Scotland's Economy

Women and business

July 4, 2014 by Angela Constance MSP No Comments | Category Economy

In April this year my colleague Shona Robison and I were promoted to the Scottish Cabinet, bringing female representation at the most senior level of Government in Scotland to 40 per cent.

The Scottish Government’s commitment to increasing board level female representation is not confined to central government. We want to see women better represented in senior posts across the public sector.  And with independence we would be able to bring forward legislation to address the glass ceiling in the private sector too.

Of course, even at 40 per cent, women would still be under-represented relative to a 52 per cent proportion of the wider population.

Gender segregation in the workplace is not just a board level issue. As Cabinet Secretary for Training, Youth and Women’s employment I am acutely aware of gender imbalances in schools, in training and across business sectors.

Last month Sir Ian Wood presented the final report of the Commission on Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce. I asked the Commission to look in particular at equalities issues in the delivery of vocational education and training. Sadly the Commission’s findings do not come as a complete surprise.

Through its skills agency, Skills Development Scotland, the Scottish Government supports over 70 job based apprenticeship frameworks.

At the extremes, engineering frameworks attract three per cent female participation while childcare opportunities attract three per cent male trainees. Far more “normal” is the three quarters of frameworks where the gender balance is 75/25 per cent or worse. I agree with the Commission that it is particularly disappointing that this imbalance continues in new industries such as life science and IT where women should have every opportunity to be as successful as males and contribute equally in high skilled, high paid key sectors in Scotland’s economy. Most depressing of all is the Commission’s observation that gender stereotyping in education continues.

Through our response to the Wood Commission we will do more to encourage and support young women into Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths learning and jobs and to support the recruitment, retention, return and success of women where they are significantly under-represented. But there is work still to be done on issues such as under-employment and the pay gap where we do not currently have all the powers we need to frame fairer employment policies.

In recent weeks and months I have been fortunate to meet talented and enthusiastic young women forging careers in “male dominated” industries. There are too few of them but increasingly I get a sense that their employers have recognised that long term sustainability and success depends on accessing all the talents that all of our young people can bring to developing their businesses, regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability or background. And encouragingly those young women report that their  young male counterparts do not see gender as an issue.

In Scotland, more women than ever are now in work.  Our transformational plans for childcare will not just be good for children, but also their parents, giving them greater opportunities to enter work or training.  The key challenge for us now is to ensure that women can enter quality sustained work in careers they choose rather than those apparently open to recruiting women.  Government alone cannot address the issues that deny women the opportunities and choices to contribute in the way that best suits their skills and circumstances to making Scotland a more successful country. We are committed to working with employers, with trade unions and with public and third sector partners to fundamentally change the culture so that gender equality across sectors is the new “normal” and Scottish businesses and our economy benefits accordingly.

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