to spotlight the achievements of Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani woman and Nobel prize winner who, as we all know, bravely spoke out against the Taliban’s exclusion of young women from schools? Malala’s story brings to light that, although strides have been taken in improving the rights of women and girls, so much more is still to be done, particularly in international spaces. We simply cannot ignore that.
Our media is currently awash with reporting about women’s rights violations and such rights being increasingly diminished in Sudan, Gaza, Ukraine and Syria. Who could forget the example set by Sharyn Lock, an international midwife who fasted for five days outside the Scottish Parliament, in solidarity with women and children who were going hungry in Gaza, and who called for an immediate ceasefire? When I spoke to Sharyn, she described the harrowing situation for many women who were too malnourished to breastfeed their newborn babies but could not afford to buy formula on the black market, so their babies died. “Chilling” is not the word.
The emerging online threat to women is also a cause for great concern. Developments in artificial intelligence and technology have changed the ways in which women are exploited online. For example, South Korea is facing a national crisis as a result of the increasing publication of deepfake pornography photos and videos of young women. As our social media grows, so does the spread of misogynistic influencers. We have seen the horrifying case in England of Kyle Clifford, who was allegedly influenced by the grotesque misogynist Andrew Tate. This week, Clifford was sentenced to life imprisonment for the brutal murders of his former girlfriend Louise, her sister Hannah and their mother. The sentencing judge described him as a man
“soaked in self-pity”,
who
“holds women in utter contempt.”
Systemic biases are still deeply embedded in our society.
The theme of this year’s international women’s day is accelerate action, by taking the swift and decisive steps that are necessary to tackle gender-based inequality. I will touch on three areas in which we are accelerating action in Scotland.
First, we are forging a path for women’s economic empowerment. I was pleased that, just recently, the Deputy First Minister announced funding to encourage women into enterprise. At least £4 million will be allocated to expand the number of women entrepreneurs by providing tailored support at the earliest stages of business creation.
The Scottish Government’s women’s health plan cements Scotland’s commitment to tackling gender inequalities in health. I am pleased to note the progress that is being made in that space, including the development of specialist menopause services, and that the Scottish Government is actively consulting women and girls on the next phase of the plan’s delivery.
In the justice space, the Criminal Justice Committee is continuing its scrutiny of the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill, which seeks to improve the experience of victims in the justice system, many of whom are women. That has particular relevance to women who are survivors of sexual crimes, whose experience of the justice system is, frankly, traumatising.
Many more pieces of work are under way that are making a real difference for women and girls across Scotland, including by reducing the gender pay gap, expanding childcare provision and tackling gender-based violence and health inequalities. I ask the minister, in her closing remarks, to provide an update on the issues that I have referenced and on the work of the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls. To be honest, I do not know a great deal about the council, but I know that it has been a welcome initiative that the First Minister has developed to explore ways of tackling gender inequality in Scotland. I am aware, too, that the minister is deeply interested in that area of work and has been involved in it.
There is still a long road ahead before we reach full gender parity globally. However, I am confident in the Scottish Government’s commitment to taking meaningful steps towards that goal in Scotland and to further address the many new and emerging threats to women that we face today.
I again thank all members, in particular those who supported my motion and will contribute to the debate. I wish everyone—albeit belatedly—a happy international women’s day.
17:44
I welcome Audrey Nicoll’s members’ business debate to celebrate international women’s day 2025. The day is an opportunity to celebrate women’s achievements, and I would like to highlight the work of some truly fantastic women in the north-east who do so much to support their communities.
Jennifer Garnes is the headteacher of Strathmore primary school in Forfar. She cares passionately about creating adaptive environments to provide equal opportunities for all learners. Her work resulted in the school becoming the first in Scotland to be awarded an ADHD friendly school award.
Mary Geaney is the chief executive officer of Rossie Young People’s Trust in Montrose. She leads a team of 185 staff to deliver trauma-informed care, education, health and specialist psychological services for young people with multiple and complex needs in secure care.
Helen Reid from Laurencekirk was my local hero for the Scottish Parliament’s 25th anniversary celebration. She makes such a positive contribution to improving her local area by holding fundraising events and coffee mornings to provide Christmas lights and summer hanging baskets.
Jill Fotheringham, a local businesswoman, has been campaigning for many years to improve the treacherous Laurencekirk junction, which has caused too many deaths, collisions and near misses. Her unwavering commitment to the campaign has, at all times, kept the pressure on Transport Scotland and Aberdeenshire Council to get shovels in the ground.
