 centres. WORWS. Unigais o ddigon i'r Cyfrânig ddigon pobbylch Cymru honno blendach i chi yw Mary Slezsar ar y Ddym ni, mae'n ddymniadau nu yn fyddag ei gael. Rydw i eich ddugon i chi, ond ydw i ddigon i chi gael a ddigon i ddigon i'r cyfrânig ddigon i chi i chi, ond ddigon i chi Richard SUBSCRIBE yn eu ddigon i chi'ch ddigon i chi ei ddigon i chi, ond mae'n ddigon i chi i chi, ond mae'n ddigon i chi iddyn nhw. ddych chi'n bwysig ybodaeth, mae'r dw Leto gynnwys yma, sydd yn fyddweithio yn 7 min, wrth lyf yn ymgyrch. Thank you very much indeed, Presiding Officer, and thank you to everyone who is here this evening to take part in this debate as we approach the annual and important milestone of International Women's Day 2015. Life in Dundee, Presiding Officer, in the mid 1800s might be difficult for us to now, a lot of slum housing, poverty pay, very short life expectancy, chronic sanitation provision and for thousands of people a hard working life in the jute mills, which were unsafe, noisy and extremely unhealthy. It was into this world that Mary Slesser was born in 1848. It was her strength of character shaped by her environment and her city of Dundee that spurred her on to not only inspire the people of our city but others across the world. As a youngster, Mary dedicated herself to her church, the Church of Scotland and to her education, spending every moment expanding her knowledge, reading the writings of Thomas Carlisle, John Milton and David Livingstone. Those thinkers inspired her to her core despite her difficult surroundings and her father's alcoholism. In 1876, at the age of 28, she set sail from Southampton to arrive eventually in the very different world of the Calabar, Nigeria. Life in Calabar proved to be grueling, exhausting and at times heartbreaking for Mary as she set out her work to teach, worship and help the families around her. Mary adopted orphan children in Nigeria and worked hard to act both as a missionary and as a mother, despite battling ill health and malaria numerous times. During her time in Nigeria, Mary Slesser not only saved hundreds of lives of men, women and children, but she also offered a brand of assertiveness that was a less than orthodox style of missionary work. From the beginning, it was clear that her work would be a challenge because of the cultural differences that existed between Mary and the people she was living amongst. Her integrity, respect and determination in learning the language and customs of the local people allowed her to overcome some of those issues and, in many ways, become a representative of them. That was an unconventional route for a missionary to take, but learning the languages of the people and how to live with them led her to providing the valuable role of interpreter between the Calabar chiefs and British officials in the region. I think that it is from this strong engagement with culture that is one of Mary's greatest strengths and the key characteristic that we should be celebrating today. It is worth noting, Presiding Officer, the work that Mary Slesser did with twins, who are a pioneer in this area. It was believed at the time in the Calabar in Nigeria that twins were the work of the devil and that one of them should die. It was Mary's fortitude in fighting against this that has let many babies and children survive. The purpose of International Women's Day is to look beyond ourselves and address an issue of inequality that affects us globally. I hope that we can breed a better understanding between ourselves and that we can try harder to bring together other cultures of the world to fight inequality in a progressive and respectful way. That is a progression that Mary Slesser would have been proud of. Mary's impact is still felt and celebrated throughout Nigeria today. Her unwavering belief in God's will, her bravery and her determination meant that she was greatly respected by the local people that she lived amongst and the devastation that swept through them upon news of her death is a testament to that. Mary's legacy is marked this year as we reach the centenary of that passing. In a large part, that legacy can be seen in the work of the Mary Slesser foundation that takes place in Nigeria, including agriculture, running health clinics and skills centres and retaining strong links with the city of Dundee. A number of excellent centenary celebrations are also taking place across Dundee, which have started with the unveiling of a bronze plaque at the city churches aptly St Mary's Church, St Mary's Kirk, in the centre of our city. The dedication for the plaque will follow soon in April, given by the moderator of the Church of Scotland after attending a service at the steeple in Dundee. It is also greatly encouraging that the children of our city are involved in Mary Slesser's commemoration, the invitation letter photography and short story competitions for young Dundonians alongside lecturers by Ruth Kirkpatrick, Doug Binney, who joins us in the public gallery today, Billy Kay and Dr Sarah Warden. An exhibition, a number of plays, concerts and a dedication from the Sheila Tennant Awards to Mary illustrates just some of the inspiration that Mary Slesser has brought to her home city. I pay tribute this evening to those on the committee in Dundee who have done so much in the past two or three years to plan the centenary celebrations of Mary Slesser's death and mark her contribution to the city and to the world. I am honoured tonight to move the motion in my name and acknowledge the amendment from Dave Thompson and to mark International Women's Day 2015 and to celebrate the life of the courageous and inspirational Mary Slesser. I now call on Ann McTaggart to be followed by Dave Thompson. