Long way to go in tackling culture of toxic masculinity

THE Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish Government’s handling of harassment complaints against Alex Salmond opened yesterday.

The coming weeks will establish where the investigation into the complaints went wrong but on day one, the evidence took a departure from reality.

The investigation into the Salmond complaints aside, it rang hollow when Scotland’s top civil servant, Leslie Evans, told the inquiry the Scottish Government “has been on a journey of cultural change since 2015 to ensure the organisation is more open, capable and responsive”.

She added: “As permanent secretary, I have led a focus on equality, inclusion and wellbeing, including addressing bullying and harassment.”

If there was a “cultural change”, it was indiscernible a year in.

In 2016, MSPs Mark McDonald and Richard Lyle behaved inappropriately towards a female member of parliamentary staff, subjecting her to demeaning sexual innuendo.

McDonald sent her a text bemoaning the fact she’d ignored his requests to go for coffee.

He wrote in a private Twitter message she had twice “dingyed” him, followed by sad emojis.

He added: “My phone wanted to autocorrect dingyed to fingered there which I’m so glad I noticed before I sent that message.”

That same year, at an SNP Christmas party, she was insulted by Lyle, who loudly asked her breast size. He shouted across the room to her: “Just how big are your t*** anyway?” The next day, he brought her a £1 box of sweets and apologised. What a gent.

For Lyle to feel that he could so publicly humiliate a female in front of a room full of political powerbrokers speaks volumes about the pervasive culture of toxic masculinity in the parliament.

McDonald and Lyle were confident the political bubble of Holyrood was a safe space for powerful men to degrade women with impunity because, in reality, it was.

It was only the mobilisation of the #MeToo movement which gave women the confidence to speak out but, even then, no one from the parliament’s civil service sought her opinion on how the institutional sexism could be addressed.

She had an advantage the vast majority of victims don’t – she had proof and she had witnesses. The actions of these men were not criminal but were an abuse of power and point to a parliament where such behaviour was endemic rather than exceptional.

In 2017, Labour’s Monica Lennon went public about how she was sexually assaulted by a party colleague at a social gathering while other colleagues brushed off the incident. He did so in front of witnesses, who she said treated it like a joke. She didn’t feel she could complain, fearing she would not be believed and would be seen as a troublemaker.

Women are often harassed in the workplace. In my circle alone, I know of waitresses, lawyers, entrepreneurs and surgeons who have all felt they had no option but to brush such behaviour aside.

I know from experience how disempowering and humiliating it feels, how you are rendered powerless and belittled, no matter how smart and assertive you think you are. When it has happened to me, I’m ashamed to say I retreated into myself like a bullied child instead of eviscerating the perpetrators at the time.

The #MeToo movement may have tempered sexist behaviour in parliament but it is ridiculous to suggest there has been a shift in attitudes. All that has changed is the perpetrators of harassment fear they will now be exposed.

It will take years and many more women in positions of power in parliament before “the journey of cultural change” reaches its destination.