 The next item of business is the debate on motion 7852, in the name of Jamie Hepburn, on International Day of Women and Girls in Science. I would invite members wishing to participate in the debate, to press their questions and speak buttons now or as soon as possible. I call on the minister to speak to and move the motion around 10 minutes, minister. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and allow me to move the motion in my name. At this stage, lest I forget it to do so later. In 2015, the United Nations adopted a resolution to designate the 11th of February as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, since then this day has become an annual celebration of the achievements of women and girls in science. It also serves as a reminder that women and girls remain underrepresented in many areas of science and we should commend the many organisations across Scotland that are playing a part in seeking to address that issue. STEM, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics has traditionally been a male-dominated sector. I know that women have made tremendous progress in this area. A significant gender gap, sadly, still persists. For that reason, the United Nations drive to establish an annual day dedicated to recognising the incredible contributions that women play in the STEM sector was, in itself, an important milestone. Since then, the 11th of February every year, countries around the world, including Scotland, mark this important day. That is the reason for this debate, and I look forward to hearing insights from other members over the course of this afternoon. The minister is making a very valid point about the disproportionate underrepresentation of women in certain areas, career and sector areas. Has any analysis been done on the number of apprenticeships in those particular sectors that the minister has in mind in terms of the representation of women? Yes, there has, and I do not have the figures to hand right now. I would be very happy to write to Mr Kerr to provide those details. Sadly, we see replicated as in colleges, universities and in the wider labour market gender segregation in the apprenticeship frameworks that we have. There has been progress, and I am sure that Mr Kerr, like all the members, would welcome that. There is activity under way. There is an equalities action plan that is in place through Skills Development Scotland, and the Scottish Apprenticeship Advisory Board has made a series of recommendations specifically looking at gender that was provided at the end of last year, and we are currently considering how to respond to that. I will be happy to write to Mr Kerr with some more information. Let me begin by reflecting some of Scotland's own pioneers in the STEM sector. For more than a century, Scottish women have not only played influential roles in the industry, but also helped to provide the funding and infrastructure that is necessary to allow other women to progress. The mathematician, astronomer and scientist, Mary Somerville, was dubbed the queen of 19th century science on her death in 1872. Her books were best-sellers and such was her standing, her was the first signature on John Stuart Mill's petition to Parliament calling for votes for women. Mary Somerville holds the distinction of being the first female scientist featured on a British bank note following a public vote. In the field of medicine, the Edward Seven were trailblazers as a first group of matriculated undergraduate female students. Not just any Scottish university, but any British university, they began studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1869, and, all scandulously, they were ultimately prevented from graduating and qualifying as doctors. The campaign that they fought gained national attention and won them many supporters. Ultimately, it led to a change in legislation to ensure that women could be licensed to practice medicine in 1876 and legislation to ensure that women could study at university. Women were able to graduate from the University of Edinburgh from 1894 and the first female doctors graduated in 1896. Victoria Drummond of Persia was the first woman marine engineer in the UK and the first woman member of the Institute of Marine Engineers in the Second World War. She served at sea as an engineering officer in the Merchant Navy and was recognised for bravery at sea under enemy firefries and inducted into the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame in 2018. It is important that we recognise Mark and celebrate that lineage, but just as important, maybe more important, lest we fall full of thinking of Scotland's scientific achievements and endeavours only in the past tense, we have to recognise and celebrate what is happening today. Scotland has some incredible women making ground-breaking discoveries here and now. There are many examples that I could give and I hope to hear that over the course of today's debate, but I want to highlight just a few. Professor Ellen Cusheffi was appointed as national quantum computing centre chief scientist in November 2022 and leads Edinburgh University's quantum software lab. Professor Catherine Heymans of the University of Edinburgh became the first woman to be appointed as Scotland's astronomer royal in May 2021. She is best known for her work on using the technique of cosmic weak gravitational lensing to learn more about the universe. Professor Sheila Rowan from the University of Glasgow became the president of the UK Institute of Physics in October 2021. She is part of the international research collaboration that first detected the existence of gravitational waves, opening up new ways to understand our universe. She was also chief scientific adviser for Scotland from 2016 to 2021. Professor Rebecca Goss at the University of St Andrews is achieving great strides in the field of chemical synthesis using biotechnology. In 2022, she spun out Exgenics, a biotech start-up with the goal of enabling the discovery of better drugs for better health globally. She received £2 million of investment to translate the technology and was recognised through winning first place in Converge 2022. Scotland's top spin-out competition with a prize of £69,000. Within the Scottish Government, Scotland's chief scientific adviser is Professor Julie Fitzpatrick. She is a veterinary surgeon by training Julie, championing science and evidence at the heart of Scottish Government policy making a spirit heading a range of activities in support of this. I can say that, as a minister for science, she is an invaluable source of support to me. I thank the member for taking that intervention. Does the member also agree that there is underrepresentation from the BAME community for women and girls but also some of the names that you are mentioning? Is there any data that you have around that? Yes, again, we will have that information. Much of the same vein as my response to Mr Kerr, if we look at apprenticeships, specifically the Equalities Action Plan that the SDS is working to, gender is only one of the characteristics that we know we need to make progress in relation to. Yes, we will have that information and again I am very happy to provide that in detail to the member. For all of the outstanding achievements that we will rightly recognise today and has been pointed out and alluded to already, we know that there is much more to be done. Many of our learned institutions are carrying out important work to understand the issues, including the Institute of Physics and the Ross Society of Chemistry and allow me to recognise the role of the RSE's first female president, appointed in 2012 Professor Leslie Yellowlees of the University of Edinburgh in championness. They produced a number of reports over the last few years to highlight the issues that are involved, including recruitment, retention and promotion, research culture and pay and reward. Crucially, they also suggest ways to address the underrepresentation of women in science, some of which involve tackling deep seated problems around inequalities. Many years now Scotland is championing the importance of women in the STEM sector as part of our wider efforts to address the issue of gender inequality, which sits at the heart of our vision for an equal Scotland. Tackling gender inequality across different areas of the education and learning landscape is fundamental to changing perceptions about STEM and challenging assumptions about who does what in relation to gender and wider inequalities. At the same time, STEM is integral to Scotland's future economic and social development, and the Scottish Government wants everyone in Scotland to build a strong foundation of STEM skills and knowledge. Bringing this together, the developing young workforce strategy includes specific actions around promoting career options to different protected groups designing senior phase vocational pathways to improve gender balance, reducing occupational segregation in modern apprenticeships and embedding equality across the curriculum for excellence. Recognising the assumption about which gender undertakes which subject matter or pursues which career, it starts early on. I was delighted to be at Dundee Science Centre's part of Dundee Science Festival, where I met a group of enthusiastic young people from Rosebank primary school and the girls in attendance engaged in the activities under way. I thank the minister for taking this intervention. I hear what he is saying about the encouragement of girls even in primary school. To my mind, it could even start from that, for example, creating specialist teaching materials for nurseries that are geared specifically towards girls' engagement in science. Is that something that he might agree with? We are always keen to do what we can to make sure that we are starting to engage as early as possible with young people, particularly young girls, to make sure that we are tackling those challenges. I know that there is activity under way in the early years and learning sector, and that is something that I would recommend and be keen to see more of. Other areas of activity that we are supporting include funding for Equate Scotland to support recruitment retention, return and success of