Scottish Women's Convention: First Minister's speech - 6 March 2023

Agnes, thank you. Presiding Officer, thank you. And, thank you to all of you.

I certainly hope that I will be back at this International Women’s Day event many, many times in years to come but this will be the last time I address this event as First Minister.

Over the last two weeks since I announced my intention to step down after eight years in the job – a decision that I believe in my heart and my head, as I said on that day, is the right one, certainly the right one for me, but also the right one for the country - but a decision that was, nevertheless, very hard to make.

In those two weeks I have, any I’m very proud of this actually, I have managed to avoid crying in public. But I’m not sure I’m going to manage to continue that over the course of this afternoon.

So many people over these past eight years have given me so much support during good times and, in particular, very, very challenging times and there are too many for me to mention right now.

But amongst all of these people have been a number of women – friends, colleagues, acquaintances, sometimes women I just meet as I’m out and about  doing my job as First Minister. As long as I live I don’t think I’ll ever be able to adequately sum up to what that has meant to me.

For me, over the past eight years, sisterhood has not been an abstract concept. On so many occasions it has been something that has sustained me day, after day, after day. And that was particularly true during the challenges of  COVID –  really difficult time for everybody. My job was not the hardest in the country by any stretch of the imagination.

But that was a tough period for me, for everybody and that love and support sustained me then. So, I just want to take the opportunity to all of you to say  from the bottom of my heart, thank you for that support. And I will, for as long as I live, for as long as there is breath in my body, will continue to be a champion and an advocate for gender equality which is, as I will set out in my remarks, as yet, an unwon cause but one that we must win in this generation for the sake of these young women here. Who one day some of them, maybe more than one of them, I’m not sure who, will sit in that chair as First Minister.

One of the things I’m really proud of if that your generation no longer needs to question that women can hold the highest political office in the land. So let’s hope to see some of you there in years to come. But, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, Agnes.

Now back to what I’m actually here to talk about which is not me. There is no truth in the rumour that politicians like talking about themselves all the time, at least not all of us do. But, I always enjoy this date in the calendar.

International Women’s Day, as Agnes said, is a really important occasion. And it’s always special to have this event here in our national parliament. This year, it possibly, though, feels even more special than normal. We met in person last year but this is actually the first time since March 2020 that we’ve had the Chamber full in the way it is today. We met in March 2020 literally days before the pandemic turned all of our lives upside down.

So that’s one reason it is special but another, of course is that it is 20 years now since the Scottish Women’s Convention was established. Established “to ensure that women’s voices reach policy makers”.  And I think we can safely say the convention has been an outstanding success in meeting that objective.

During these past two decade of the Scottish Women’s Convention, for me, and I’m sure for so many of us here, it has provided a vision of a better

future. It has been a constant source of hope, even perhaps especially in times of real challenge.

And I always reflect and, forgive me, those of you who have been at these events before because I say this every year but I don’t mind repeating myself. Every year I stand here and, as I stand here, of course I’ve got a very different perspective of this parliamentary chamber than the one I normally have.

But every year, I stand and I look out at this chamber, full of women in all of our glorious diversity. And I just think to myself how much better would the world be if parliament’s everywhere looked more like this every single day of the year.

And that’s the vision that all of us should absolutely keep in our minds. I absolutely concede we will have to continue to allow some men to be in parliamentary chambers but much greater balance is definitely needed. 

The convention has also made a real practical difference. You’ve contributed to so many really important policy discussions over the years. Just one of many examples – last year you published really important – and also deeply concerning - research last year on male violence against women and girls. 

You have also campaigned passionately on issues from free school meals and menopause policies, to period poverty and childcare.

Throughout the last 20 years, the convention has  influenced government policy regularly, and it has done so for the better.

So I want to thank and congratulate everyone who has been involved in the Scottish Women’s Convention over the past two decades. And given that she almost made me cry, I’m going to make special mention of the one and only Agnes Tolmie. Agnes, you have steered the convention right from the very beginning. You are a true sister and you are an absolute powerhouse.

I, obviously, as we’ve just been reflecting on, have cause to reflect personally recently. Spending eight years in any job is a long time but, Agnes, you’ve spent 20 years with the Convention- around 18 of them as I understand as Chair – and, I think as we’ve just heard, you’re still going strong. That might be in part testament to the fact that this convention recharges you with energy, in a way that normal days in this parliamentary chamber don’t! But mainly it is a tribute to your dedication to advancing women’s rights. Agnes, on behalf of all of us, you are one of the true heroines of the Scotland’s women’s movement and I want to thank you for everything you do. That’s also called getting my own back

Look, as these introductory remarks might suggest, I want to spend a bit of time this afternoon - I’m not going to speak for too long - reflecting on some of the progress we’ve made in, not just the last eight years as I’ve been First Minister, but the last 20 years of the Convention and almost 25 years now of this parliament.