Other women, such as Angela Taylor from the Angus Pylon Action Group and June Morrison from the Leylodge against industrialisation group, are leading the charge against the megapylon plans that will puncture the beautiful countryside of the north-east and decimate communities.
Those special and brilliant women, and many more besides, have made such a difference to their communities, personally and professionally, and I am delighted to have the opportunity to pay tribute to them today.
As the motion highlights, this year’s IWD theme is accelerate action, to address with renewed urgency the barriers that many women face. I will focus the remainder of my remarks on two of those barriers—the crippling cost of childcare and difficulties accessing diagnosis and treatment for medical conditions such as cervical cancer and endometriosis.
After working in human resources for more than 30 years, I know how vital accessible childcare is for women as they return to work after maternity leave. There are two issues with childcare in Scotland—cost and availability. Both have been highlighted in a petition to the Parliament that was lodged by Aberdeenshire mum Julie Fraser. She is calling for funded hours to be introduced in Scotland when a baby is nine months old. That has already been rolled out in England. Women who want to work are being priced out of the workforce because of sky-high nursery fees. Funded hours from when a baby is nine months old would be a game changer for many working parents.
On women’s health, no woman should have to endure sleepless nights because of delays to diagnosis and treatment. Conditions such as endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome can have a massive impact on a woman’s physical and mental wellbeing, but it can take years to secure a diagnosis. The Dundee endo warriors have been doing brilliant work to shine a light on women’s health inequalities.
Women across Scotland are making such a difference every day. It is our duty to come together and knock down the barriers that are holding them back.
17:48
I congratulate Audrey Nicoll on securing the debate. She rightly raised the issues of misogyny, exploitation and violence again women worldwide, and they are cruel and disgusting. However, I will confine my remarks to our home turf as I view the progress towards equality that women in Scotland have made during my 80 years and reflect on the barriers then and now.
I did not really notice much in the way of discrimination at primary school. I was keen and quite bright, and the children who had difficulty with the three Rs bore the brunt of the teacher’s impatience. I was also a tomboy, so, until adolescence, when those pesky hormones kicked in, as well as peeveries and skipping, I played marbles and fought over our street territories. One pigtail was always destroyed early in the day, and I regularly had bloodied knees and elbows.
Secondary school was a different kettle of fish. As I was a girl—in those days, Boroughmuir had boys and girls entrances—I discovered cooking and sewing on my timetable. I loathed both and was hopeless at them. Hockey and netball were next on my hit list. To avoid them, I added non-existent science classes to my timetable, which was not discovered until it was too late for me to be disciplined. That was one advantage of keeping a low profile, which was then my modus operandi.
At 16, I was asked by the school if I wanted to stay on. Many of my female friends opted to leave. My father, a very forward-thinking man, left the choice to me. “Boy or girl, you are all equal”, he said. For a working-class girl like me, that was the exception.
The school, of course, had me destined to be a secretary. There is nothing wrong with that, but there was no encouragement to go to university, except from my Russian teacher. I left at 16, but with highers in my back pocket. I looked for a job at what was then Ferranti, as I had higher physics, chemistry and maths. A woman in a white lab coat took me quietly to the side and advised me not to take the job offer because I would be stuck at her level, whereas men were promoted.
I then began as a clerkess in an insurance company, because I was desperate to have some money. After one year of that, I saw that able women were stuck at senior clerkess level, so that was it—I packed it in and went to university.
I am telling this story because the culture at the time, certainly for working-class girls, was to leave school at 16, get an office job, get engaged at 18, marry at 20 and have their first child at 22. Before the pill, there was no hanky-panky until they were married. A pregnant single girl at that time was considered a fallen woman, but it was different for boys and men, of course.
The irony is that, by national necessity, during the second world war, women were liberated into what were men-only jobs, but, as soon as the war ended, they were expected to return—and they did—to domestic-only roles.
We have come some way, but against that narrative, and not that far, really. Girls are still pigeonholed into certain trades and professions. There are not many female plumbers and electricians, but there are plenty of female teachers. It is tougher, as good though we are at multitasking, to juggle jobs and motherhood—it is no easy task. I insert the caveat that there are men, too, who have those dual roles.
Added to that, although there were always pressures on girls about their looks, they are exacerbated today by social media. Are you slim enough? Do you conform to the current model of good looks? Having to conform to fit in has always been the case, but it is much worse these days.