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I would like to thank Jenny Marra for bringing this motion to the Parliament and recognising the achievements of Mary Slesser, a woman from Dundee who devoted her life to the promotion of women's rights in Nigeria. Her accomplishments, along with the accomplishments of many other women, truly deserve to be celebrated every day, and not just today. However, it is essential that they be highlighted on International Women's Day. The theme for International Women's Day this year is make it happen. Mary Slesser is a true embodiment of that phrase. I would also like to highlight the accomplishment of another Mary, another Mary and an extraordinary woman, Mary Barber. For those of you who may not know, Mary Barber was a Glaswegian woman known for her political activism throughout the early 20th century. Though she was from an average working-class background, the work that she has accomplished throughout her life was anything but ordinary. Having first-hand experience with the poverty and oppression that was rampant throughout Glasgow, Mary Barber was considered a working-class hero throughout Glasgow. She was born in 1875 in Colbarcan and later moved to Eldersley in 1896. She married an engineer and they settled in the governing area of Glasgow where she raised her two sons. She joined the first co-operative guild, Kinning Park Co-operative Women's Guild. That was an outlet through which women, including Mary, could discuss important political issues that were relevant. It was also a way through which women were taught and encouraged to enter the male-dominated sphere of politics. In 1915, in response to a rent increase in overcrowded tenement blocks, there was an outpouring of opposition, mainly from women, to protest those new policies. The women who took to the Glasgow shipyards wielding were often referred to as Mary Barber's army. We still wield pots and pans in honour of Mary Barber's army. Mary organised and spoke at rallies, which culminated in November 1915, with the passing of a rent restriction act. The act changed the housing system not just in Glasgow but throughout the rest of the country. It also brought Mary Barber to the forefront of political activism. Mary made a name for herself once again when she became the first woman councillors for the city of Glasgow in 1920, standing against two male candidates. Her commitment to helping women and children was especially evident through the policies that she fought for throughout her tenure as a city councillor and later as the first woman, Bailey. She pushed for a wide range of policies from free school milk to pensions for mothers that benefited the working class. In conclusion, let's make it happen, just as Mary Barber did, just as Mary Slesser did, nearly a century ago, by celebrating her and her many accomplishments in order to encourage the young women of today to become active in fields across the spectrum. I thank Jenny Marra for securing this important debate on the life of an amazing Christian woman—a point that I highlighted in my amendment to the motion, and I thank Jenny for acknowledging that. Mary Slesser was a hard-working mill girl from Dundee, as Jenny Marra has already said, who became a Christian missionary in Calabar, Nigeria, and she is an inspiration. Calabar was an area where no European had set foot before, and despite several bouts of illness and constant danger, she lived with the tribes and learned their language and traditions. She adopted many Nigerian children, particularly twins, who had been left to die. She is an astonishing woman, and so it is only right that we celebrate her contribution to the world on International Woman's Day in 2015. Mary was renowned for being an industrious woman who grew up in an environment of slum housing, poor pay and short life expectancy. She started her working life early, while she was still at school and in the toil of the jute mills, which were unsafe, noisy and unhealthy. By the age of 14, she was working 10 hours a day as a skilled weaver. She was one of seven children to a loving mother but a cruel father, Robert Slesser, who regularly assaulted his wife after heavy drinking sessions. Despite her hard life, her mother