Sturgeon warns of pressures on women

Nicola Sturgeon has spoken out about the “double whammy” of judgment she faced as a young woman starting out in politics.

Scotland’s First Minister warned that young women now faced “dangerous and unacceptable” pressure online over their appearance. Ms Sturgeon also told anaudience of 15 to 17-year old girls: “When you’re surrounded by people... what you start to do is emulate the behaviour of all of these middle-aged men that surround you because you think that’s what’s expected of you. And in politics what that often means, and what I think it meant for me when I was younger, is behaving in a way that’s quite adversarial or aggressive because that... is what you think is necessary to succeed.

“You very quickly discover... that there’s a double whammy effect in all of this because what you also find is that the behaviours that in men are considered to be attributes and positive behaviours in a woman are considered completely differently. If a woman behaves in that way... it’s not seen as strong leadership often, it’s seen as being and often described as being bossy and strident and a woman behaving in a way that she’s not supposed to behave.”