women into jobs where they are significantly underrepresented. Funding is also provided to career-wise, which offers female undergraduates paid work placements with STEM. Employers in each college have measures in place to help to reduce gender disparities within STEM subject areas. The ambition is that by 2030 no college or university subject will have a gender imbalance greater than 75 per cent of one gender. As the international day of girls and women in science demonstrates collective action is needed, I have highlighted some of the activity under way, but I have framed the motion today in terms of which I think we will unite around. It is not just government that has to make this effort, it is all of us collectively as publicly elected representatives, so I hope that we will support the motion today. I can say to members that we will be supporting both amendments, and I look forward to hearing what members have to say. Thank you very much minister. I now call on Pam Goswell to speak to a move amendment 7852.2 I am delighted to be opening today's debate for the Scottish Conservatives, which marks international day of women and girls in science. As shadow minister for the higher and further education use, employment and training, and an advocate for women reaching their full potential, I move the amendment in my name. In the words of Marie Curie, be less curious about people and more curious about ideas. For a long time women's contribution in science was hidden or discredited, and this is well articulated in the University of Glasgow women in STEM blog. Challenges for women in science in the past and present have built a sense of camaraderie among female scientists to ensure that this does not determine the future. I am extremely impressed by the efforts of many institutions and grassroots groups across Scotland and around the world to tackle the gender gap and make science an accessible, attractive career for young women to name a few that are close to home. I admire the work being done by Fem Ng at Glasgow University to encourage girls at school to seriously get involved and consider a future in science. They have collaborated with the University of Rwanda and of Malawi to inspire young budding female scientists in school. The University of West of Scotland in my region has also made tremendous steps to increase female participation in science with more than 2,000 new female science undergraduates in each of the last three years. With nearly 30 per cent of women in science subjects coming from 20 per cent of the most deprived areas in Scotland and supporting more than four-fifths of women in science graduates in employment or further education in the first 18 months, the University of West of Scotland also boasts some tremendous scientific contributions by female scientists such as that of Professor Fiona Hercrick, the woman behind the team who developed the world's first treatment for a devastating eye condition that affects millions of people every year, or Maria Nacrizova, a chemistry student who was enabled by UWS to go to the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida to watch her experiment launch into orbit on SpaceX CRS26. Most recently, I visited the British Heart Foundation's research excellence centre at University of Glasgow and was overcome by the work being done there. I was introduced to six students from which four whom were young women. It is difficult to put into words the immense impact their research will have. One excellent example is that of Caitlyn Cosgrove, who is trying to identify micro RNAs that may be beneficial in strokes that, in the future, may be inserted to target bad cells in the brain. I would like to thank the Royal Society of Chemistry for their briefing, which sets out how addressing gaps in data funding and flexibility will help enable the equal participation of those from underrepresented groups. In addition to that, increasingly accountability and eliminating bias will go a long way in building cultures of belonging. I am happy to support the Government's motion today, which speaks about the importance of women to Scotland's world's leading science and research sector. Likewise, the Labour amendment makes some important points about how gender inequality in STEM begins from a young age. However, there are areas where the Government's motion could have gone further, as my own amendment sets out. My amendment speaks about the importance of inclusion and of ensuring that no woman feels unable to enter the STEM sector because of their gender, ethnicity or disability. As we recognise the international day of women and girls in science, it is important that we celebrate the contributions of women in all their diversity. I therefore hope that members across the chamber will be able to support my amendment today. Once we celebrate the international day of women and girls in science, it is clear that there is more to be done to ensure that STEM is accessible to all. That means addressing the root causes of the inequalities that exist at all levels, ensuring that schools are able to tackle that inequality from a young age and recognising that unlocking the talent of women in all their diversities is the key to empowering our science sector. Although great work is under way on the ground by universities, colleges and grass root groups, they cannot do that alone. It is therefore the duty of all the members in the chamber to work together to find a solution and to work towards eliminating any remaining barriers for good. I now call Michael Marra to speak to a move amendment 7852.1 for around five minutes. Across the long stretch of our written history, the achievements of women in science have been neglected or were still subsumed into the achievements of their male counterparts. Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell is an astrophysicist, best known today for her discovery of radio pulsars in 1967, one of the great astronomical discoveries of the 20th century. However, when the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded in 1974 for her discovery, Bell Burnell was not one of the recipients. Two men were honoured instead. The light of Dame Jocelyn's brilliance could yet not be dimmed nor remain hidden by the cumulative millennia of patriarchy and misogyny. She has since become the first female president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and is now chancellor of the University of Dundee. Progress wherever it is found should always be welcomed. Personally, I have been privileged to work under outstanding female academic leaders, Professor Georgina Follett, Professor Dame Sue Black, Professor Neve McDade, extraordinary leaders in their fields in this country of design, forensic anthropology and forensic science. There is a whole new generation of female academic leaders in Scotland who are transforming and inspiring through our great universities. Professor Claire Bond in Earth Science and Net Zero at the University of Aberdeen, Professor Natalie Coole in Cybersecurity at Abertae and so many, many more. However, such examples are of those who have successfully navigated what is termed the leaky pipeline of talent, whereby many women and girls do not continue in STEM subjects at university or beyond into STEM careers. Data published by the RSE shows that over 70 per cent of women STEM graduates leave STEM-related careers. Athena Swan programmes are helping. We are adopted and invested, but the pandemic has been a further setback for the careers of women who carry the burden of care. Unfortunately, the loss of girls from STEM begins much earlier, and that is reflected in subject uptake statistics, which remain woefully unequal. In 2021, only 20 per cent of national 5 chemistry candidates were female. Whatever the Scottish Government may tell us, interventions in this area have had no discernible impact. The percentage of female candidates for national 5 chemistry is unchanged for years, and national 5 physics is only inched from 28 per cent to 29 per cent over the course of the past three years. Those statistics are hardly cause for celebration or self-congratulation. We know that we also have a dire lack of STEM teachers in schools, that those taking STEM subjects to senior levels is plummeting in number. Grateful to Mike O'Mara for giving away his giving an excellent speech. Part of the problem is recruiting STEM teachers. Would he be open to consideration of ways of broadening the routes into STEM teaching that might encourage a greater uptake in interests, particularly if people perhaps are later on in their careers who have so much to give and to give back, particularly to young women? Michael O'Mara, I can give you the time. I think that such ideas that the Minister of Care puts forward are certainly worthy of consideration. In fact, it is an imperative that we take new and innovative ways of getting people into our STEM classrooms to make sure that we make good on that shortfall. I would point out, particularly in computing science, which frankly is an unfolding disaster with a curriculum and dire need of revision and schools priced out of the marketplace for those to teach it. That is at a time when the economy desperately needs more of all of that knowledge rather than less. Our job here, as Mr O'Mara points out, is not to be commentators but to make change. An important area of STEM that desperately needs more women is in our tech industry. The ONS shows that only 23.4 per cent of the tech industry workforce in Scotland is female. Last night, Pauli McNeill, MSP and I hosted a round table on violence against women and girls here in Parliament. The proliferation of misogynistic content online, the impact that this is having on our culture and the consequential rising tide of violence against women and girls is abundantly clear. A better gender balance in the technology workforce where products are conceived and designed must be part of that solution, and risks are better understood where gender design can prevent harm and a better culture can be led. Professor Leslie Yellowlee's advice paper on diversity and STEM for the Royal Society of Edinburgh calls on this Government to lead the way by using the powers and influence that