remained a strictly pious woman, encouraging young Mary to attend church, and she too became a fully committed Christian. As Mary's enthusiasm continued to grow, the whole family listened with interest to the progress of the Christian missionaries abroad. It soon became Mary's dream—some might say her calling—to become one of them. Mary immersed herself in the Bible and thrust herself into learning all that she could. She was particularly spurred on by the efforts of fellow Christian David Livingston. She taught Bible class in the Queen Street mission, conducted prayer meetings and helped the poorest and most underprivileged children. She attended Wishart memorial church in the Cowgate, which sat above a pub and earned its local nickname—Heaven and Hell. She dedicated herself to Jesus and to her education, spending every moment expanding her knowledge. Of course, she prayed for guidance and that guidance came. When David Livingston died in 1874, he published beside his obituary a piece of his writing that seemed to address Mary alone. It read, I direct you to Africa to carry out the work that I have begun. I leave it to you. It was the calling that Mary had been waiting for, and despite the dangers, Mary applied to the Foreign Missionary Board of the Scottish United Presbyterian Church, and her application was accepted for service at the Hope, Waddle mission in Calabar. So it was on 5 August 1876, at the age of 28, and dressed in sober attire, every inch of Victorian Lady missionary, she set sail from Southampton on the SS Ethiopia, destination Africa. During her time in Nigeria, Mary saved hundreds of lives, as has already been said. She stopped sacrifices and severe punishments. She stopped the murder of twins and the outbreak of tribal war. Her unwavering belief in God, her bravery and her determination meant that she was greatly respected amongst the tribes. Mary died in 1950 at age 67, with great mourning among those to whom she had dedicated her whole life. Since her death, she has also become a worldwide inspiration for Christians and women alike. It is great that her life will be celebrated in Dundee this year and elsewhere indeed, but we must not forget that she was, first and foremost, a follower of Jesus Christ. I thank my colleague Jenny Marra for securing this debate and recognising the significant achievements of Mary Slesser. Colleagues have spoken about the life of Mary Slesser and about the important work that she did as a missionary in Nigeria. Like her hero, David Livingstone, Mary had to work hard from a very early age. Indeed, as we have heard, she began work at the age of 11 and often worked 12-hour days in Baxter's Duit Mill. Her home life was also challenging because of her father's alcoholism and Mary found solace and direction in her religion. As we know, her faith was to take her to Nigeria and lead her to pursue the life of a missionary. However, her way of going about her work was somewhat different to that of her contemporaries. She chose to live outside the missionary compound to dress indeed like the people she served and refused for many years to fill to her water as local people had no means to do so. Over the years, her forthright manner, her courage and her determination won her many friends amongst the Nigerian people. As we have heard, she challenged the long-held practice of killing twin babies and adopted several local orphan children whom she raised as her own. Mary Slesser was perhaps as remarkable a character as David Livingstone whom she revered, but, unlike Livingstone, Mary Slesser has been somewhat overlooked in her homeland. She was the first woman to appear in a Scottish banknote, and she is the subject of two memorials in Aberdeen. However, as we have heard, it took the efforts of the Mary Slesser Foundation in this her centenary year to ensure that a monument to her memory was erected in Dundee, as well as, as we have heard, a range of celebratory events. I would add my congratulations to the organising committee, too, for the work that they have done. Presiding Officer, in a previous debate about another significant Scottish woman whom we have already heard about this evening, Mary Barber, I lamented the lack of significant formal recognition of the achievement of women in Scotland. Across Scotland, there are only 20 statues that depict individual women, and half of those were erected in the last 50 years. While there is little research about the number of statues dedicated to men compared to women, it is clear that men are disproportionately recognised. For instance, there are 12 statues in George Square in Glasgow, and only one is of a woman, and that is Queen Victoria. In 2010, the committee rooms of this Parliament were named for notable Scots. We have a female First Minister, a gender-balanced cabinet, and a significant number of women members, but only one of those six committee rooms is named for a woman, Mary Fairfax Somerville. It should be said that Mary Fairfax