There has been a shift, but not as much as one would expect 80 years on. Marriage is not a necessity and the term “bidey-in” has been lost in the mists of time; it is about having partners. We have women as chief executives, we have had female Prime Ministers and a female First Minister and, often, general practitioners are women, although male nurses are more of a rarity. However, I do not have answers—only questions—as to why change is so slow. Why have we not moved on further in those 80 years?
I married at 25 and had my first child at 27. I had to give up my teaching post for six years to bring up my sons, as there was no such thing as maternity leave and no nursery or job security. We have some of that now—it is better, but it is not good enough.
17:53
I, too, thank Audrey Nicoll for bringing the debate to the chamber.
I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on the importance of international women’s day 2025, with its theme, as we have heard, of accelerate action. The motion highlights some incredibly important points, with the focus on building momentum and urgency to address the unequal barriers and serious challenges still being faced by women in this country and around the world.
The health inequalities that women face are widespread and deeply frustrating. This is not a new issue, especially for women from deprived areas, and it is an issue that members have heard me speaking about before. Such inequalities are unacceptable. When we think about health outcomes for women, we hear women’s voices saying that they are not always understood or believed when they approach services. It is important that we get the opportunity to raise such issues in the chamber.
Women from the most deprived areas are still less likely to attend breast or cervical screening appointments, with at least an 11 per cent difference in uptake—not to mention the fact that female life expectancy varies drastically from the most to the least deprived areas. Although that is improving, it continues to create inequality among women, and I think that all of us will want to work tirelessly to overcome that challenge.
There is something in the idea of community-based provision of women’s health services going to the individual, instead of services depending on the individual to be able to go to them. I bring that up, because I have spoken to a lot of women, as I am sure we all have, during the weeks running up to international women’s day. Because women often put others before themselves, it is difficult for them to attend appointments, and the closer an appointment can be to a woman, the more likely they are to attend.
As we all know, women are more likely to experience poverty and gender-based violence. That is a reality. We have spoken about it previously in the chamber, and all members are absolutely determined to change it. Domestic abuse rates are rising, and we need to do more to tackle violence against women and girls. According to the annual statistics on domestic abuse for 2022-23, the police reported that 83 per cent of victims of domestic violence were female and that four in five incidents involved a female victim and a male suspected perpetrator. It is important that we do more work on that; indeed, we have had debates on it previously.
There is a real national need for education. I am trying to bring together some of the previously raised points, on which we agree, about educating men and young boys on how they should relate to women, their attitudes and their actions. Some of our male colleagues in the Parliament are real champions in that respect.
It is also important for me to discuss international women’s day on a global scale, focusing on the impact of the displacement and devastation being experienced by millions of women and girls not just throughout the world but, in particular, through the violence in Ukraine and Palestine. One could not be more accurate in saying that those women need acceleration and action.
Families have been ripped apart in Palestine. As a result of the ceasefire agreement this year, some were able to reunite, but, with the recent action by Israel further hindering Gaza’s ability to provide clean water and food for its numbers of children, pregnant women and breastfeeding women, malnutrition is a problem. The figure for those affected was sitting at about 4,000, but, clearly, it is expected to increase. Across the world, women need us to shout and raise our voices, because it is women who suffer hugely when there is war and devastation in their country.
I know that I am running out of time, but I just want to mention that there is hope. When we bring women together, we can all work towards positive outcomes. If we raise our voices in the Parliament and in our communities, we can make a difference.
17:58
I thank Audrey Nicoll for lodging her motion, for securing this important debate and for celebrating the achievements of women in the North East Scotland region.
I have good reason, especially this year, to join that praise. On Saturday, which was international women’s day, I was in Aberdeen city centre as part of a large, diverse, joyful and resolute group of residents, friends, neighbours and strangers. We were there to express our support for and solidarity with women—“ALL women”, as the United Nations theme of this year’s international women’s day reminds us. All women matter.
Another event was taking place in Aberdeen that day. It was a smaller one, attended by a few people, some local and some not, even if their red baseball caps were printed with “Make Aberdeen Great Again”. It was addressed by a notoriously and virulently transphobic activist, one from whom even anti-trans groups have scurried to disassociate themselves, with a history of Islamophobic discourse and allied with movements to dismantle women’s rights to healthcare, work and protection from abuse.