they do have now to shape societal attitudes to gender equality, parental roles and, crucially, to targeting critical influencers of children and young people to challenge gender stereotypes. That is showing leadership and its leadership demonstrated by having women in position. The report also calls for greater investment in STEM-specific data collection in order to better understand intersectionality and variations across sectors and regions. I would ask the minister to give consideration to those calls in his own remarks since closing remarks today. Rather than resigning ourselves to be narrators of these events, I urge the Scottish Government to take all those recommendations from the RSE and to do all in their power to implement them. When I was at school making my choices for fourth year, my mother accompanied me to meet Mr Hayward. I was keen at that time to abandon maths. I was bored with maths and had enough of maths, which probably tells now that I was in charge of the finances in the party. Nevertheless, I was determined to get rid of to abandon maths. Mr Hayward repeatedly said that maths was a must for boys. My mother's face went brighter red the more he said it. She was even at that stage incandescent with the discrimination that was inbuilt within the careers advice at our school. That is evident ever since. We have seen it before and after that. It is very clear. Today, physics—we are told by the Institute of Physics—is the fourth most popular subject for boys. For girls, it is the sixteenth. There is something still wrong at the heart of our society and perhaps within our careers advice. It is no wonder sometimes that maybe women do not want to choose those subjects. If they are going to be the only girl, the only woman in the class, why would you do that? We know that in politics that if you think that you are going to be the only person in the room like you, why would you go into those subjects? It is important that, if we are going to get change, we need to start that change now. Thankfully, it is a little bit better now. However, we have seen through the careers that in chemistry, in higher chemistry, half of those who are sitting in the subject, according to the RSE, are female. In advanced higher, it goes up a little bit more, which is good. In university, when they are studying for a degree in chemistry, it goes up to 60 per cent and then it absolutely plummets. It is 9 per cent when it becomes a professor. That is a clear indication that we have something wrong with the career path in science as well. The higher up you go, the less likely you are going to have women. Does the member believe that parents have an important role to play when you talked about your mother going red there? That parents should be playing an important role in the change to happen, and do you think that the Government needs to include parents in the programmes that they are working on at the moment? Yes, of course. Parents are an important factor. We have had discussions recently about apprenticeships. Trying to get people more to do apprenticeships rather than going through the university route is a real challenge. A lot of that is down to parental society influence, peer pressure, and it is the same in that as well. Stephen Kerr asked the minister for some figures. 38 per cent of those who take modern apprenticeships are female. That goes down to 8 per cent for engineering and energy. Traumatic difference, again, in-built discrimination within the system. We need to change that. Part of all of that is about society pressure, parents, schools and all of that. What do we do? What are the steps that we take? There are good projects such as the CERC run with the STEM ambassadors that allow people such as my wife, who goes out into schools and tries to encourage young women and men to take up science. That is important. They try to get a million interactions with young people, but there is also something that we can do in policy. I think that it is great credit to the Government that the last few scientific advisers have been female, and Glover was fantastic. She was a great advocate and went off to Europe and did the same role there. Julie Fitzpatrick is doing a great job now, too. We also need to call out the discrimination as Michael Marra has done earlier, but we can perhaps use funding to incentivise organisations to have plans in place and take steps to encourage more women into all those subjects. Perhaps make some requirements, just like we do for Amazon and the likes in terms of apprenticeships, paying their tax, paying their living wage. Perhaps we should use funding to incentivise organisations to make that change. Education Scotland has a great programme, which the minister referred to, which is improving gender balance and equality programme. With Education Scotland changing, I hope that that programme will continue, because it is important that, if something is working, it is allowed to continue to do that good work. Thank you very much, Mr Rennie. We now move to the open debate. I call first Audrey Nicholl to be followed by Liz Smith. Today we commend international day of women and girls in science. Women are indeed a pioneering and unique body within the sciences, and yet, despite that, remain underrepresented. Earlier this week I met Professor Linda Lawton of the Robert Gordon University to discuss women and girls in STEM as part of my preparation for a member's debate. An internationally renowned researcher in the field of toxic cyanobacteria, Professor Lawton perhaps summed it up when she said, Well, it doesn't help that if you google the word professor, you get a picture of a man with white hair wearing glasses. She was wrong, I got a complete screen full of men and only men. The last decade or so has seen progress for girls and women in STEM education, but also for women entering the STEM workforce. It is a slow burn, but absolutely essential if we are to tackle our climate emergency. I want to highlight two examples of the work underpinning this trend in the north-east, one in education and the other industry-led. The Aberdeen computing collaborative is a collaboration between Aberdeen City Council, North East Scotland College, the Robert Gordon University and the University of Aberdeen, seeking to improve alignment between the school curriculum and the associated demand for the skills that are created by the next phase in our energy production and other growth sectors. I note the reference in Michael Marra's amendment in this regard. However, it also aims to increase the profile of computing science learning and attract graduates into computer science and within that teaching. The fantastic initiative that aligns with the Scottish Government's STEM education and training strategy outlines our ambition to encourage girls and young women to engage with computing science with a view to strengthening Scotland's future tech sector. Therefore, it was bitterly disappointing that a recent just transition funding bid to support the collaborative was unsuccessful. I would ask the minister to provide an assurance that comprehensive feedback and advice will be provided in order to inform and support future successful applications. Turning to industry, girls in energy is a one-year course delivered by Shell in partnership with the North East Scotland College and Fife College to senior-phase girls, helping them to rethink preconceptions about the energy sector and hear about the range of careers available in energy. I recently joined this year's cohort of around 100 girls in Aberdeen, and I was blown away by the way that they worked together to find innovative solutions to food production, heating and energy-related challenges. It is an earlier point. I am wondering if the member agrees that to facilitate more science, maths and technology specialists to engage us speakers in schools, one possible initiative is to support the creation of national or indeed regional women and STEM speaker lists of those who are willing to evangelise and help to bring other girls and women into professions. I thank Michelle Thompson for her intervention. I think that she's been reading my notes over my shoulder because I completely agree with that. In fact, I'm just going to come on to something that may be relevant to that. The judging panel in girls in energy comprised strong local female role models already in senior positions in the north-east tech and energy sectors. I know from my conversations with many of them how committed they are to this vitally important work, and I suspect that many of them would be very interested in Michelle Thompson's proposal. There are, of course, many challenges at the gendered world that we live in—culture, mentoring opportunities and funding. However, today is about celebration, and I hope that the short contribution on International Day of Women and Girls in Science has showcased a snippet of what is happening on the ground in this exciting sphere. Thank you very much, minister. I call Liz Smith to be followed by co-cab stew at around four minutes. