 The next item of business is the members' business debate on motion 3136 in the name of Michelle Thompson on International Women's Day 2022, break the bias. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put and I would ask those members who wish to speak in the debate to please press the request to speak buttons now. I would point out to members that there is absolutely no time in hand as we are to resume business at 2 p.m. sharp, and therefore members will be required, including the opener and the minister, to stick to their allotted time. I call on Michelle Thompson to open the debate up to seven minutes please, Ms Thompson. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Today I dedicate my speech for International Women's Day 2022 to the women of Ukraine, and I call on the minister and all speakers to do likewise. In normal times, I would outline a few of the key facts about women in Ukraine, such as equality and respect for women, as with many countries is still proving elusive. Women are more frequently the victims of domestic violence. There is still a gender pay gap, although there has been considerable progress in recent years. There are still some types of roles from which women are disallowed, although that does not include combat. Representation of women in Ukrainian politics is advancing slowly but is increasing over time. They do not yet have anything near a 50-50 split by sex at any level. There is still some way to go in social attitudes, with a study undertaken in March 2020 by the Razumkov Centre showing that 83 per cent of respondents thought that a woman's most important task was to take care of her home and family, as compared to the belief of 75 per cent of respondents that a man's guiding mission was to earn money. Exactly a week ago today, those women were plunged into Putin's war and, as the First Minister herself acknowledged, underneath his veneer of power lies insecurity and fear. War has a devastating and disproportionate impact on women that is too little understood. The women fleeing the cities, the women left behind or the women staying to fight all will face unique and specific challenges. Zoe Clack from Edinburgh has recently undertaken research into women in Afghanistan and Iraq for both the revive campaign to which I point members to my register of interests as a director and the University of Stirling. Her report suggests some outcomes for women involved in conflict. She points out, for example, that we are male breadwinners have been killed, that women left behind are more vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Zoe described the situation in this way and I quote, changes in earnings when one member of household becomes a victim of the conflict can cause an intersection of trauma and discrimination for women and girls. Their route to financial security can often come at a cost as either choosing or being forced into marriage or sexual favours. The bodily autonomy of women is being taken away and in these spaces where women are dependent upon others for economic survival, they are extremely vulnerable to physical and sexual violence. That helps to explain why human rights watch has pointed out that conflict has a disproportionately greater effect on the mental health of women than men. Yet, while we hear rightly of the mental health challenges faced by male troops, there is precious little coverage or consideration of the mental health burden faced by women. Not only are the consequences for the mental health of women insufficiently appreciated, they suffer precisely when it is they who must take the lion's share of the responsibility for rebuilding families and communities. Rape and sexual violence are weapons of war and Steve Kroshaw's freedom from torture has already pointed to the rape and torture of women carried out by the Putin regime in Chechnya. Reports were made on social media recently and I cannot confirm if they are true that Ukraine was trending on various porn sites as men anticipated the live streaming of rapes. Fortunately, Ukraine has encouraged women and children to get out of harm's way while the men stay to fight and there is now around 1 million people, mostly women and children who have left, but that separation in of itself will have very significant impacts. What of those women who have stayed to fight? Estimates suggest that women on active duty make up nearly 16 per cent of Ukrainian armed forces. How women fighting in wars affects them has been eloquently articulated by Svetlana Aleksiewicz writing about Russian women in the second world war. She highlights that warmers seldom told from the women's point of view and what interested her were not the tales of heroism but of small, great human beings. These women learned quickly that there was nothing heroic about war and that the stereotypes of that time and arguably still did not want to acknowledge the strong, tough women. When those women returned home from the fight, their voices were missing in action. Social media is full of photographs of the brave young women taking up arms in Ukraine. That includes a former Miss Ukraine, but why did we need a photograph of her in a bikini? She is there to defend her country the same as any man. Because of the nature of conflict, humanitarian structure has already been an early casualty. A few days ago, the entirety of UN and independent aid organisations announced withdrawal. The support from those agencies will be limited for some time yet, and that goes to the heart of war for women. Their needs remain unheard and the support structures need to be greatly extended. The major problem is structural, and it is to do with men's structures the framing of their issues. It will take a huge amount of time to create the cultural circumstances for meaningful empowerment. I close on commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bacillit, in a speech in January of this year describing how the involvement of