That is why we, too, were on the streets of Aberdeen. We were speaking up for the real rights and needs of women—all of us together: feminists of all genders, disabled people, firefighters, and accompanying dogs and small children. The transmisogynists had a public address system to amplify their regressive nonsense, but we had drums and determination, bubbles and rainbows.
It has been a tough year for women and, as always, the most dangerous place to stand is in the intersections that Kimberlé Crenshaw showed us, where oppressions and injustices thunder down from every direction. We, as far as we can, stand there in solidarity and care. We stand with trans women facing the most brutal scapegoating, as we have seen just this afternoon. We stand with women across the majority world—the global south—whose health, families, homes and lives will be lost through the cuts to US and United Kingdom overseas aid. We stand with women in Gaza and the West Bank, who are targets of apartheid and genocide. We stand with disabled women in the UK, waiting in fear for the next wave of cuts. We stand with women everywhere, as their rights to reproductive justice—to make safe choices about their own bodies—are narrowed and diminished, and sometimes taken away completely.
Misogyny in its most naked and violent forms is multiplying across the world, emboldened and inflamed by the Trump Administration, and transmitted through new media into the screens and minds of children. For a few, it is a route to money and power; for everyone else, including men and boys, it will be a disaster.
Scotland must act. The groundwork for a misogyny bill has been laid—now is the time to make it a reality. Of course, legislation alone is not enough, but when the threat is so real and the damage so great, it must be part of our resistance.
I end with the words of Judith Butler, a feminist philosopher and campaigner, who, in response to the question “What is a woman?”, said:
“Feminism has always kept the question open and refused to answer it, refused on principle. Because we don’t know all the things women can be and do and we’re not about to say in advance: this is who you are, stay within the limits, stay within this category ... we don’t do that, we’re a freedom struggle.”
I am proud to be a part of that freedom struggle, and I will be so until I die.
18:02
I thank Audrey Nicoll for bringing the motion to the chamber. I also take this opportunity to thank all the excellent organisations that have the courage to stand up for women’s rights, including For Women Scotland, Women’s Rights Network Scotland, Sex Matters, Murray Blackburn Mackenzie and many more. However, I am disappointed and surprised that there has been no Scottish Government debate on the issue this year.
Every year, I am honoured to speak in the debate on international women’s day. This year’s theme is accelerate action, with the call
“for increased momentum and urgency in addressing the ... barriers ... that women face”.
However, how can we celebrate every year when, in many respects, we are going backwards, and when women’s rights are being diluted? In Afghanistan, women’s voices are banned from being heard in public. In Iraq, it will soon be legal for a nine-year-old girl to get married. In Iran, women can no longer show their hair. Female genital mutilation remains common in many countries. The list goes on and on when it comes to taking away women’s rights.
While those terrible behaviours and scenes are unfolding right in front of our eyes around the world, I stand here today with a heavy heart, aware that women’s rights here in Scotland are slowly being taken away. In the national health service, women are forced to change in front of biological males. In schools, girls are filmed using unisex toilets. Female prisoners are being housed with criminal males. Biologically male officers are allowed to strip search women. Males have been allowed to enter centres that are designated for women, such as rape crisis centres. Why is it that women are always the ones who have to compromise for men?
Let us be very clear: I am a woman. This is what a woman looks like. I want my dignity to be respected. Why should someone who is not a biological female be allowed to tell me what a woman is? How can we speak about women’s equality when we cannot even define the word “woman”?
The SNP Government’s culture of secrecy and its embrace of gender ideology have led to underreporting, with health boards either not holding or refusing to provide data on sexual assaults and rapes in hospitals; to no uniformity, with some local authorities and schools embracing single-sex spaces and others not; to no accountability, with female nurses being punished for refusing to share changing rooms with male colleagues; and to no transparency, with organisations being financially blackmailed for not subscribing to gender ideology and woke politics.
Shortly after the debate, I will be hosting a round table on amplifying women’s voices, with speakers including international lawyers, academics, women refugees, and anti-poverty activists. The round table will take a long view on the experience of women in Scotland and will serve as a discussion of what it means for women to speak up in some of the most challenging places in the world. I encourage all members in the chamber to attend.
In closing, I hope that, when I give a similar speech this time next year, things will have changed for the better. Here’s hoping.
18:06
I thank Audrey Nicoll for lodging the motion and securing the debate in the chamber. Like Pam Gosal, I am surprised that the Scottish Government does not seem to be forthcoming with a debate on international women’s day, as it has in previous years. This year, international women’s day feels particularly important in the context of the increasing challenges to women’s rights around the world.