Somerville is another woman whose contribution, in her case to science, in an age when any education was considered dangerous to women's health, is deserving of such an honour. Why stop there? Could the larger of the garden meeting rooms and those in Queensbury House be named for important Scottish women? After all, TG 2021 is adjacent to the wall on which the excellent sculpture Travelling the Distance by Shona McMillan, which celebrates Scottish women, is located. Why not have a Mary Slicer room and a Mary Barber room? In the Mary Barber debate, I read out a quote that suggested that women like Mary Slicer and Mary Barber, and I quote, open a door to the world for all our daughters. This Parliament, which has championed equality, could push that door open a little further if we have the political will. I think that we do, and that is why I have written today to the Presiding Officer making that suggestion formally. I hope that it is one that we can all agree upon and act upon, too. Presiding Officer, the continuation of work in international development would, I am sure, please Mary Slicer, more than any monument that we could ever dream up, but we do need to make sure, as a Parliament, that the impact of women like Mary Slicer is not forgotten and is formally recognised. Thank you very much. I now call on Margo Fraser to be followed by Stuart Stevens. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I start by congratulating Jenny Marra for securing this debate, if we are helping us to mark the memory of Mary Slicer, another important figure from Scottish history? I understand that the Parliament has a family connection to Mary Slicer. The Deputy Presiding Officer, I understand, is Mary Slicer's cousin twice removed, or so he told me before the debate. We have a closer connection than you might think. When people talk about Scotland's contribution to the world, it is often measured by our great inventions and the technological feats achieved by our engineers and scientists. It is equally important to remember our impressive humanitarian record. Mary Slicer, Elsie Ingalls and many others served as torchbearers for women's rights in Scotland and across the world, and it is particularly pertinent to remember those on international women's day. The Scotland of the day is very different from the world that Mary Slicer inherited in the 19th century. Born in Dundee, during a time when women were denied the vote and other basic rights, she did the unthinkable and journeyed into the unknown with nothing more than her Christian faith and an unbending desire to help her fellow man and woman. When I agree with Dave Thompson, we should never underestimate the impact of Mary Slicer's Christian belief. It was this which drove her and inspired her to remarkable feats. As a result, more than a century later, Mary Slicer continues to inspire, and our foundation continues to help people to live longer and happier lives in the developing world. In the century since her death, women in Scotland have earned the vote, can stand for Parliament and have the freedom to enter any career that they wish with the knowledge that equal pay is enshrined in the law. While the speed of progress in our country has been fast, evolution in other parts of the world has been slow, and it is here that we must make more progress. Three weeks ago, along with other members, I was in Saudi Arabia, and it was quite shocking to see how women in that country are treated quite literally as second-class citizens, unable to drive cars, unable to go out in public unless they are covered head to foot, only recently able to work outside the home, and that situation is equally bad in many other countries. For all of Mary Slicer's achievements in Nigeria, today she would know that we disappointed at the subsequent rate of progress. For there, women are still subordinate to men. Female rates of education lag well behind their male counterparts. Last April, the world was shocked at the kidnapping of 200 schoolgirls, but so long as girls are scared to go to school and parents are too frightened to send them, Nigeria will never reach its true potential. There is an old Indian proverb that says that if you educate a woman, you educate the whole family, and that is why it is so important that female education is placed on an equal footing both in Nigeria and across Africa. Jenny Marra reminded us that one of Mary Slicer's crowning achievements was to stop twins being sacrificed due to ancient rituals. If Mary Slicer was with us today, she would, I am sure, be a vocal opponent of another cruel practice, female genital mutilation, which we have discussed many times in this chamber before. Nigeria has the highest number of these cases anywhere in the world, and education of the general public at all levels with an emphasis on the dangers and undesirability of FGM will be paramount in reducing it. In politics, with the exception of their current finance minister, women are still very much