women in policy-level peace building is deteriorating and vastly worse than a couple of years ago, with, according to a related UN press release, an insidious uptick in a host of actions by spoilers aimed at silencing their voices. Men make the policies, but it is mainly women who do the hard lifting both during and post-conflict. Brave women of Ukraine, I salute you. I now call Jenny Minto to be followed by Pam Gozo up to four minutes. Women taking up weapons, women confronting Russian soldiers, women caring for their loved ones. They are upholding the fundamental rights of not just women and girls, but everyone. I dedicate this speech to them. Conflict often makes us think in different ways to find solutions to life changed out of all recognition. Persuading girl guides, sea scouts and school children to collect sacks full of curly red seaweed on Scottish beaches might not be the most obvious wartime activity, but the knowledge of marine biologist Sheena Marshall was to prove vital to British medical research during the Second World War. Marshall and her colleagues identified this seaweed as the best homegrown source of aga, a jelly-like substance vital for growing bacteria in laboratories and the development of vaccines. Japan was the world's main supplier of this, but when their entry into World War II made it essential to find other sources. As a child of the Isle of Bute, Sheena suffered from rheumatic fever and, while recovering, immersed herself in the writings of Charles Darwin. After graduating in 1919 with a degree from University of Glasgow in zoology, she made her life's work the study of plankton in marine food chains and examining the effect of fertilisers on marine productivity. The west coast of Scotland's coastline being her laboratory. Her pioneering work served her country through the war and beyond, and today students at the Scottish Association for Marine Science in Oban study in a building named in Sheena Marshall's memory. In 1934, Bessie Williamson started a summer job as a secretary at LeFroy distillery on Isle. This was to have a profound impact on the whisky industry. After owner Ian Hunter suffered a stroke in 1938, her managerial skills ensured that distillery remained in good working order throughout World War II. After the war, she noticed that newspapers were giving increasing coverage to the merits of Scotch whisky's petty notes, so instead of wasting LeFroy's petty punch in blends, Bessie began to market LeFroy's single malt driving higher prices for a luxury product. Her efforts were noticed by the Scotch whisky Association and she took on the role of US spokesperson travelling across America promoting Scotch whisky, but particularly single malts. So influential was Bessie Williamson that she became known as the first lady of LeFroy and was awarded the title of women of the year in the 1950s. In 1987, Ray Meckie fought and won her third attempt at the Westminster constituency of Argyll and Bute. Politics was in her blood. As a teenager, she supported her father as holding speaker in the far-flung constituency of Inverness until he arrived from previous meetings. Argyll and Bute, as you will have heard me say, is diverse and contains 23 inhabited islands, which Ray was regularly a visitor of. Often her ferry trips turned into impromptu surgeries, something that I recognise. Her two main aims at Westminster were Scottish self-government and the development of the Gallic language. She was therefore delighted in the creation of her long fought for Scottish Parliament and I'm sure she would be delighted to see the increased representation of women in this session. So, a scientist, a politician and a distiller, women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of Scotland and wider. To finish, Presiding Officer, I will quote the International Women's Day website and I feel that this is particularly poignant with regard to what we are seeing happening in the independent country of Ukraine. Imagine a gender equal world, a world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination, a world that's diverse, equitable and inclusive, a world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge women's equality, collectively we can all break the bias. Presiding Officer, I thank the member for bringing such an important motion forward today for members' business to celebrate International Women's Day. I also hold the women and girls of Ukraine in my thoughts today while making this speech. I'm honoured to be opening today for the Scottish Conservatives as it's something close to my heart. Tomorrow is the anniversary of my father's death and it was very difficult for me at that time as a teenager, a female coming from an Asian background suddenly becoming the head of the family, running the family business in a male dominated sector. This was not without its challenges but I made it work. It's important to me on this day that we celebrate the achievements made by women but most importantly reflect on the challenges that women continue to face and the steps that we need to take as a society to remove the barriers that we have faced for the next generation of women. This year's theme is to break the bias. Scotland has made many notable achievements in advancing women's equality but we still have a long way to go in breaking barriers for women in education and employment. Presiding Officer, the education of a young women and girls is of paramount importance. Education gives women choices and provides long term sustainable economic growth for Scotland. If the future is digital, women need the opportunities to be represented in technological evolution. In 2021, young women accounted for 45% of STEM students in higher education. However, the update of the computer science is particularly low when women accounted for only 16% of computing science students. We must continue to encourage and promote STEM subjects to young women. Women's involvement in STEM-based employment will improve workplace diversity. As men currently make up 82 per cent of the digital technology sector, Presiding Officer, I want to talk about the importance of removing obstacles to sustainable long-term employment for women. Around half of the mothers who have had their flexible working request approved felt that they were treated unfavourably as a result. 