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. The minister in his opening remarks referred to the Edinburgh 7. Had we been debating this 150 years ago, we would have been debating the front page of the Scotsman newspaper that referred to the riot at Surgeons Hall just a mile from here when these female undergraduates were prevented from getting into their examination hall. The crowds that had turned up were pelting them with all kinds of rubbish, screaming abuse at them and doing all sorts to make sure that they couldn't actually sit in the exam. Some of their male compatriots came to their rescue and ensured that they could get into the examination hall, but even inside that examination hall some other males prevented them from sitting at the desk. Rumour has it that a live sheep was set loose in the hall—goodness is how they got it in, but they did—and absolute chaos, to the extent that it made the front pages of international news. Those Edinburgh 7, who were pioneers in their field, ended up being put in touch with Charles Darwin, so it just shows what can happen. There are some really interesting things being said already in this debate. Willie Rennie referred to the advice that he was given at school. I was told at school that I should be doing science and I was told that economics was not for girls. That did not work very well because, obviously, I became an economist. I didn't do science, but one of the things that I have come to understand, both as a teacher and as a parliamentarian, is that science is absolutely critical to the understanding of our knowledge. What the curriculum for excellence ought to be able to do, because it is built on the principles of expanding that knowledge, is to ensure that all youngsters have the ability to study in the arts, in the sciences and in the social sciences. I think that that is absolutely the right way to approach the school curriculum. Sadly, because of some of the problems that we have in the education system just now, that is not the case. One of the huge difficulties that Mr Kerr referred to is that we have significant difficulties of teacher numbers in the sciences and the STEM subjects, but it is more than that. It is also about the fact that many young people are not getting the opportunity to study science because of the squeeze on subject choice. That is a major, major issue. I cannot expect people to take up the subject if they are not getting the right exposure in the young years. I thought that Michelle Thomson, who has disappeared somewhere, was making a very strong point about nursery education, because the stereotypes that Audrey referred to are absolutely clear. There are stereotypes, and that is something that we cannot allow to happen. I think that if we want to make sure that Scotland remains open for business in this respect, I think that there is an awful lot that we have to do both in the educational sense but I also think that there is an awful lot that we can do. I would lay the challenge to Westminster Government to ensure that the visa system that we have is much more open than the one that has been put forward post Brexit. In my view, there are too many circumstances in which young people, who are the meat and drink of our future, are being prevented from taking up opportunities in this country because of too tight a visa system. I would like to see something go back. Yes, of course. I agree that there is a very strong case for expanding the post-graduate visa work visa programme because we want some of those people to stay here and make their futures in our own country. It is absolutely right. I would like to see us go back to the post-graduate work visa system where we are encouraging people to stay in this country and to take the opportunities of expanding their expertise as they are part of the system, because I do not think that we are doing enough on that. I just want to finish on a point that I think is crucially important. Scotland has always led the world when it comes to women in science. Sadly, it is only very recently that that has been recognised and honoured in some cases, but we need to do an awful lot more to treasure what those women can give to our society. I think that we all have a role as parliamentarians to make sure that that happens. Thank you, Ms Smith. I now call Cokab Stuart to be followed by Claire Baker around four minutes, Mr Stewart. In 2018, during a workshop on gender equality at the CERN Research Institute in Geneva, Switzerland, theoretical physicist Alessandro Stroumia began his presentation. On one of the slides was a very short but very powerful quote and it read, physics was invented and built by men. It is not by invitation. According to reports, Professor Stroumia went on to present evidence in the forum of graphs and tables, concluding that since the most cited academic papers were disproportionately written by men, that proved that men were simply better at physics. For a predominantly female audience full of young prospective scientists, I imagine that this was not quite the motivational speech that they were anticipating and for women already working in the field, it would likely have felt very sadly familiar. The professors' claims were quickly dismantled and denounced as unacceptable and he was suspended by CERN. The following day, Donna Strickland was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for her pioneering work with high intensity lasers. Astrophysicist Andrea Gies would receive the same honour just two years later for providing the first conclusive experimental evidence that a supermassive black hole with the mass of four million suns sits at the side of a galaxy. Incredibly, those are two of only four women who have ever won this prize in its 121-year history, so clearly the question is not one of ability. Rather, this statistic is emblematic of a centuries-long struggle for recognition and the obstacles women and girls face at every point in their career which contribute to their underrepresentation across the scientific disciplines. In acknowledgement of this uneven landscape, the United Nations International Day for Women and Girls in Science on 11 February provides a welcome opportunity to celebrate the essential contributions that they have made and will continue to make, enabling us to better understand the world we live in. In my constituency I am incredibly fortunate to have internationally renowned higher and further educational institutes and I am grateful for the commitment that they have demonstrated and I am also grateful for colleagues across the chamber that have mentioned Glasgow University for instance. I recognise and would like to recognise their demonstration to promoting gender equality in science as supported by the Scottish Funding Council and the Development of Tailored Gender Action Plans. I will. I want to comment on what we saw in Buchanan High School on Monday, because Cokab Stewart and Stephanie Gallagher knows. We went to the school with the education committee and they had a huge display about women in science and it is that kind of emphasis and that kind of promotion of women in science that will lead to those places that Cokab Stewart is just describing in these higher educational institutions being filled by women. Thank you. I absolutely accept that from Stephen Kerr to have that visual, very powerful image in our schools up and down the country reminds our children of what they are aiming for and the fact that we need them. Thank you for highlighting that. I would like to refer to Glasgow City of Glasgow College pioneering women into engineering courses which have resulted in almost 100% increase in participation in engineering programmes and the college's STEM girls society which creates and encourages spaces for female students to meet and share ideas. At the University of Glasgow, former student and lecturer in computing science, Dr Sophia Alicia Bicken, was selected as one of the university's future world changers for funding the Computer Science Academy Africa. This initiative delivered successful computer programming workshops in Nigeria and Rwanda, providing young Africans in STEM with access to quality computer science education. Women are strongly encouraged to apply here and are offered the possibility of childcare support. As a result, in 2022, 45% of CSA Africa participants were women. In conclusion, perhaps what is most challenging for us all is that we must work to recognise also our own unconscious biases and create an inclusive environment for the next generation of female scientists. Ahead of international day of women in science, we celebrate the achievements of generations of female scientists in Scotland, including the notable contribution of burnt islands in Mary Somerville. The term scientist was coined to describe her many achievements in chemistry, astronomy, magnetism and mathematics, and her remarkable and inspiring work is rightly celebrated. However, while we recognise the huge contribution of women to scientific discovery and research, we know that we are still not doing enough to ensure that women and girls are able to pursue careers in scientific fields. We need to do more to encourage and support that, but we also need to address the existing structures that deter women from doing so. We also need to see changes at every level from schools to further and higher education and into workplaces. Boys and girls start with equal interest and ability in STEM areas, but women only make up 25% of the Scottish STEM sector. At every stage of the pathway, from school to work, there is attrition of females. Women are being stopped from achieving their full potential and we fall short of the economic potential that only a diverse STEM sector can bring. We need to ensure that more girls are choosing STEM subjects and that we have enough teachers to deliver the courses that pupils do not end up having their choices taken away from them. Issues with teacher recruitment are not unique to STEM subjects, though uptake of those subjects is at a five-year low. Across the curriculum, there are examples of subjects struggling to recruit, and that directly impacts on pupils as they are either left to, unable to pursue the subjects or they are in classes without specific subject teachers, which in turn impacts on absenteeism and attainment. We also cannot have girls being steered away from science and technology subjects because they are male subjects. It is unfortunate that there are still reports of this happening. We need to address this both in the way departments run themselves, but also in the discussions that take place with careers advisers and others. While there are noted issues with uptake, we have some schools that are bucking those trends, where there are high numbers of girls choosing technology subjects, with departments who encourage them and cultivate an environment that they are welcomed into, which other schools should be learning from. While we continue to encourage girls into STEM subjects at school and beyond, there is a cultural challenge for all STEM departments. They are male-dominated and can be a challenging environment for girls and women to be in. The minister highlighted successful women in science, but girls and women should not be achieving in STEM subjects despite the barriers. The barriers must be removed. The debate briefing from the Royal Society of