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Seòmar agus comataidhean

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 22 December 2024
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Displaying 595 contributions

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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity

Meeting date: 25 April 2023

Gillian Mackay

Absolutely—or about any other issue, for that matter, given the number of gruff journalists whom I am sure we all deal with every week. Someone is going to tweet about that, aren’t they? [Laughter.]

I will move on to a slightly different topic.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity

Meeting date: 25 April 2023

Gillian Mackay

I could not possibly comment.

I am interested in how we also address additional challenges that women might face as they come into journalism, whether they are from a minority ethnic background, have a form of disability or are members of an LGBTQ+ community. I was speaking to a friend of mine who had considered doing sports journalism before they went on to do something else at university. They have a hearing loss, which put them off going into the sports punditry side of things. What do your organisations do to encourage people from diverse backgrounds to consider taking up careers in sports journalism, and how can you continue to support them throughout that journey?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity

Meeting date: 25 April 2023

Gillian Mackay

That is fine, thanks convener.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity

Meeting date: 25 April 2023

Gillian Mackay

We mentioned the perception that sports desks are male-dominated and have a particular culture. Catherine Salmond, do you believe that we should keep challenging that perception so that women who are coming through university or from other routes, and who may have that concern playing on their minds, will think that that is somewhere that they can go to work? Is there a link between the representation of women’s sport in print and on the TV and radio and the number of women who come to work in sports journalism? As Margaret Mary Murray said, “You can’t be what you can’t see.”

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity

Meeting date: 25 April 2023

Gillian Mackay

Have I got time for another question?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity

Meeting date: 18 April 2023

Gillian Mackay

What you have said is powerful, about individual teams and individual sports people claiming the narrative.

Next week, we will have the broadcasters. If there was one thing that you wanted us to raise with them, what would it be?

09:45  

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity

Meeting date: 18 April 2023

Gillian Mackay

Gemma Fay, I want to pick up on something that you said about the societal attitudes behind some of the things that we see—and, in particular, how that comes out in the media. For example, a lot of the media sports reports comment on fixtures for the Chelsea team but then comment on “the Chelsea women’s team” afterwards. They use that sort of language to distinguish between the two. Is it damaging to women’s sport to have that instead of “Chelsea men’s” and “Chelsea women’s”? Does it create, almost, a second-class distinction between the two? Do you think that it is done consciously, or do we need to continue to challenge it?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity

Meeting date: 28 March 2023

Gillian Mackay

My question comes off the back of Stephanie’s questions on facilities and how we maintain diversity in them, notwithstanding that some are up for closure because of budget cuts. I have heard from hockey clubs and various other clubs in my local area that 5G pitches are easier to rent but are not suitable for some sports. There could therefore be a slow creep into other sports that are more generally dominated by boys and men, thus shutting off some sporting diversity for others. Have you a view on how we might not only maintain that diversity of facilities but expand it to ensure that we have as wide a range of sports as possible available for people to try, as well as facilities that allow for general physical activity? As Emma Harper mentioned earlier, the Scottish weather is not always the most inviting for going out for a walk. We see that in cycles of people perhaps becoming less active over the winter compared with the summer.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Scrutiny of NHS Boards (NHS Golden Jubilee National Hospital, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Highland)

Meeting date: 28 March 2023

Gillian Mackay

My question is particularly for Pamela Dudek.

Given the number of older buildings, local hospitals and so on across Sutherland and Caithness, and right across NHS Highland, what programmes are under way to keep those facilities in good condition and open in the first place so that people have those services close to home? What is under way to also ensure that all services are not centralised in Raigmore hospital?

Some of those buildings are very old—some of my family are from Sutherland, so I know how old those buildings are. How is the progress of work to make sure that they can take some of the new equipment that they were never built to take?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity

Meeting date: 28 March 2023

Gillian Mackay

I will follow up on something that Dr Stark said, which others might have an opinion on. She talked about strength training. When I was at school, we did a lot of sport-based PE, but not much gym-based PE. We did not learn how to do a squat, a deadlift or any of those things. That is not for every child, but those exercises underpin much of the training required to get better at the sports that people are doing, and much of that is based in the gym. Are we doing enough of that? Most people now get some of their activity in the gym, but there is a lot of misinformation online. Do we need to do more for younger people, so that they can learn to do that safely? I learned a lot of how to do that properly from my peers at university, when I was in my late teens or early twenties. A big opportunity is being missed earlier in life.