62 per cent of surveyed employers did not feel the need to conduct a peer review because they considered themselves equal pay employers. Almost three quarters of BMA women surveyed said that they felt that they had experienced racism, discrimination and bias in the workplace. On Tuesday, as a member of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee, I heard first hand from witnesses about the disproportionate effects of lockdown restrictions on women. It is like how women experienced increased demands on their time available for employment due to caring responsibilities and were concerned for their financial security. Or how BMA women have experienced a larger negative impact on their income and employment, worsened by inadequate support and services as not one size fits all. In conclusion, Presiding Officer, as a Parliament, as politicians and as individuals, we have a responsibility to ensure that women are properly represented in all spheres of life. Firstly, by making change happen through policy in this chamber and being that voice for women and girls. Secondly, being role models that women and girls can relate to and empowering them. And last but not least, Presiding Officer, we have the power to open doors for other females so that we have the duty to push for better female representation on boards, in politics and in leadership roles so that decision making can reflect women. I now call Emma Harper to be followed by Claire Baker. Up to four minutes please, Ms Harper. I congratulate my colleague Michelle Thomson on securing this extremely important debate to mark international women's day 2022. It is so good to welcome the minister back to the front bench. As Ms Thomson's motion states, this year is marking the theme breaking the bias, highlighting the impact of bias, both conscious and unconscious, on women and girls and to imagine a world free of bias stereotype and discrimination. I, too, dedicate my time here right now to the women in Ukraine. The International Women's Day objective states that everyone has a choice to challenge stereotypes. We can choose to fight bias, we can broaden perceptions, improve situations and celebrate the achievements of women. It is important for us all to work to enable that to happen and to strive for gender empowerment and equality. Members may recall that, in 2020, I brought a members' debate forward in chamber on the United Nations Resolution No. 1325 on women, peace and security. That resolution specifically addresses the impact of war on women and the importance of women as negotiators in conflict resolution and in addressing hatred and discrimination. Janet Fenton, with her secure Scotland hat on, highlights that security is not solely about the physical security of a country. It is also about the security of housing, of education, of food and of clean water supply. As we are seeing the horrific conflict in Ukraine and witnessing civilian casualties, it is even more important now that we highlight the value of women being included in negotiations to achieve peace, including the women of Ukraine. That is a paramount as we are seeing events unfold. Internationally, Scotland working in partnership with the United Nations has pledged practical and financial support for women and girls to achieve that goal and to learn peace building and conflict resolution skills. In doing that, women and girls will feel confident to challenge war and intolerance. In a joint Scottish Government and UN programme that runs over three days and consists of talks, seminars and lessons, women and girls have access to international peacekeeping experts, female role models in positions of power and the opportunity to learn from each other. I would ask the minister to reaffirm the Scottish Government's commitment to that programme, especially as we dedicate today's debate to the women in Ukraine. Presiding Officer, earlier this year I became a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association gender champion. Recently we had our first meeting and I met other gender champion parliamentarians including from Tasmania, Tanzania, Gibraltar and Grenada. The purpose of the CPA UK gender champions is to represent and advocate for CPA UK gender priorities within our parliaments. The priorities are championing and advocating for gender sensitive spaces for women to enhance their leadership skills, supporting parliaments to implement gender sensitive approaches and supporting the strengthening of gender-based violence legislation. The bottom line of this role is to advance women's rights in our role as parliamentarians. From the initial discussion with CPA colleagues, I realised how far the Scottish Government and our Parliament have come in our journey to advance women's rights and women's inclusion in our democratic systems in Scotland. I look forward to advancing the role and I am happy to engage with colleagues across the chamber about the CPA champion role. Presiding Officer, in closing, there are many ways in which the Scottish Government is promoting gender equality and the promotion and empowerment of women. As events continue to unfold in Ukraine, it is now so important to enable that. Once again I thank speakers and Michelle Thompson and I look forward to the minister's response and continue and support continuing to break this bias. As international women's day approaches, I welcomed the opportunity to speak in parliament today on this year's theme of break the bias. I thank Michelle Thompson for bringing the debate to the chamber. I echo and welcome Ms Thompson's recognition of