Chemistry talks of a leaky pipeline through the education pathway. Chemistry does have a high level of females studying the subject at school compared to other STEM subjects, but there is a steady decline in the proportion of women in chemistry departments as we move from undergraduate to postgraduate to staff and to professors. The RSC has identified some of the issues that need to be addressed to remedy this, and certainly many will be common across the STEM subjects. It points to themes including the rigidity of academic funding structures and working options, exclusionary behaviour, bullying and harassment. The gender pay gap is clearly still in place and emerges as early as the first year after graduation, despite figures showing it at this point, women are more likely to be retained in employment. This retention falls away over time, and those women who remain are much less likely to hold a permanent contract. The 2019 survey by Quate Scotland found that 64 per cent of women who work or had worked in STEM did not feel enough was being done to create inclusive workplaces or education institutions. Over Christmas, I read the book, Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmas. I am a steam graduate rather than a STEM graduate. It is a novel that was set in the 1950s. It is disappointing to see that the issues that are being explored in this novel, such as sexism, harassment, exploitation and underemployment for women working in science, are still relevant today. Across the STEM subjects, we need to see action on the areas that the RSCS and Equate Scotland highlight. We need continued work to eliminate bias and to increase accountability. We need to ensure that STEM courses and workplaces are inclusive and welcoming, and to do that, we need to see intervention and support at all levels. I would also like to start by celebrating the achievements and successes of women in science. Some of whom were pioneers in the field of computer science. My own area of interest still sees far too few women studying it and going on to carve out a career in it. Perhaps the earliest of ease was Ada Lovelace. She was born in 1815 and is regarded as the world's first computer programmer, who worked on Charles Babbage's analytical engine and devised what we think is the world's first algorithm or set of rules now known as a computer programme. The programming language Ada was named after her. I would like to mention Margaret Hamilton, who was possibly never mentioned in the Scottish Parliament before. Margaret was one of NASA's chief programmers for the Apollo programme in the 1960s. There is a famous picture of a young woman standing beside a huge print-out of her computer programmes that were actually taller than her. She coined the term software engineer, and she is still working today. Of course, a local success story has to be Professor Victoria Martin from Kilmarnock, who has done some incredible work on the Higgs boson. Colleagues will remember that. The so-called God or creation particle that lends other particles their mass. So what do these women have in common? I am prepared to stick my neck out and say that none of them, certainly not the first two, had any exposure to the types of initiative that we are deploying today to bring more young women into science. I am prepared to bet that they all had something else in common—curiosity. Curiosity mixed with ability and the opportunity, of course, that kept them on the pathway to their glittering careers. There is no doubt that there are a number of initiatives on going to attract more young women into science and to retain them, and they will make a difference to a degree, but we can all see the stats for ourselves and they have not really changed too much over the years. For example, only 20 per cent or 23 per cent, as Michael Marra reported, of the tech workforce in Scotland are women. That is 3 per cent higher than it is in England, but it is still miles too low. Only 21 per cent of the graduate apprentices studying a STEM-related framework are women, and female college enrolments in STEM in Scotland have barely exceeded 30 per cent since 2016. However, we have to keep working on it. Is there another solution? Is it more money? Is it new initiatives? Is it more equality and gender work, apprenticeships, equal pay, career progression issues, more science or computer science at schools, more teachers? Is it all of these? Perhaps it is, but I am not sure that it explains why young women, in particular, walk away from science. When the youngsters are still at primary school, I am prepared to stick my neck out again and say that boys and girls are equally interested in science at primary school, in clear bakerments and this. However, when the transition to secondary school gets underway, the fall-off begins, in terms of young women sticking with science, and it tends not to recover. Why do we think of some other initiatives alongside what we have and see if it works? How about female-only science classes at school? Would that work? Maybe with female-only science teachers? Just for that vital couple of years, Presiding Officer, to try and keep the young girls inside that science bubble, I am sure that we can also find female role models, and Michelle Thompson mentioned that, who are in science today, to come in and enthuse those young women about the wonderful careers ahead of them. Can we do further things to incentivise employers to build up their intake of female scientists? The minister mentioned that in his opening speech, too. Importantly, can we make sure that a career in science for young women doesn't mean them sacrificing lifestyle and other choices that are important to them? When you look around Europe, participation rates by women in IT are all on the low side, with Ireland and Lithuania being the highest at 32 per cent, down to France at 24, but all of them are ahead of Scotland at 20 per cent. We have still got 24,000 IT vacancies in Scotland. I sincerely hope that we can make some big changes that we might one day celebrate this 50-50 representation of women and girls in all branches of science after all that is long overdue. Thank you very much, Mr Coffey. I can advise the chamber that we now have exhausted all the time that we have in hand, so I invite members to stick to their speaking allocations, even if they are taking an intervention. I call Clare Adamson to be followed by Maggie Chapman for up to four minutes, please. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I think that at the start of my speech today, I would like to express my solidarity from the chamber with those women and girls throughout the world who are denied education, particularly the women in Iran, at the moment. We have been reflected on some anecdotes from when we were young girls. I will not put that in my speech, but when I went into my first O-grade physics class as the only girl in the class, the teacher said to me, what are you doing here? Girls do not belong here. I can only answer that from me, but why did I stay in that environment? I am just thrown, which you probably know that by now as well. It was quite challenging. When I chose to study computing sciences at university, I had three options. I could have gone to Glasgow University, there were three of us, three women that would have been in my year, or to Strathclyde again, less than 10 per cent women. I chose to do one of the first degrees at what was then Glasgow College, but I became now Caledonian University. It was a four-year degree, not with honours, but a year in industry, and there was a 50-50 intake of women and girls. To me, it just felt much more comfortable. I have never regated that decision because it taught me a lot about pathways into careers, about how apprenticeships, work experience and a different approach can make all the difference. I studied economics for two years as part of that degree. It was quite a different approach. What we have heard about unique and different approaches to encouraging women is really important. I am a member of the British Computer Society and I draw the chambers to my register of interests as the vice-chair of the Scottish Schools Education Research Centre CERC, which means that I am also one of those women who are part of the leaky pipe, rather, from the RSE's Tapping Order talents report, which has been covered in detail and covers some of the challenges for maintaining a career in science. Indeed, that report quotes that only 27 per cent of women who are graduated to degree level in STEM subjects still remain in those disciplines. Yesterday evening, I hosted the RSE and the Physiological Society in the Garden Lobby. I was delighted to see a project called Science Travels, an outreach programme to hard-to-reach groups from the Traveller, Shulman and Bota communities. That was really important because they have been highlighting that not only is diversity necessary but it improves our collaboration and our thinking and our scientific investigations. Indeed, if we are to look to the challenges facing society in terms of the big challenges of climate, migration, changing demographics and older populations, we have to have groups and minds that represent all of us and all of our communities involved in that. I was glad to hear people talk about the importance of teaching in that and, indeed, CERC runs the STEM ambassadors and STEM leaders programme, which is incredibly important for giving young women confidence to be able to go and talk and to lead in their areas. I want to quickly run out of time, but I want to highlight one totally inspiring teacher, Tony Scullion, who started the social enterprise dress code and runs coding classes for young women throughout Scotland and is award-winning in her endeavours. To me, it highlights how important it is that inspiring teachers are if we are to inspire future generations of women and girls in science. I thank all those organisations who provided briefings and information for today's debate, because it is so important that we recognise the international day of women and girls in science, which takes place on Saturday. I want to recognise this day by talking about three women in science. They all have some things in common. They