underrepresented in Nigerian public life, ensuring that women can access the policy making process and provide inspirational leadership will be crucial in forwarding women's rights, not just in Nigeria but across the whole African continent. International Women's Day should be celebrated by everyone. Anyone with a sister, a wife, a daughter wants them to have equal rights and opportunities. While there is still a long road to travel in Scotland, Mary would be immensely proud of what women can and have achieved in this country. In debating the life of Mary Slicer, we can point to a long history of humanitarian achievement, but we still have a role to play in providing leadership for human rights movements across the globe. I thank Jenny Marra for giving us this opportunity to celebrate the life of one of Scotland's best-known and most important daughters and, more generally, International Women's Day. There are not many Victorian lassies born in Aberdeenshire and brought up in the slums of Aberdeen and Dundee who earn a state funeral at the other end of their lives, end up as a member of the Order of St John and as a magistrate. That is in Victorian times when that was pretty much an exceptional thing to be. As we heard, the Clydesdale bank put her on one of their banknotes. I speak, of course, with a special interest that her alcoholic father came from Buckham in my constituency. We are all going to claim our own little connections because there is nothing so nice as the reflected glory of a true hero. Maureen Watt held an event here in 2007 to celebrate the life of Mary Slicer. Many members signed a motion about that at that time, so it is very good to come back to this on the anniversary of her death. Of course, her life was not easy. When her father died in September 1870 at 6 Eliza Street, Dundee, it is clear that she was not living in the most prosperous of circumstances. That was not a part of Dundee where the rich lived. Only four years later, when David Livingstone died, she was then only 25 years old. Her life was set by her experience of deprivation, her Christian faith and the inspiration that came from David Livingstone. The Mary Slicer Foundation, which today supports her memory, has been responsible for many different things. Money has been raised for the foundation, for example, by a play about her life, the mother of all the peoples, which has been all over Scotland. I hope that that continues to be something that will inform people across Scotland about the inspiration that comes from Mary Slicer's life. I am very pleased to hear that a commemorative standing stone and plaque now stands in front of Dundee's steeple church. I think that there had been previous plans, which I am not sure came to fruition, to have her memorial in Dundee, but she spent most of her life in Dundee and it probably formed more of her life than perhaps than of, so it is important that they played that role in celebrating her life. She was quite different and disjoint from women of her time. We have heard that she dressed and ate and drank as the people in Nigeria supported, but more fundamentally she learned to speak the native language. Now, as someone who is no linguist of any great merit whatsoever, that particularly stood out of course because she had to learn it from the people who she was supporting. There was no one in particular to teach her. The inspection that there was in the early 1880s very much commented on the friendship and the fact that she had that language, which helped her in her work. We have heard something of other women, I will say just a little bit about women, in what was my profession as a software engineer, where women have actually played a very remarkable and substantial role in today's computer technology. Ada Lovelace, who is the niece of Lord Byron, was Charles Babbage's programmer. She is the first identified programmer that there has been. Grace Hopper, who worked for the United States Navy, retired three times and was each time begged to come back. When she finally retired, she was made by the president as a rear admiral in the Navy. She was 80 years old and then left and went to work for a remainder of her life with a computer company. She was responsible for what we talked about, which is bugs in programmes, because she was the person who coined that phrase. I do remember, and it is strange how things remember. I cannot remember where or when, hearing about 25 years ago on a flight the announcement that it was the first commercial flight operated from Scotland, where all the crew members were female, both in the back of the plane and the front of the plane. It is sad that it has taken that length of time before women are given even that modest recognition, but Mary Slesser has done a lot for people in Scotland, a lot for people in Africa, and it is right that we celebrate her life today, Presiding Officer. Many thanks. I now call on Lewis MacDonald, after which I move to closing speech from the