Nicola Sturgeon's grit in face of 'brutality' of public life has inspired women across Scotland – Laura Waddell

The mood in my DMs is shock. “I can’t believe it.” “Didn’t expect to cry at work today!” It is the end of the Sturgeon leadership, and many will mourn it.

As I contemplate my early reaction to the sudden announcement of Nicola Sturgeon’s departure as First Minister, I think about her considerable successes and rarer missteps in office, and how she brought international credibility to the Scottish independence movement. There is much to celebrate and analyse about Sturgeon’s extraordinary winning streak over the last decade. But what gets me in my gut, what makes her stepping down feel truly like the end of an era rather than just another political shuffle, is how much her leadership of Scotland meant to women like me.

Sturgeon entered leadership while mainstream news channels were still platforming all-male panels – or manels – to discuss the issues of the day. Back in 2015, some commentators couldn’t get over a woman politician wearing a high heel. We have come a little way since then.

But looking at the tidal wave of bile and sexism aimed at women political leaders who could blame Sturgeon had she one day woken up and said “f*** it” at any point in the last eight years? The personal abuse that comes with the polarity of our politics has only grown over the years. But the longest-serving First Minister has shown through her many trials a rock-hard resilience. In my relatively limited experience with the 'brutality' of the public sphere, her exemplary grit has brought me, as a woman looking on, a strength I needed to witness in order to find my own.

In her resignation speech, Sturgeon spoke of the personal toll the top job takes – how a First Minister is never off duty, not able to go for a walk by herself or meet friends for coffee easily. “Giving absolutely everything of yourself to this job is the only way to do it,” she said.

But no human, not even a politician who has celebrated a slew of electoral wins since 2015 with unusually high levels of popular support (and equally spirited opposition), can live like that forever. While deeply interested to see what Sturgeon does next – particularly if it includes indulging further in her noted love of books – no one can deny she has earned some time to recalibrate.

In her introductory essay to the book Dangerous Women, a title inspired, in part, by Sturgeon being given the moniker by the Sun and Daily Mail, she writes of her inspiration. “When I look at the women who inspired me to take on a political career and ultimately leadership responsibilities, my role models include the strong women who played an important part in shaping the SNP, Margo MacDonald and Winnie Ewing, who helped the party become the social and democratic force for change we are today. I am sure they too were seen as threatening to the political establishment of the day, as they challenged the perceived order in Scotland. Their work did so much to encourage women like me and showed us that there could be a place for us in politics.”

Nicola Sturgeon, in her time as the longest-standing First Minister of Scotland, has carried that baton forward. Beyond being one of the most impressive politicians of the modern era, something even her opposition will grudgingly admit, significant numbers of Scottish women have taken personal influence and strength from her impressive intelligence, eloquence, savvy, wit, empathy, principles, grit, and style: how, essentially, to stand our ground under fire. This will be one of her greatest legacies.