women in Ukraine and other war-torn countries. She made a powerful contribution. I also warmly welcome Christine McKelvie back to the French branch. I would also like to thank Close the Gap for their briefing ahead of the debate. International Women's Day has been marked for over a century and, while it is a welcome opportunity for collective and individual action that celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, it is also a reminder that each year of the bias, the stereotyping and discrimination that women across the world continue to face on each and every day of the year. This year's theme encourages all of us to raise awareness and take action against the deliberate or unconscious bias, which makes it more difficult to achieve equality. We need to actively call out gender bias, discrimination and stereotyping each time we see it and for us as policy makers to take the steps needed to level the playing field. Most of us will be familiar with Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez, which outlines the inequalities of a society created for men that too often ignores the needs of women. The boot covers examples across all aspects of our lives from heating and offices to emergency healthcare, highlighting just some of the challenges that we face in breaking the bias. In the debate last year on women's health, I spoke about the impacts of that, such as a misdiagnosis related to heart disease. The inequality and approach means that women's health has been marginalised, unacknowledged and devalued, that there has been and continues to be systematic or institutional or societal failures in the treatment women receive and in the public health messages and support they receive. The creation of the women's health plan is a very welcome step, but progress needs to be made swiftly and comprehensively. In the Scottish labour market, discrimination continues to characterise many women's employment experiences, restricting ability to enter and make progress in good quality employment. That is particularly true for black and ethnic minority women and disabled women. We have seen increased focus in recent years on the gender pay gap, but little meaningful progress to address the barriers to equality in the labour market. We know that the pandemic has more adversely impacted women and lessons must be learned so that delivery of services can be improved. The existing inequalities were exacerbated and gender biases were highlighted as women were more likely to take on the additional caring responsibilities and to have negative impacts on their ability to take on paid work, referrals to services for women and girls' experience in violence increased during the pandemic and access to often vital services changed. At the beginning of the pandemic, the likely negative impacts of women's inequality were highlighted, and we need to question and examine whether appropriate sex were taken to mitigate that. This morning, the Social Justice and Social Security Committee heard evidence on domestic violence and violence against women and girls, and I urge members and the minister to reflect on the evidence that was heard this morning from organisations that were telling us how women were an afterthought in Covid planning and were disappointed that women did not seem to have been recognised significantly in this week's economic strategy. We need to see investment in public services that recognises and supports women's needs, from more flexible care provision to workplace strategies that recognise changes throughout women's lives and how they impact on work and other activities. We have started to recognise the bias that exists, but we are not yet close to breaking it. We all support the principles of international women's day, but we must continue to work every day to achieve equality, diversity and inclusivity, so we can forge equality for women in communities across Scotland and around the world. I now call Marie McNair, who is joining us remotely, to be followed by Russell Finlay up to four minutes, please. I am immensely proud to be called to speaking in this debate on international women's day. I congratulate Michelle Thompson MSP for securing this member's debate and everything that she contributes to the campaign for equality. I stand with Ukraine and send strength, hope and love to the women of Ukraine. I contribute to this debate as a first female MSP elected for Clydebank and O'Guy. I feel a great sense of honour when carrying that achievement into the heart of our Parliament. I hope that it sets an example to girls and young women in my constituency that encourages them to go for what they want to achieve and not be held back by bias and discrimination. The theme of international women's day for 2022 is break the bias. It challenges us to secure a world free from bias, several types of discrimination, a world that is diverse, inclusive and unbiased, a world where difference is valued and celebrated. We are urged to work together to forge women's equality as collectively we can all break the bias. As the first female MSP for Clydebank and O'Guy, I welcome the progress that has been made to secure equality both by the Scottish Government and our Parliament. Clearly, there is much more to the gun. We cannot let up our efforts to secure gender equal world. We also owe it to the brave and determined women who have gone before us that we never give up. I pay tribute to those women for what they have done, and it is an honour to be led in this Parliament by the first female MSP of Scotland. We do not have to cast our minds back too far to remember the courage and leadership that her First Minister showed in standing up to sexism in the soldiery. She continues to show strong leadership every week in this Parliament, when all the opposition real particulate readers line up to have a go. I also pay tribute to women's aid and the wider support groups in my constituency. There are a tower of