are all from the global north. They are all white. They all recognise the realities of climate change, the name and career of one you will know very well, the other two perhaps not. Eunice Newton-Foot was born in the United States in 1819 and studied at the Troy Female Seminary. In 1856, she wrote a groundbreaking paper on the absorption of heat by carbon dioxide, suggesting that changes in its atmospheric concentration might change the climate of the earth. Three years later, John Tyndall, the so-called father of climate science, published similar observations. Did he know of Foot's work? We cannot tell. If he did, he did not credit it, but it would not be the first nor the last time that a man took credit for work built on that a woman had done. In 1947, a young chemistry graduate, Margaret Roberts, began her first job at British Xilinite Plastics. Like many sensible workers, she joined a union. As Education Secretary and Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher oversaw the reshaping of university research by market forces. Now, in our universities, we see an obsession with ratings, exploitative publishing and exploited staff, obscene wage inequalities and waste of time, of money, of energy, of goodwill and of hope. We also see dedicated scientists doing vital and inspiring work. That is a tribute to the researchers themselves but also to all the staff and students who make up a university community. We stand in solidarity with them, particularly today with the UCU and its campaign to close the gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps. Especially with the United and Unison workers at Dundee University, many of them were women who refused to be browbeaten into giving up their hard-won, long-promised, well-deserved and extremely modest pensions. For the women on those picket lines, many of them scientists, working on some of the most crucial crises of environment and health, Margaret Thatcher is no role model. But Eunice Foote, who campaigned for the abolition of slavery and for women's rights, she is a role model, and there are others. Professor Julia Steinberger has been a lead author on the IPCC sixth assessment report, painstakingly communicating the realities of climate science to those who would much rather not hear. But that isn't enough. Last year she took part in a campaigning road blockage in Bern, gluing her hand to the pavement. In 2021, she co-wrote an academic article challenging universities to open up their ivory towers to allow and to encourage advocacy and activism in the climate and ecological emergencies. That is science, that is academic excellence and responsibility, and that is feminism too. In conclusion, it matters that girls learn STEM subjects, that young women study science, that graduate women take their places in academia and industry. It matters that men get used to having women working alongside them, even leading them in STEM, and it matters what women do when they get into academia and industry. Margaret Roberts made a wise decision when she joined the union. Margaret Thatcher made another when she acknowledged the scientific reality of climate change. But Eunice Foot and Julia Steinberger and generations of scientists after them, including those who have given time to speak at the on-going XR Dundee science talks, they have done better. They have maintained solidarity, they have retained compassion, they have shown courage and they have told the truth. That is why we need women and girls in science. Thank you, Ms Chapman. I now call Stephen Kerr to be followed by Fiona Hyslop up to four minutes, Mr Kerr. I do need women and girls in science, and I couldn't quite work out whether Maggie Chapman was paying a uncharacteristic tribute to Margaret Thatcher or not, but let me be clear, I do in the context of the subject of this debate, because she was not only the first woman Prime Minister, but she was the first scientist to become a Prime Minister. And the fact that she was the first woman scientist to become a Prime Minister isn't itself astonishing. And quite right, as Maggie Chapman said, she was a very early warning voice on the dangers of climate change. So there's much to be said and praise of Margaret Thatcher in the context of the subject of this debate. But I hope that we all felt perhaps the kick in the stomach that Willie Rennie inadvertently gave us when he revealed the statistics I was inquiring of the minister. Eight per cent of women in those apprenticeships, engineering apprenticeships, is really shameful, and it shows how much more we have to do. There is a huge public policy interest in this area. We've had public policy interests in relation to equality, equal pay. We have a public policy interest in terms of the gender pay gap. We should absolutely and unreservedly have a public policy interest in the area of equalising the representation of women in vitally important fields such as those represented by the subjects that we call STEM. Part of my political ethos, the education is key. It is the golden ticket. It is about maximising potential. We need to provide equality of opportunity for every young person, male and female in our nation, regardless of where they live, what their background is, or the sex. They have to be able to feel empowered. We want them to feel empowered in respect to pursuing their personal destiny and to meet the needs of a vibrant and rapidly changing economic environment. The one that we live in now, we must develop the breadth and the depth of knowledge and skills within our workforce, and that absolutely must include the talent, the drive, the creativity and the toughness of women to be able to get these things probably done. In the time that I have just wished to say a couple of things, and one is that we absolutely must tackle the representation of women in these critical sectors of our economy because, as I said, we are missing out massively. This is not a particularly Scottish problem, so we can all work together across boundaries and across parties, as I think is being evidenced by the tone of the debate this afternoon to that end. Let me say something about other things that have been said by colleagues. Yes, we can talk about the past, we've had some wonderful examples of the past. I've got one here in my speech notes, which I'm not going to use. The reality is that, when you ask Scots to identify famous inventor, scientist and engineers, they generally tend to be all men, and that has to be addressed, and that's why I brought up the example of Buchanan High School. We need to teach our young people from the very earliest possible age about the fact that great advances in the fields of science and engineering and achievement are equally the field of women as they are men. I wanted to comment on something Liz Smith said about broad general education. The reality is that, when it comes to arts subjects, we're not bad at giving young people opportunities to be in touch with different subjects. We're less good at that when it comes to STEM subjects. In fact, we've already rehearsed the issues surrounding STEM. They have to be addressed. If Scotland is to be a competitive economy, if we're to achieve the transformation that we all in this chamber want to see our Scottish economy achieve, then we absolutely must deliberately, as a matter of public policy objective, change the scene when it comes to the availability of STEM teachers and STEM subjects for our young people. In broad general education, yes, but also in terms of those who are presented at higher advanced high. I will conclude by simply saying to the minister that I've got one asked to make of the minister. That is that later this year we will have a historic event in Shetland. We will have a vertical launch of a rocket that's going to go into space. I remember as a boy being assembled in our primary school to watch the launch of the QE2 from Clydebank, and there was a lot of excitement about all of that. Would it be possible, minister, for every Scottish school child to be able to see a live broadcast of that rocket launch, to excite them about what can be achieved in the name of science and progress? Thank you, Mr Kerr. I now call Fiona Hyslop, the final speaker in the open debate. Education Activism, and I'll allow you to say, said, if people were silent, nothing would change. Now, this statement rings true when we consider access to education for girls. Marking this international day gives us the opportunity to highlight women and the work that they are doing, but also areas where more needs to be done. This year's theme is idea, innovate, demonstrate, elevate, advance. In my own area, Wesleyan College ran a successful women in STEM course, encouraging and enabling more women to enter this field. Last weekend, the Enigmas, a group from Llanlithgow academy, took part in the CyberFest girls competition. Of course, article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, everyone has the right to education. However, that right is not guaranteed for all girls. In Afghanistan, Taliban rulers ordered an indefinite ban on university access for women just in December, an outrage, and this chamber must stand in solidarity and express our condemnation at this outrage. In Burkina Faso, only 1 per cent of girls complete their secondary education and, according to UNICEF figures, 129 million girls across the globe are not in school. In Iran, the women's life freedom protests are focused on women's rights and began in September 2022 following the death of Masha Amini, who died in police custody. I want today in Parliament to pay tribute to all those who have been injured and killed in these protests. Women in Iran can and do study STEM subjects at both school and university level. In fact, in 2014, the late Iranian mathematician Mariam Mersalkani became the first female to win the prestigious Fields medal. In 2020, while celebrating International Day of Women and Girls in Science, UN women named Mersalkani one of seven women scientists who have changed the world. However, women and girls in Iran face inequalities, which are a barrier to their education. A 2022 report from the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Iran stated the need to repeal