Around three quarters of unpaid carers in Scotland are women. Their provision of vital unpaid care comes at significant emotional and economic costs. The “State of Caring in Scotland 2024” report shows that 71 per cent of women unpaid carers had given up work to provide care. More than half feel overwhelmed, and more than a third report that they have bad, or very bad, mental health.
In the recent Scottish budget negotiations, we secured the right for family carers to earn more. Expanding support for carer respite will enable women who care to take a well-deserved break, which will support their wellbeing.
Action is needed to tackle economic barriers that mean that women are more likely to be living in poverty and financial insecurity. My Liberal Democrat colleague Christine Jardine MP is calling for statutory maternity pay to be doubled and parental leave to be expanded.
Recently, Shetland Women’s Aid published survey results about life in Shetland for women. The report uncovers the pervasiveness of gender inequality on the islands, with more than half the respondents reporting that they had faced discrimination and gender-based violence. One respondent wrote:
“I don’t know a single woman in Shetland who hasn’t been either harassed, assaulted, spiked, stalked or followed home at night.”
That is quite a damning indictment. Respondents cited a culture of misogyny in Shetland that normalises sexual jokes and harassment.
It was also highlighted that Shetland’s tight-knit community networks can create difficulties with reporting gender-based violence. Those close community networks can, however, also be positive sources of solidarity and support. Prevention education from a young age, along with bystander training for men to enable them to call out their peers’ behaviour, is needed to make Shetland and, indeed, Scotland safer and more inclusive places.
The USA Administration’s callous freeze of international aid is having a devastating impact on women and girls. An estimated 3.8 million women have already lost access to contraceptive care. Unsafe abortions are one of the top five drivers of maternal death worldwide, and instances will only increase with disrupted reproductive healthcare.
For a group of Afghan women students who are studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses in Oman, the halting of US Agency for International Development aid has resulted in their facing forced return to Afghanistan. For years, I have raised the brutal restrictions on women in Afghanistan and in Iran, where the so-called hijab and chastity law aims to impose comprehensive police control over society. It is distressing to consider the isolation and despair that such conditions create. The international community must not leave Afghan and Iranian women behind.
I am also concerned that the UK Government is planning to cut funding for international aid. As my MP colleague Monica Harding put it, increasing defence spending by cutting aid
“is like robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
In the more than three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, women have faced increased risk of gender-based violence, rising unemployment, greater domestic burdens and more mental health crises. Despite those immense challenges, women in both areas have stepped into leadership roles within their communities. As I have previously highlighted here, it is crucial to all peace negotiations that women are actively involved and are recognised as essential to the peace process.
Women’s rights face many challenges across the globe: it is incumbent on all of us to do what we can to address the barriers that women face and to create a more equal world.
18:10
I thank Audrey Nicoll for lodging tonight’s motion on international women’s day and note this year’s theme, which is accelerate action to address the barriers that women face.
The barrier that I will speak about is the current postcode lottery regarding paid maternity leave in UK fire and rescue services. Members will be aware that I recently lodged a motion in Parliament to commend the Fire Brigades Union for its fight for 52 campaign to extend maternity leave across the service to 12 months on full pay. Arrangements across the UK are inconsistent at the moment, with different services offering different arrangements. I ask all members to add their support to that motion.
I note the FBU’s strong history of campaigning on maternity rights, which did not begin just with the launch of that campaign a few years ago. As far back as 1981, the union was resisting efforts to reduce maternity leave, pay and rights and has continued campaigning and fighting for those rights since then, culminating in that important campaign for 52 weeks of mat leave on full pay. If we are serious about women in the workplace—including those in the fire service—that campaign is important and the issue must be addressed.
In its campaign, the union highlights a number of reasons why the campaign is so important, including occupational hazards in the workplace and issues with recruitment, retention and inclusion. Members will be well aware of the occupational hazards and the risks to firefighters, and might also be aware that the FBU commissioned a report into the risks from contaminants. Maggie Chapman has been a strong and vocal advocate in Parliament on that issue.
Exposure to those hazards carries additional risks for a woman who is pregnant. One study showed that almost a quarter of first pregnancies for female firefighters in the United States ended in miscarriage, compared with just 10 per cent of pregnancies in the wider US population. The research suggests that exposing a pregnant woman to contaminants affects the health of the fetus and that the risk continues after birth, during nursing, when contaminants have an impact via breast milk.
