Women’s rights have come a long way but we still have a long way to travel
GENDER equality is still an “unwon cause” 100 years on from the first women securing the right to vote in the UK, according to Nicola Sturgeon.
Scotland’s First Minister said it was the duty of the current generation to win the battle for equality as she paid tribute to the sacrifices of the suffragettes who won the right for some women to vote a century ago.
In a debate at Holyrood to mark the centenary, Sturgeon said: “Women have had equal voting rights to men for 90 years but the uncomfortable truth is that gender equality is still an unwon cause that is the duty of our generation to win.”
Sturgeon praised recent achievements including legislation to secure 50 per cent female representation on public boards.
But she warned that gender capability was still not reflected in equal pay and status. Figures show female representation at Holyrood has fallen from 37 per cent of MSPs in 1999 to 35 per cent now.
Sturgeon said the best way to honour the “perseverance, courage and self-sacrifice” of the suffragists and suffragettes was by “renewing our own resolve to use the powers we have ... to make the world a better place for the girls and young women who are growing up today”.
She added: “It falls to us in our generation through deeds not words to complete the work that the suffrage work started.”
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said the centenary was a “staging post to a better system”.
She said: “The idea of equal only exists if women are given the same opportunity to make progress, the same rewards for hard work and the same treatment in the job as the man standing next to her, and that’s the next fight.”
Labour’s Kezia Dugdale pointed out that there are more statues of dogs in Edinburgh than women.
She said: “The evidence that women are still unequal can be seen everywhere we turn so we must redouble our efforts to deliver gender equality.”