But, as I do so, inevitably I will focus on where we need to make more progress. When I spoke in this chamber in November 2014, on the day I became First Minister, I deliberately, and very consciously, put women’s rights right at the heart of my ambitions for government.

I, obviously, as we’ve just been reflecting on, have cause to reflect personally recently that spending eight years in any job is a long time but, Agnes, you’ve spent 20 years with the Convention – around 18 of them as I understand as Chair – and, I think as we’ve just heard, you’re still going strong. That might be in part testament to the fact that the Convention recharges you with energy in a way that normal days in this chamber don’t! But mainly it is a tribute to your dedication to advancing women’s rights. Agnes, on behalf of all of us, you are one of the true heroines of the Scotland’s women’s movement and I want to thank you for everything you do. That’s also called getting my own back!

Look, as these introductory remarks might suggest, I want to just spend a bit of time this afternoon - I’m not going to speak for too long - reflecting on some of the progress we’ve made in, not just the last eight years as I’ve been First Minister, but the last 20 years of the Convention and almost 25 years of this parliament.

But, as I do so, inevitably I will focus on where we need to make more progress. When I spoke in this chamber in November 2014, on the day I became First Minister, I deliberately, and very consciously, put women’s rights right at the heart of my ambitions for government.

My niece was just 8 years old at that time. She was sitting up there in the gallery. She doesn’t believe me now, and I need to look out the video to prove this to her, just as we finished and parliament rose, she shouted from there, ‘Auntie Nicola, meet me downstairs!’ And she refuses to believe that. But, in that speech, I expressed my hope that by the time she became a young woman, things like the gender pay gap, underrepresentation, the other barriers that women face, would have been consigned to the dustbin of history.

Well, she is now a young woman, a wonderful young woman, who I am extremely proud of. And when I look at the world today, through the eyes of her generation, many of you here today, I have very mixed feelings.

There is progress to be really proud of, and I’ll come back to that in a second, but there’s also, today, real push back and there are real challenges for girls and women today. Some of these challenges are ones that my generation didn’t face when we were younger.

We see an assault, for example, on reproductive rights, demonstrated really starkly in the overturning of the Roe versus Wade in the United States, but we see echoes of that elsewhere, including here in Scotland in the form of protests outside hospitals and sexual health clinics providing abortion services. Just as an aside, let me say very clearly one issue, and there are many issues that I hope to champion from the backbenches of this chamber, but one is this: I will be a very vocal advocate for the introduction of safe access or buffer zones. Women have a fundamental human right to access healthcare free of harassment, free of intimidation.

And those who want to protest, they also have a democratic right to do so, but come and do it here where laws are made. Do not do it at hospitals and clinics where women are accessing their basic human rights.

So, these are some of the areas where we see push back. We see basic human rights of women being denied in countries like Iran, Afghanistan. We have a continuing epidemic of violence, including sexual violence perpetrated by men against women. And then there is what is sometimes appears to be an upsurge in misogynistic abuse.

Sexism and misogyny are not new phenomena. Older women, including myself and in this chamber, know that all too well. But social media amplifies and encourages those who are hostile to women’s rights, those who are hostile to women. I genuinely worry about the impact this has on women and girls generally, but in particular our ability to attract women into public life. The environment in politics today for women, and I don’t say this lightly, is harsher and more hostile than at any time in my political career. That deeply concerns and appals me, and we must challenge it.

So, women’s equality, as I said earlier on, does remain an un-won cause, and the theme of this year’s conference – “break the bias” – could have been the theme in any one of the past 20 years.

So, it is really easy to become frustrated, to become angry; I share that frustration and anger sometimes, and we need to channel it. Rage, when it comes to making change in life, can be a positive force. But we mustn’t ever, and I say this to the younger women in particular, don’t ever allow it to breed despair in your heart, because alongside so much injustice and inequality, the fact is, as Agnes set out, progress has been made, and that must inspire all of us to believe that more progress can be made.

There’s been progress in representation. As I said earlier on, my niece’s generation doesn’t question any longer that a woman can be the First Minister of the country.

The Scottish Cabinet has been gender balanced since 2014. I’ve been attacked for that regularly, almost as if having women in a cabinet reduces the quality of that cabinet. I've told this story before, even at these events; when I first appointed a gender balanced cabinet, I got lots of emails, including from women, asking how I knew that all of the women in my cabinet were there on merit. I didn't get a single email asking me how I knew all the men were there on merit.

So, I will defend my gender balanced cabinets, because I am proud of my gender balanced cabinets, and I'll go one further today. I'll challenge my successor, whoever he or she may be, to continue with gender balanced governments in the future, because Scotland is better for it.