strength to many women at the time of greatest need. Quite simply, they have saved lives and supported women. International women's day challenges us to break the bias in our communities, our workplaces, our schools, colleges and universities. We must also call out government policy that discriminates against women. As a working-class woman, volunteering in working in my constituency, I saw first hand the inbuilt discrimination of the UK benefit system. I mean elected by a price to call that out at every opportunity. It is bad enough that these policies gave inferior pension to women for many years and continue to withhold money when many female pensions are due. However, this discrimination has been troubled by the so-called welfare reforms, the so-called reform of the two-child policy, which is a warrant rate clause. That forces women to have to declare the worst abuse by men in an appalling manifestation of bias. As gender said to our social justice and social security committee this morning, women are forced to expose trauma just to feed their children. We also have the benefit cap at the nice families, where basic subsistence rates are already not enough. I can go on and list many more, as we all know the UK benefit system that is biased against women. I will continue with my pledge to call it out. Finally, we must use the power of education to change attitudes to gender, and certainly we must continue to support our schools, colleges and universities to do this. I spoke to a teacher recently, they told me of a time, they asked the pupils to draw a picture of a nurse on a pilot. The pupils proceeded to draw along gender lines and the outcome was female nurses and male pilots. Even one pupil did not know a nurse could be a male. Although great progress has been made, that account for the teacher illustrates the size of the challenge that remains. As the first female MSP for Clydebank and Magai, I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate and urge everyone to break the bias wherever it exists. It is not the bold to imagine a gender equal world, but a necessity. I now call Russell Finlay to be followed by Beatrice Wishart up to four minutes, please. Thank you Michelle Thompson for bringing forward this debate today and expressing agreement with the contents of her motion and her support for the women of Ukraine. Now, without wanting to turn this brief speech into an episode of Who Do You Think You Are, I would like to begin by delving into my family tree, so forgive me. My great-grandmother Nessie was one of three sisters. Her older sisters were Frances and Margaret McFunn, who both devoted their lives for fighting for women's rights. Exactly 110 years ago this month in March 1912, the two suffragette sisters left Glasgow for London and were among 148 arrested for a mass window smashing campaign. One newspaper reported scenes of unexampled outrage on the part of militant suffragists. Frances and Margaret were sent to Holloway prison, where they went in hunger strike and were violently force fed. A decade ago, I reported in the centenary of the McFunn sisters heroic actions, which remain largely unrecognised. I tell the story in part and tribute to their actions, but also to illustrate the long, hard and continuing battle for women's rights and equality. As the famous quote has it, well-behaved women seldom make history. What would the McFunn sisters make of Scotland in 2022? A country that talks the talk about rights and progress, but when it comes to the criminal justice system, it still abjectly fails women and girls. Just look at the tens of thousands of backlogged court cases, many involving domestic violence, or female victims who can spend years in agonising limbo, while cases move glacially through the courts. How prosecutions can be casually abandoned with zero explanation, or how the so-called bastard verdict of not proven still somehow remains to be used disproportionately in rape cases, this Government has been talking about scrapping it for over a decade. Or what about brave female victims of rape being forced into the civil courts to secure justice? Today, outside Parliament, there will be a memorial protest marking one year since the murder of Sarah Ivarad. It is shameful that women do not feel safe on our streets, however, even in their own homes, safety and security cannot be assumed. Last year, a 67-year-old lady called Esther Brown was raped and beaten to death in her Glasgow flat. Responsibility lies entirely with her killer, but he should never have been freed to do what he did. He had already raped and violently assaulted a retired nurse in her home. He was jailed for seven years and back out after five. He had 23 previous convictions. He was a registered sex offender, supposedly being monitored by the police. He was reportedly able to legally hide his past simply by changing his name. If hand-ringing and platitudes were any measure, Scotland's justice system would be world leading. The reality is that many women are still fighting for basic fairness and equality. Warm words are all very good, but actions speak so much louder as the McFunn sisters demonstrated 110 years ago. Before I call the next speaker, due to the number of members who wish to speak in this debate, I am minded to accept a motion without notice under rule 8.14.3 to extend the debate by up to 30 minutes. I now invite Michelle Thompson to move a motion without notice. The question is that the debate be extended by up to 30 minutes. Are we all agreed? We are agreed. I now call Beatrice Wishart to be followed by Maggie Chapman. Up to four minutes, please, Ms Wishart. Can I also welcome the minister back to the chamber? Thank you to Michelle Thompson for bringing this important debate. I welcome the theme, Break the Bias, for this year's international women's day. The world's eyes are on the Russian invasion and aggression in Ukraine, and I want to take this opportunity to reiterate Scottish