laws that violate the rights of women and girls, to take measures to advance women's equal participation in public life and to ratify the convention of the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. Women in Iran face several barriers to receiving an education, including strict dress codes, rules, which impact on all aspects of their public lives, including study, work and leaving their home. Iran's laws restrict the careers that women can enter and deny equal benefits to women in the workplace. Women are not permitted to travel abroad for work or study without the permission of their male guardian. Internet access is intermittent, restricting online study and work for women and girls across the country. According to World Bank statistics, women only account for 15 per cent of the labour force in Iran. In a letter published in Chemical and Engineering News in October 2022 and signed by 104 Iranian chemists from across the globe, a call for solidarity with the women's movement in Iran was unmistakable. The letter also highlighted the lack of access to STEM subjects for women and girls in Iran and the departure of highly educated Iranians from the country over the past few years, including the late Mariam Mr Canny, whom I mentioned earlier. To advance women and girls in STEM internationally, we must not only support those entering the field but also call out human rights violations that prevent women and girls from entering the area of study. Women in Iran and Afghanistan need all of us to stand in solidarity with them and to condemn the abuse of rights against them. So let's not be silent. Let us all be inspired by the words of Malala and use our voices to fight for the right to education for women and girls across the globe as we mark international day of women and girls in science. Thank you. We move to winding up speeches and I call on Martin Whitfield. I'm very grateful, Presiding Officer, and I frequently stand and thank the previous speaker because it is courteous to do so, but on this debate can I thank Fiona Hyslop for an incredibly powerful speech that talks actually to the heart of what Saturday's international day is about. It is about standing up for the human rights of women, of girls, so that they can hopefully develop or already are very powerful scientists and human beings. It was a very powerful speech and can I thank her for that. It has been a good debate. It has been a debate of much consensus and it has been a debate that I think actually reflects the views of Scotland, which is one of the reasons, of course, for the institution in which we stand here today. I would like to make mention of Audrey Nicholl's speech, and in particular her reference to the Shell company's project of girls and industry. I think it speaks a tribute to there is 100 girls being involved fighting views about an industry that they have perhaps grown up with with a male-dominated view of it when actually the reality is so very different. I think it is a true testament both to Shell and to the accompanying college that they are able to do this and it allows me to make reference also to Michelle Thompson's few interventions with regard to the importance of role models from at a nursery level where I can say from experience I see all children performing great science be it in the mud kitchen, be it outside, be it with Lego and those powerful examples that they have of working together to solve problems lies at the heart of what STEM is about. It is about approaching something in a different way to other people to solve that and that difference is just as relevant in women and girls as it is in men and boys and we simply remove 50% of those people who could solve the problems by ignoring that when we crowd out, push out, persuade, gently condone math is not for women away from a very important problem-solving area that quite frankly across the whole world we lack that scientific thinking in so many places. I would like to mention Liz Smith's speech because of her powerful discussion. We heard from a number of people about the difficulty in teacher numbers which I think we have to accept here in Scotland and particularly in STEM and the interesting contributions about whether or not we can change that but the need that this country that human beings have for a balanced curriculum so as they go through their childhood they experience a vast and wide variety of influences ideas, they learn new facts, they learn new approaches because only in that way can an individual celebrate their thinking patterns and be able to contribute so fully later on in life and indeed having been a teacher, young people contribute so strongly to adults learning and understanding a situation. I think it's worth mentioning Claire Baker's speech because she talked about that leaky pipeline. We have been aware of this frankly for decades but are we any better at plugging those leaks? I would suggest that we're not and I think one of the challenges is that perhaps we are looking at it the wrong way. We have heard many many examples today of individual women who have strived and achieved so much and some people have posed the question why were they able to do it and I think we don't know the answer but what we do have and we've also heard today of the very great examples of schools that have a greater number of girls taking science than others. We should look to the success out there and try and replicate it, expose our teachers, expose our policy makers to the very best as indeed Stephen Kerr mentioned about visiting the school where he saw the display with regard to female scientists. We need to treasure what works so well, allow others to see it and replicate it and I would suggest to Mr Kerr that perhaps his question if you ask about a scientist you only get a man probably depends on the age of the person that you ask that question of. I would also like to very quickly make mention, I am conscious of time, about Claire Adamson and her individual choice to go to an institution where there was a 50-50 balance to take there and I think that speaks powerfully of the desire that individuals have and that speaks powerfully of what the responsibility of this place and indeed the Scottish government and other governments are is to ensure that happens. I have a very quick question for the Minister with regard to the STEM education and training strategy. I could say I am disappointed at only the one reference to a girl in it or only the five references to women in it. I think when we talk about changing the fundamentals we should think about that in everything we do. But I would like to ask about the STEM strategy implementation group minutes last published on March 2020 from a meeting in September and I would be grateful for an update of when they have most recently met and indeed whether it will continue to meet going forward. I think that this has been a very... The member really must conclude so I would ask Minister if you could respond when... And on that point I will conclude to allow for an answer from the Minister in due course. I'm grateful. Thank you and I know Colin Sue Webber. Thank you Presiding Officer. I'm delighted to be closing today's debate for the Scottish Conservatives, which marks the international day of women and girls in science for a number of reasons. Firstly, I was fortunate enough to have two female science teachers at school and I'll dedicate that to them. Mrs Mogue, who sadly is no longer here, she was chemistry and Mrs Rolly Walton, who may just be watching, who knows. Another reason is that I am a life science graduate from the University of Edinburgh in biochemistry and fortunately due to the comments that Jamie Hepburn made, it's no longer 1896 and I was able to graduate quite successfully. What I learned then is now most likely taught at school however, as the understanding of the workings of the cell has progressed rapidly since then. Imagine a time when every lab did not have a PCR machine, gene editing tools such as Casper and did not exist, whole genome sequencing took years and fluorescent microscopy was only just becoming commercialised. Doing quality science under those conditions was archaic but that's what we were doing back then. The adaptation of new tools for simple and affordable use has increased the speed of research and looking back, 20 years reveals just how far we've come in terms of technology but sadly not in terms of gender equality in the science world. While improvement has been made increasing the number of women in STEM subjects, I think that we have all agreed that the more progress must be made as the STEM sector is still dominated by men. My colleague Pam Goswell mentioned that there is a big gender gap in science, women just making up 7 per cent in STEM apprentices in training and women making up only a quarter in the STEM sector. Entries in science subjects by women are also at their lowest level in five years at both national five and higher level. Michael Marra and many members, to be fair, also spoke about this leaky talent pipeline that occurs across our careers from as early as school all the way through to our advanced science careers. I'm a scientist and I'm probably a leaky pipeline now because I'm now a politician. Claire Adamson much could be the same for ourselves, so it's very, very clear that there's an ongoing struggle to attract and keep young women and women and girls tuned to study STEM subjects and pursue those careers. However, even when they're successful at attracting women into the sector, there are issues, as we've said, in retaining that female talent. The Royal Society of Chemistry has statistics that show in 2021 more than 60 per cent of accepted applicants to the university chemistry courses in Scotland were female and the highest figure of all the UK nations, which is laudable but not good enough. Yet we only have 9 per cent of professors and we've heard about the Google professors and you have, I think that was from Audrey Nicholl, the page of grey dark hair to men appearing on our screens, which isn't quite what we like to imagine. Scotland schools play that vital role in ensuring that our STEM subjects are available to young women and encouraging young women to consider