The Scottish Parliament as a whole, as the Presiding Officer has said, is closer to 50 per cent representation than we have ever been. Forty six per cent  is not good not enough, but it is getting there.

Even in councils, where there is much to do, we’re seeing progress.

So, these increases in representation, they don’t guarantee better policies and better politics, but they do make it much more likely.

And as Agnes was going through all of the achievements of this parliament, cross-party achievements, many of them were, we should ask ourselves, how many of them do we really believe would have been possible without women in here arguing the case.

This parliament was the first in the world to legislate for free period products, the first in the world to introduce a women’s health plan. We’ve got a feminist approach to foreign policy, which is vital in terms of some of the issues that the world is facing.

We promote women’s rights through our support for families, through our economic policies, and through reforms to criminal justice. And all of these things are really important. 

Three and four year olds, and eligible two year olds, are now entitled to almost twice as much childcare as was the case 8 years ago. That saves families money, but it also makes it more possible for women to go into the workplace, pursue their own careers and opportunities.

This convention has also argued for free school meals. These are now available in Scotland to all children in primaries 1 to 5. We’re working to extend that right up to primary 7.

We’ve prioritised support for families through policies like the Scottish Child Payment and the baby box.

We’ve also mitigated UK Government measures – for example, the obscenity, and I use that word deliberately, the obscenity of the rape clause – which has a disproportionate impact on women and mothers in particular.

So all of these issues, they’re not solely about gender equality. They are the right thing to do for everybody. But because women are still more likely to be primary carers, it is the case that if we help families, if we help children, we also disproportionately help women. And that doesn’t just lead to a fairer society, it helps us to create a stronger economy as well.

It’s better – for women and for all of us – if women are able to contribute their ideas, skills, talents in the workplace. And again, we’ve seen progress in recent years. The gap between men and women’s employment rates has more than halved, the gender pay gap has reduced although any gender pay gap is completely unacceptable.

But there is still so much more to do. We need to see more women, not just in politics but in senior positions on company boards. We were reminded during the pandemic that women still disproportionately work in sectors like social care that are under-valued and we need to do more to address that.

And we need to do more to support women in setting up their own businesses.  We had a report published just a couple of weeks ago by Ana Stewart. A brilliant report into female entrepreneurship. There is so much to do to address something that is unacceptable.

Right now in Scotland,  women are half the population. Slightly more than half of the population but only around one in five businesses in Scotland is led by a woman so it’s time to address all of that.

And that report sets out some brilliant recommendations to allow it to do so. One of the things that the report put forward and supported might, on the face of it, seem surprising but it’s not. And it takes me into the final issue I want to cover.

That report on entrepreneurship in Scotland supported the idea  of creating new criminal offences dealing with misogyny. Now, that does seem surprising on a report fundamentally about the economy but when you take a step back from it, it’s not surprising. For as long as women face sexism and misogyny, abuse and harassment, as long as women live in fear of violence then women will never fulfil our true potential. So we need to address all of that as well.

And that’s the final issue I wanted to touch on, the importance of continuing progress in reforming the criminal justice system so that it works better for women. We've seen progress, new laws. One of the finest moments in this Parliament's history against domestic abuse and domestic violence. But very soon this Parliament will consider consultation on some proposals from Helena Kennedy's report last year on new criminal offences against misogynistic behaviour, making it easier to prosecute behaviour that doesn't easily fit into the existing criminal law, the kind of misogynistic abuse that women and girls get on the streets, but now increasingly get online.

And these provisions will also send a clearer signal than ever before about what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in our society. So these will be forthcoming soon. They will be controversial, but these and associated reforms to make the criminal justice system better for victims of sexual violence and sexual abuse are vital in making sure that we have a criminal justice system reflective of a society that works better for women and for girls. All of these things are essential if we are going to continue the progress and overcome the challenges that we still face.

So my closing message to you today and I guess my closing message to this event as First Minister, and it goes to everybody in this chamber right now, but I guess it goes particularly to those young women that I am looking out at right now. Keep the faith, keep the hope, keep the optimism in your heart. Make sure it's always laced with a little bit of that rage that is always necessary for social progress everywhere, but never ever give in to despair. The talents of young women across our country are perhaps the biggest asset we have as a country so take confidence in the progress that has been made but as you take over the baton from older women, like me, even older women like Agnes, then do it knowing that you've got right on your side and you've got women like us on your side and at your back every step of the way. Let's keep going. The cause of gender equality is unwon but if we work together, if we pull together, if we make sure sisterhood is something that we don't just talk about but live, then we will win that cause and we will win it in the generation that is coming after us. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart so much.