Liberal Democrats' solidarity with the people of Ukraine. One million people have been displaced in a week, mostly women and children, and what comes next is uncertain. Bias views cease conflict as a male arena, yet women and girls are deeply impacted by war and have active roles from confidence to journalists to carers. We see in Ukraine today how women are forced to make difficult decisions to fight or to flee in order to save their families and homes, their democracy, freedoms and way of life, things that we take for granted. I would like to turn now to Afghanistan. Our eyes and attention have understandably been pulled away by other events, but we must not forget what is happening there. Women's rights are human rights, but the Taliban has no respect for them. The Ministry of Women's Affairs in Afghanistan has, unsurprisingly, now been closed. Its Kabul headquarters now hosts the reinstated ministry for the propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice, which monitors residents' behaviour. In the 1960s, it had beaten women who violated Taliban policies, including its strict dress codes or work or education prohibitions. Taliban rules ban women and girls from secondary and higher education. Rules dictate what women must wear, how they should travel, what kind of mobile women should have and enforce workplace segregation by sex, all enforced through intimidation and inspections. The biases and stereotypes about women's roles and abilities are being taken to extremes, yet some women have pushed back, putting themselves at great risk to stand up for their rights. In Zabul, south Afghanistan, women went to the education department and demanded to be allowed to continue teaching and learning. After a compromise of teaching girls and boys in separate places, the girls' school reopened, but those successes are sadly the exception. Afghan women report relentless feelings of anxiety, hopelessness, insomnia and loss because of the actions of their Government, but Governments should be there to keep us safe and empower us as individuals not to terrorise and restrict us. Harnful views about what women can and can't do are limiting the lives of millions of women. We must continue to demonstrate our support for women in Afghanistan and Ukraine. Let's break the bias so that we can see the back of regimes that have no regard for human rights and the rights of women. In efforts to end conflict, women are often left out of the peacekeeping process. Between 1992 and 2019, women made up just 6 per cent of signatories in major peace processes. That is despite research recognising the importance of women's involvement in peace and security issues to achieve long-lasting stability. The United Nations Security Council 1325 addresses how women and girls are disproportionately impacted by violent conflict and recognises women's critical role in peace-building efforts. It is biased to see women solely as victims of conflict. Women have an important place in rebuilding new societies after conflicts, and rebuilding is a chance to transform social structures to ensure greater equality and enjoyment of women's human rights. We must call for women's inclusion in such processes around the world. I want to apologise to all the women that I have called beautiful before I have called them intelligent or brave. I am sorry that I made it sound as though something as simple as what you are born with is all you have to be proud of when you have broken mountains with your wit. From now on, I will say things like you are resilient or you are extraordinary, not because I don't think you're beautiful but because I need you to know you are more than that. Those are the words of Rupi Kaur, a Canadian poet, author, illustrator and photographer. I think her words capture something of the essence of this year's theme for International Women's Day. Bias, conscious and unconscious, is deeply rooted in our patriarchal society and it is right that we come together and recognise that and identify what we need to do to challenge and dismantle the structures and cultures that perpetuate inequality. I thank Michelle Thomson for lodging her motion and giving us this opportunity today and I thank the organisations that have provided briefings and information about their work and I too hold the women of Ukraine in the forefront of my mind. Bias is systemic and deeply ingrained in each of us. It requires active thought to challenge and break down and one bias can be compounded by another. Intersections of difference make for a complex landscape of oppressions and inequalities. We only have to look at pandemic statistics, how older women were more likely to be furloughed than younger women and men, how women of colour were more likely than white women to face increased isolation, discrimination and abuse during lockdown and as we heard so eloquently in the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee this week and more broadly how disabled and poorer women suffer more in times of war than others. Intersectionality matters and biases are not fixed. That is at the core of my intersectional feminism. The fight to tackle gender stereotyping and discrimination must recognise the multiple and overlapping impacts of other characteristics like race, disability, gender identity and so on. It is so abundantly clear to me that tackling inequalities wherever and whatever they are is good for everybody—good for women, good for girls, good for men. Each of us in this place, each and every single one of us, has a part to play in this collective struggle. We must recognise that the struggles that we fight here in Scotland are connected to the struggles being fought by women and girls all over the world, as we have heard so eloquently already this afternoon. Perhaps, especially poignantly today, I want to end as I started with the words of a woman of colour, Roxanne Gaye, academic and writer who challenges us all. Women of colour, queer