careers in science. I wasn't able to do all three sciences at the same time. I did do all three scientists but staggered and I even helped a constituent recently be able to study all three sciences at the same time, but she had to move schools to do so. We need to get better at that. There are fewer science, maths, physics and computer science teachers in 2021 than in 2008. I'm trying to get my words right on this. Computer science is the future. We don't know what those young people are going to be taking up careers in, but understanding programming and computers is the way forward. We have to have more of those teachers. My colleague Liz Smith made quite a contribution regarding the seven ladies of Edinburgh medical school that was quite a spine tingling in terms of the way she animated that. It was great. She also mentioned that in 2015 the Royal Society of Chemistry made the call to have dedicated science teachers in every primary school. That is something that I would also support when you consider that gender inequality in participation in science and other STEM subjects start at a very young age. While we commend the improvements in getting women into STEM, there are still massive improvements to be made, and there is not much progress to be made by the SNP Government. Martin Whitfield made reference to the fact that so few references to women are in that documentation. We have to set the example. We are the leaders in this, and it's up to us to make sure that we are presenting a world in our strategies and policies that young women can aspire to be part of. Scotland is a home to world-leading organisations in science, and we've heard many of those examples today. Last year, I visited Q2 Solutions, which is a leading clinical laboratory service in West Lothian. It was a senior female friend of mine that was my link into that organisation. Maggie Conacher, another shout-out to Maggie. Later this month, I will be visiting the national robotarium, which has unrivaled facilities and world-leading expertise in robotics and artificial intelligence. That's out at the Heriot-Watt University. I also took part in innovating Scotland healthcare round-table, alongside remarkable women including Dame Anna Dominicius—I'm not very good at these—a Polish-born medical researcher who's now our chief medical officer. We should be actively encouraging young women to study these subjects and pursue those sorts of careers every single day. The Scottish Conservatives would fully fund the placement of dedicated STEM teachers in every primary school, and we want to restore excellence in Scottish schools so that every child has the chance to succeed no matter their background, and we will be supporting all of the amendments and motions today. I thank all members who have contributed over the course of this afternoon a range of contributions that have enabled us to reflect on the many achievements of women in science across Scotland. I'm pleased that colleagues have been able to highlight so many examples of the various female science pioneers in Scotland. I have to say that I have felt some degree of inadequacy by comparison to some because we have a number who are qualified and have formally practised in the STEM professions, and to those members in particular, I have to say that it's great that they have contributed because they themselves are able to be pointed at as role models for the professions that they have been involved in. We also heard Stephen Kerr's request of me regarding the rocket launch from Shetland. There was a bit concerned as to where he was taking it. I thought he might be suggesting he should be tied to the rocket, but he didn't go there. I would certainly commend to our schools to give their young people the chance to watch that event. I can actually say that his activity under way in the coming period ahead of Education Scotland will be engaging with local authorities, with schools and with other partners to see what activities can be undertaken around that launch, trying to inspire young people. As much as we've heard and rightly spoken about the many successes, much of the debate has focused on some of the challenges that we face. I don't shy away from the fact that there are challenges. Stephen Kerr was right to say that it's not a uniquely Scottish problem, but we have to take them head on. If ever there was a reminder, though, about the international contest in which we operate, and I must mention this, it was Fiona Hyslop's contribution. She spoke about some of the deep, seated, outright discrimination that exists for women and young girls in other parts of the world's furth of Scotland, not as historic examples as both I and Liz Smith were able to reflect on in relation to the Edinburgh 7 but in the here and now. I think that it is important that we say with one voice, loudly and clearly, that here in Scotland we fundamentally believe in the right to an education, including the STEM subject matter for every young girl and woman in the world. That is something that we absolutely believe in. Can I turn to the issue of STEM teachers that was mentioned? I do recognise that we have a challenge here. I should say that this is symptomatic of the wider labour market challenge that we face right now. Those who are qualified in STEM are in great demand, including it appears to work in the political profession for some of them, but more widely it is a challenge. What we are doing is that we have the STEM bursaries in place to encourage people who have that background of working in the STEM sector to switch careers, profession and to come in to act as STEM teachers and they themselves would be fantastic role models for the young people that they would end up acting as teachers for. I want to pick up on the point that was made by Martin Whitfield in relation to the STEM strategy implementation group and the STEM strategy more widely. There was, of course, some disruption over the course of the Covid-19 period in terms of that group meeting. I can say that the group has continued to provide and act as a source of invaluable advice and assistance to the Government as we take forward the strategy. That strategy is coming to an end. We are considering the next steps as we move forward, but it is exactly that type of personnel that will rely on to content and form the work that we undertake. In relation to the point that he and Sue Weber made, I will certainly reflect on the fact that the number of times women featured in the STEM strategy that we have been operating to. I am very grateful for the minister's give way. Perhaps with the redevelopment of the implementation group, there may be a more gender balance on that group, but I do not find assistance to the Government. Just as I have said, I will reflect on that in the wider point. It is an eminently reasonable point to make. It is time for apprenticeships, particularly by Stephen Kerr and Willie Rennie, but by others as well. Having had the chance to look out some of the figures, we have a significant challenge in terms of female participation in the relevant frameworks. The figures that I have would suggest that, of the STEM modern apprenticeship frameworks in operation, there are around 11 per cent of women taking part. That is wider than just the engineering framework that Willie Rennie mentioned, which is why it is a slightly different figure, but it is still far too low, I can say. Willie Rennie mentioned that, by comparison, if you look at graduate apprenticeships, the figure is in excess of that, around 20 per cent, 21.2 per cent. That is an increase from when they were first put in place. Again, in the foundation apprenticeship frameworks, we have nearly a quarter of participants who are young girls in the secondary school environment. That is still not good enough, but it gives us some optimism for the future that the numbers are higher at that young age. However, we need more progress in this area. That is why the SDS Equalities Action Plan is important, and that is why the SAB, the Scottish Apprenticeship Advisory Board recommendations are important. We will consider them. I will say that our employers have a huge role to play in this regard. Apprenticeships are an employment opportunity, and it is up to employers to make sure that they are thinking through their recruitment practice when they take on apprentices. I am pleased to say that there are many employers who are actively engaged in thinking about how to do better in that regard. Role models is also the subject of some discussion. In fact, I will come back to the role models issue in a minute, because I also want to pick up on Willie Rennie's point. He rightly identified the importance of the improving gender balance activity being taken forward by Education Scotland. I can assure him that I do not want to see that lost through the process of reform that we are taking forward. In terms of role models, they are fundamentally important in terms of the activity that we take forward. We have the Scottish Schools Education Research Centre undertaking activity in that regard. Clare Armson mentioned the ambassador's programme. I will be very interested to follow up on the innovative suggestion that was made by Michelle Thompson intervention Audrey Nicolab at how we might do more and utilise female ambassadors better as part of that activity. Our developing young workforce activity can also play a role. Our science festivals funding is important in that regard as well. We provide £220,000 to support those festivals, as I mentioned earlier. I was in Dundee to see some of that activity and I was very pleased to see that there were young girls engaged in that activity as well. To Clare Armson's point on Tony Scully and Tony, Scully is part of the Scottish teachers computing science activity, which is funded by the Scottish Government, which recently included our teacher upskilling programme. That is some of the activity that is under way. That has been a useful opportunity for us to not only reflect on the many outstanding achievements of women scientists in Scotland, as we rightly should do, but also to recognise the challenges that still exist. Those are challenges that we are collectively determined to rise to.