cabinet secretary. Thank you very much, and I too congratulate Jenny Marra on bringing forward this debate. Mary Slesser grew to maturity in Dundee, as we have heard, but she spent the first 11 years of her life on Mutton Bray in her home city of Aberdeen. That was a run-down inner city street, now long gone, swept away entirely in the 19th century improvements that created Union Terrace gardens. There is a memorial, as Patricia Ferguson said, to Mary Slesser in the gardens and a plaque in Bellman Street nearby. At a service to mark the centenary of her death in January, Lord Provost George Adam rightly described her as one of Aberdeen's greatest daughters. Mary Slesser belongs to all the places in which she has revered a hundred years on. She is a citizen of Scotland and Nigeria alike. She belongs also to the international women's movement and to humanity as a whole, as a champion of the rights of women, mothers and children of widows and of slaves. She put her own life on the line for others time and again for their rights in this world and their salvation in the next. Her Christian mission was rooted in her own experience of poverty and her profound belief in the equality of all in the sight of God. The wheel has turned full circle and there are now several thousand Nigerians who live and work or study in Aberdeen. They include Pentecostal Christians like Pastor Dr Markag Yehon, who led time for reflection here a few months ago. In their view, it was Scots missionaries like Mary Slesser who brought Christian enlightenment to their country and now they are returning the favour by their mission in error. Mary Slesser was one of many north-east Scots who lived and worked in Africa in the 19th century. The stories of several others were told by the late Professor John D Hargreaves of Aberdeen University, who passed away earlier this year and who will be remembered by his family and many friends in Bancary later this month. His account of those who went from Aberdeenshire to Africa was one of many publications in a long and distinguished career. Like Mary Slesser's, his was a life devoted to broadening African horizons and opportunities. He taught in the 1950s at Fura Bay College in Sierra Leone, the original West African University, and was still actively supporting higher education there, long after his official retirement from Aberdeen. Mary Slesser devoted herself to the physical and spiritual well-being of women and children among the epic people of southeastern Nigeria. John Hargreaves made his life work, the empowerment of West Africans in general, helping to rescue their history from a Eurocentric perspective and to return it to the people to whom it rightly belongs. Both of them achieved real and permanent change. I was lucky enough to learn about African history at Aberdeen University from John Hargreaves and his colleague Roy Bridges and to visit Nigeria as a PhD student 30 years ago. Mary Slesser, John Hargreaves and Pastor Marky Gehehon all represent different strands in a long and fruitful relationship between North East Scotland and West Africa. In Aberdeen, we have a special opportunity to celebrate all those strands and to commemorate Mary Slesser. I have today proposed to NHS Grampian that the replacement for Aberdeen maternity hospital should be named the Mary Slesser women's hospital to recognise both her work for disadvantaged mothers and vulnerable infants and Aberdeen's continuing engagement with Aberdeen and the wider world. If we want to follow Mary Slesser in tackling injustice and inequality wherever they arise, there could be no clearer signal of that intent than to add her name to those of all the other pioneering women and men whose names are commemorated every day in the names that we use in our NHS. I now call on the cabinet secretary to close the debate on behalf of the Government. The cabinet secretary of seven minutes will thereby please. Thank you and thanks to all the members who have contributed to this afternoon's debate and to Jenny Marra for raising the motion. It is heartening to see so much support for such an outstanding woman of Scotland as Mary Slesser. I share this admiration and am pleased to be able to close the debate on behalf of the Scottish Government. Immortalised on the Cangate wall of this fair building are the words of another Mary, Mary Brooksbank. O dear me, the world's ill divided, them that work the hardest are I, will least provided, but I'm unbide contented, dark days are fine, but there's no much pleasure living after 10 and 9. It is these words that sum up the Scotland in which Mary Slesser lived in the reality of working in one of Dundee's Duke mills. Mary Slesser left at the age of 28 in 1876 and that Scotland she left no longer exists. However, the fight for women's equality still goes on and the principles and standards for which she stood for are very much alive in the women that continue to work towards achieving gender equality. When we honour Mary Slesser, we