women and transgender women need to be better included in the feminist project. Women from these groups have been shamefully abandoned by capital F feminism, time and again. This is a hard painful truth. This is where a lot of people run into resisting feminism, trying to create distance between the movement and where they stand. But feminism's failings do not mean that we should eschew feminism entirely. People do terrible things all the time, but we do not regularly disown our humanity. We disavow the terrible things, so we should disavow the failures of feminism without disavowing its many successes and how far we have come. We have come far, but the road is long ahead of us. Congratulations, Michelle Thomson, on securing this year's debate and her stunning speech today. My speech is not about the women of Ukraine, but my heart and my hopes are with them. Michelle has been a strong public voice for women for many years, with a wealth of experience in many areas. The chamber is now particularly packed full of champions for women, and it is great to see the growing number of elected female politicians with lived experience of entrepreneurship and wide industrial sectoral experience. The light has been firmly directed on improving women's experience of work as a result of that increased representation. It is an area that suffers greatly from the impact of unconscious bias, particularly in career progression and accessing business support. That is the theme of my speech, business support and support for women entrepreneurs. I have spoken frequently about the work of Women's Enterprise Scotland. There is a shining example of what can be achieved when women with shared experience come together to affect culture change and to push for outcomes that will close the gender enterprise gap and, as a result, boost Scotland's economy. Last week, Ms Thomson and I had the pleasure of joining them and women business owners across Scotland and internationally in person and online in their conference. The hot topic was, of course, the impact of the pandemic on female-led business. At the same time, the Scottish Parliament's research centre, SPICE, has produced a very insightful and well-researched paper that puts the experiences of a large cohort of women business owners at the heart of it by way of 10 case studies. It is called the impact of Covid-19 on Scotland's women entrepreneurs, and I would encourage everyone to read it. The report summarises asks of female business owners and, in reading them, they mirror what I have been hearing for years, both as a former business owner and myself, but also in the six years that I have been convening the cross-party group on women in enterprise and Parliament. They are better access to funding, dedicated seed funding for female entrepreneurs, more opportunities to enable women to come together to learn a network in their own communities, creating coaching and mentoring champions for women in every Scottish region and expanding affordable childcare. The report falls into two categories, directed and tailored business support that has a gendered lens and infrastructure social support for those who have families and caring responsibilities. The Scottish Government has made significant commitments to both. Early learning and childcare has been rolled out, and I hope that, in years to come, we will see the scope of that increase. As a manifesto promise, we have the establishment of a women's business centre. At the west conference last week, the economy secretary and my friend and colleague Kate Forbes announced a new short-life review into support for women in enterprise and how they pledged £50 million is going to be invested over the course of this Parliament to support more women into entrepreneurship and enterprise. As it stands, women-owned businesses in Scotland are now only just 14 per cent of SME employer businesses, and that is down from 20.6 per cent in 2017. In a subsequent international women's day speech, I want to be able to say that the enterprise gap in Scotland is narrowing, because, if it does, we will have a thriving economy with the injection of an estimated £7.6 billion in revenue that will come in from business gender parity. If I have time, could it be very brief and interventionist? I really appreciate Julie Martin for taking a quick intervention. She talks about women in enterprise, which she welcomed the Scottish Government's work in implementing and funding the women in agriculture programme. As a north-east quine in a farming community, it is absolutely 100 per cent. As Maggie Chapman said, gender parity helps men and women in society, but only with the targeted attention of unconscious bias and support decisions will we get there. Finally, before I sit down, I want to welcome back my friend Christina McKelvie, the strongest of women. I now ask Minister Christina McKelvie to respond to the debate on behalf of the Scottish Government up to seven minutes, please, minister. I thank the members who have given me a warm welcome back to the chamber, and I am delighted to be responding to the debate. I thank Michelle Thomson for proposing the debate and for her incredibly strong and reflective speech today. It gives us all pause for thought, so I am very grateful for that. We have covered a huge wide range of issues today, reflecting the priority and seriousness that we all give to ending the inequality that women and girls still face in society here and globally. It is on that global point that I want to pick up some of the points from speakers today. My heart and my best wishes are with the women of Ukraine today as well. As Michelle Thomson said, war has a devastating and disproportionate impact on women and children. I want to pick up some of the points in that. We have been watching some pretty horrific news, seeing women and children fleeing their homes towards safety. Women and children are disproportionately impacted by war, as I have