On those grounds, it is important that women in the fire service are granted 52 weeks of paid paternity leave, which will also deal with issues in recruitment, retention and inclusion. Women have been working as operational firefighters since the early 1980s. The numbers who are employed have improved slowly, but they are still a minority. Tackling the issue of paid maternity leave would go a long way. The Fire Brigades Union believes, and I believe, in tackling recruitment, retention and inclusion.
I can see that my time is up—four minutes goes quickly. To conclude, I am sure that the minister will agree and accept that a lack of maternity provision is a barrier to work, and that includes working in the fire service. I therefore ask whether she will raise the FBU’s campaign for full pay for 52 weeks of maternity leave with her shadow cabinet colleagues.
18:15
I thank Audrey Nicoll for this debate on the theme of international women’s day: accelerate action. As I proceed through my closing remarks, I will refer to as many members as possible, as time allows. I will outline some of the actions that we have taken to improve the lives of women and girls in Scotland, while recognising that there is much more work to be done. It is right that we are being asked to go faster and further.
Health was raised by Tess White. It is a key priority for the Government. In 2021, Scotland was the first country in the UK to publish an ambitious women’s health plan, which has brought real change. For example, we now have a specialist menopause service in every mainland health board and a buddy support system in place in the islands’ health boards.
We launched our women’s health platform on NHS Inform to give women and girls access to comprehensive and reliable information about their health. We are now working on phase 2, which includes wanting cervical cancer to be eliminated, which we think is possible in our lifetime.
Ms White also raised childcare. We provide 1,140 hours of funded high-quality early learning and childcare to all three and four-year-olds and eligible two-year-olds. If families paid for that, it would cost them, on average, more than £5,500 per child per year. Supporting families through provision of high-quality, affordable and accessible childcare is critical in supporting women into work and keeping families out of poverty.
I will mention the point that Mercedes Villalba raised. She highlighted the valuable work of trade unions in advancing women’s working rights, including enhancing maternity provisions. I would be happy to discuss that with her further.
On fair work and the gender pay gap, it has been said many times that the best social programme is a job. Our “Fair Work Action Plan: Becoming a leading Fair Work Nation by 2025” helps women into properly paid work. Fair work is vital in tackling the cost of living crisis, in-work poverty and child poverty, all of which we know disproportionately affect women. Our fair work first principles include payment of at least the real living wage, action to tackle the gender pay gap and the offer of flexible family-friendly working. In the past 10 years, the number of accredited real living wage employers has increased from 14 to more than 3,700, which is five times higher than the level in the rest of the UK. That means that 68,000 workers in Scotland have had a pay rise.
Those improvements are particularly felt by women and racially minoritised women, who are overrepresented in work on zero-hours contracts and in low-paid and insecure work. Although it is not good enough, the gender pay gap in Scotland remains lower than it is in the rest of the UK. In 2024, the estimated median gender pay gap for full-time employees in Scotland was 2.2 per cent, compared with a 7 per cent gap in the UK.
Carole Mochan, Maggie Chapman, Pam Gosal and Beatrice Wishart all raised the plight of international women in the face of war and the impact that that has. I hope that they are reassured and pleased to hear of our long-term support for the women in conflict 1325 fellowships, which provide networking and training for women peace advocates from conflict-affected regions. Since 2017, 364 fellows from more than 40 countries and regions have taken part in the fellowship programme.
In her opening speech, Audrey Nicoll said that she wants an update on the National Advisory Council for Women and Girls. That is part of how we are trying to make real progress towards gender equality. There are two key strands of work that will accelerate that action, in keeping with this year’s international women’s day theme. The first is our work with the First Minister’s NACWG. The group has made a range of ambitious and challenging recommendations that it believes will make systemic change for women and girls. We are putting in place a robust cross-governmental approach to refocus and redouble our efforts to deliver those recommendations, following the pandemic. We hope that that new strategic approach will facilitate delivery of the recommendations to enable better monitoring and measuring of progress.
I cannot close without referring to my good and long-standing friend, Christine Grahame, who reminded us of the stereotypes that have been used over the years with regard to education and job options for girls in particular. Speaking personally for a moment, I note that I often suffered from those stereotypes as a young Asian girl. Expectations of me achieving in education and, indeed, having a long-standing career were off the table. It was assumed that I would have an arranged marriage and that I would not be working.
Although we are all breaking barriers across the generations, I absolutely recognise that there is a need to accelerate action.
Meeting closed at 18:22.Air ais
Decision Time