honour them as well. As we know, there have been significant improvements made and things are by no means as tough for women as they once were. However, we still have a long way to go. Ending inequality in Scotland and contributing to its eradication internationally is the heart of our ambitions as a Government. That is why we've prioritised that work within our programme for government, whether it be our goal of making Scotland's boardrooms gender balanced through our 50-50 by 2020 commitment or strengthening the criminal justice system's response to tackling domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women. No one listening to the First Minister can be in any doubt to the strength of our commitment to the agenda. It is fitting that today, just a few days before International Women's Day, we are discussing one of the foremost women's rights that activist Scotland has seen. It is also fitting that her work is now finally being recognised by all of Scotland in a year when women are at the forefront of politics in Scotland and women's equality is one of the main priorities for my Government. I want to reflect on a number of the contributions that we've had. Jenny Marra spoke and used a number of words to describe Mary Sleitha. She talked about the fortitude of bravery, of determination, of integrity, of respect. We also heard from other members who talked about her being forthright, our courage and, indeed, from David Thompson in particular, her face. Patricia Ferguson made an important point about how we recognise women and, of course, statues are supported by public subscription. I always have been, but I draw your attention to the new scheme of heritage plaques that has been introduced by Historic Scotland over the past few years. I have been very clear that I want to make sure that women of Scotland are recognised as part of that, and I encourage all members to put forward women for that commendation. Murdo Fraser made an excellent speech about international perspectives. It is a very important point to make about the need for more equality for girls across the world and for women in the focus on education that that brings. Stewart Stevenson reflected on Mary Sleitha as being a remarkable woman of her time, and Lewis Macdonald broadened the debate to perspectives of a modern mission in a historical context—all very important points to reflect on. As others have highlighted, Mary Sleitha was a formidable woman and an amazing role model for women today. The second of seven children crammed into a single end in the slums of Dundee at a time where work was scarce and money even more so. At a time where schools and education were for the privilege, Mary managed to find her way into the classroom, albeit not quite to the same level as other children from a more affluent background. Her experience was not how most people today would envisage going to school, but it was no ordinary school. She would be in the classroom for five hours in the morning, then spend the next five hours working in a noisy, dangerous jute mill. An inspiration to Mary, as we have heard, was the missionary David Livingstone and his work to better the lives of those in Africa who, in Mary's eyes, were even more unfortunate than her. It was on hearing of his death that Mary found the courage within herself to follow her dreams, her belief, her faith and join the great work under way in Africa. During her 38 years working with the people of Africa, she was taken in as an honorary member of the community. Not only did she stand up to the tribal chiefs, but she saved the lives of countless men, women and children, some of which she adopted as her own, and we heard her work with twins in particular. This is the work that she was most proud of, breaking down barriers and spreading the word of peace, harmony and equality, breaking a glass ceiling of her own and becoming the first female magistrate in the British Empire. In the centenary of her death, we welcomed the launch of the many events that are organised to celebrate the life and work of those incredible women. Work that the Mary Slesser Foundation continues today. I know, for example, that the cabinet secretary for social justice, communities and pensioners' rights will be attending the planned civic reception in Dundee in April. It is only by recognising the path forged by Mary Slesser and, indeed, many others like her, that we, living in a modern world, can appreciate just how far we have come to being an equal, fair and prosperous country. We must recognise not just how far we have come, but we also see just how far we still have to travel. That journey is not just about us, it is not just about the daughters of Scotland or the daughters of Europe, it is about the daughters of the world. In reflecting on Mary Slesser's journey and her contribution, we must all rededicate ourselves to what we can do for the daughters, the sisters, the mothers, the aunts and the grandmothers of all of the world.