said, and it is such a desperate situation that our hearts go out to the people of Ukraine and to all the women and children fleeing the war. Beatrice Wishart reminded us that we have to think about these situations and the impact that it has on women, whether they fight or flee. I put that in quotes because that is exactly the decision that they have to make, and they usually have to make it in a snap, whether they fight or flee, not just in Ukraine today but in Afghanistan and in other parts of the world as well. That reminds me about Resolution 1325 and Emma Harper who raised in her debate, and Beatrice Wishart. The Scottish Government has contributed to the international women peace and security agenda since 2016, initiated by invitation from the UN special envoy to Syria, the First Minister's committee to funding a pilot project to train 10 women from the Syrian Women's Advisory Board of the Office of the Special Envoy to Syria. Post-pilot, the programme became known as the Women in Conflict 1325 Fellowship and was delivered by the Scottish Human Rights Organisation Beyond Borders. It was assisted by UN experts and endorsed by the UN special envoy to Syria. The Women in Conflict 1325 Fellowship commitment came to an end in April 2021, presenting the Scottish Government with an opportunity to assess if and how it continues to fund those activities relating to women's peace and security agenda. I would be very happy to speak to Emma Harper, Beatrice Wishart and others who would like to give us some understanding of their ideas and how we can continue that work. I look forward to hearing from them. I think that we can all agree that the intent behind this year's theme, ban the bias, is long overdue and one that we are all working towards. I want to respond to some of the member's contributions today. I agree with Pam Gozel that it is a celebration of Russell Finlay's great aunties. It is a celebration of Pam Gozel becoming the leader in her household. It is a celebration of all the women's organisations that people have mentioned today. It is a celebration of all the women's enterprise networks and other women's organisations highlighted by Gillian Martin and Mary McNair. I want to celebrate all those amazing women who I work with every day. Many of you are in this chamber, in fact you are all in the chamber, but the women that I see in the work that I do in my constituency, the women that I see in the work that I do as a minister, I want to celebrate their roles. I also want to celebrate the role of friends and family. I could not have got through the last year of my life without my friends and my family, the role models, the activists, the caregivers and the business leaders, women that deal with the obstacles that life put in front of them and their families, who overcome them and continue to keep their lives on track. Day in, day out, just quietly getting on with it, smashing it, and today that's the women of Ukraine. It's the people that Jenny Mintle mentioned, Sheena Marshall, Bessie and Ray Meaty. All international day is for you and I thank you so much for all that you do in it. As a Government, we are tackling gender inequality at different levels by addressing the immediate and acute consequences such as the insidious violence and abuse many women face and likewise the poverty, homelessness and ill health that blight the lives of too many women and girls, but we must also continue to work towards the systemic change that we want to see ultimately ending gender discrimination. Maggie Chapman reminded us that we need to do so for all women, minority ethnic women, disabled women, trans women, women of all ages and denominations, sexual orientations and backgrounds. If we make policy using an intersectional feminist approach that works for women in all of their diversity, it will work for everyone. We all know that it's vitally important to be successful at any level, but we have the evidence to ensure that we are taking the right action. That's because evidence tells us that we do the majority of caring, paid and unpaid, and as a result many of us work in the lowest paid jobs that are undervalued in society. That's where we need to break some of the bias. That is alongside the gender-based violence and misogyny that we face throughout our life. That's why we continue to prioritise funding for violence against women's services, providing more direct support than any other time. Throughout Covid, I personally and my officials worked with Scottish Women's Aid in Rape Crisis Scotland and between 2020 and 2021 allocated an additional £10.75 million to services to deal with increased demand. We realised quickly at the beginning of the pandemic that women would be victims of that. That's also why we asked Baroness Helena Kennedy to consider whether Scotland should have a stand-alone offence to tackle misogyny and be a wait-her-at-findance soon, I hope. That's why the Forensic Medical Services Victim Sexual Offences Scotland Act 2021 will commence on 1 April 2022. It establishes a legal framework for consistent access to self-referro so that a survivor can access healthcare, request a forensic examination without having to make a police report. There are so many areas that have been covered in today's debate and I'm looking at the clock, so I'll finish up now, I think. I think to do otherwise than what we have talked about doing today and as a minister I'm happy to work with anybody across the chamber who's got new ideas or refreshed ideas or different ideas on how we can do this because it's too easy for us to lose the momentum that we have created here and history will not judge as kindly we do. So I plan to celebrate International Women's Day, celebrating all of you, the women of this world and then to roll my sleeves up for the work ahead to break the bias and I hope you will all join me. Thank you. Thank you minister and that concludes the debate and I suspend this meeting until 2 pm.