Scotland's top female politician: Childcare failure a barrier to women in power

Kate Forbes’ frustrations resonated with me

PA

Imagine John Swinney or Anas Sarwar telling a room full of business leaders, civil society activists and other influential figures that they had to cut a budget debate from three hours to two in case they “vomited up their lunch”.

Or father-of-three Alex Cole-Hamilton bemoaning the fact that the Scottish Parliament’s creche can only provide childcare for three hours at a time, when a full day at Holyrood starts at 9.00 am and finishes at 5.30 pm at the earliest. You can’t? Neither can I, but earlier this week, Scotland’s most powerful female politician, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, did just that.

She was on stage at the Scotland 2050 conference with Cherie Blair, leading barrister and wife of former PM Tony Blair. The title of their discussion was A Better Future for Women in Public Life, and while the focus of the day’s business was a “forward-looking vision” for Scotland, as far as women were concerned we might as well have been in 1999. Twenty-six years after Winnie Ewing first called MSPs to order, women are still bemoaning the fact there is no proper childcare provision at Holyrood. And the brutal truth is that without it, women find it much harder to combine motherhood with politics.

PA

Forbes’ amusing anecdote about her early days of pregnancy raised a gentle laugh among the audience, but she used it to make a serious point about the practical obstacles that still face women who want to enter politics, barriers which no-one shows any real enthusiasm to remove. I bumped into her later in Edinburgh’s George Street – whatever you think of her politics, Forbes is one of the most approachable, down-to-earth politicians in Scotland – and she repeated her frustration at the lack of practical childcare for working parents.

The creche at Holyrood is often touted as proof of the parliament’s child-friendly approach. If you want to sit in the public gallery for a couple of hours or pop in for an appointment with your MSP, then it works a treat. It is free, it can be used for up to three hours a day, and it is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. But if you’re a government minister, or a backbench MSP and a mother, the creche is worse than useless. And literally as I write, the Scottish Government has just announced that it is closing its workplace nursery at Victoria Quay, which currently provides up to 37 full-day equivalent places for children up to the age of five.

Kate Forbes’ frustrations resonated with me. Many years ago, as the mother of two pre-teen sons, a friend and colleague approached me to ask if I was considering standing in the next general election. “If you are, I won’t,” he said. I didn’t hesitate. “I can’t,” I said. “I couldn’t combine motherhood with a job in London.” He went on to become a senior political figure while I stayed at home. I have no regrets. Juggling my life as an Edinburgh councillor, as I was at the time, with my family responsibilities was tough enough. Westminster would have been impossible. And on reflection, I was never cut out to be a politician anyway. My family – and the Labour party – got a lucky escape. But back then it was my sex that determined my decision, not my ambition. Just as Kate Forbes is discovering 30 years later, being a parent and a senior politician is almost always far more of a challenge for a woman than it is for a man.

The conversation between Forbes and Cherie Blair inevitably moved on to the impact of online misogyny on women in the public eye, with Blair noting that research by her foundation, which supports female-led businesses in low and middle income countries, showed that 60 per cent of women had experienced digital hate. And Kate Forbes said that coping with a constant stream of online abuse was “exhausting”. “What’s remarkable is that we’ve been talking about this for at least six or seven years, and it’s only got worse in that time,” she said.

At a conference designed to discuss opportunities for the future, it was depressing that the two most prominent women speakers had to focus on the perennial challenges facing women – misogyny and the impact of their reproductive role on their life. While the men – and the speaker list was disappointingly 70 per cent male – got excited about artificial intelligence and the impact of technological advances on our society, women spoke of the real stuff of life. One of the most challenging, but all too brief, discussions was on social care, where former Health Secretary Jeane Freeman pointed out that governments, including the one in which she served, "dodge the decision" about what any future care system should look like. I think I can safely predict that by 2050 the social care workforce will still be largely female. At the moment, 85 per cent are women and I don’t see men rushing to join them unless there is a significant increase in pay and much better conditions. This may be 2025, but looking after babies and frail old people is still considered women’s work.

The conference brochure spoke ambitiously of Scotland 2050’s aim to: “inspire new thinking and re-imagine what can be achieved to deliver a new enlightenment”. But before we get carried away by the power of algorithms to change the world, perhaps politicians should get back to basics. In his speech to the event, John Swinney used high-flown rhetoric to describe his vision of a “country that is fairer, wealthier, more at peace with itself than the Scotland of today.”

Why not start with affordable childcare that works for parents, as well as for the providers. A professional social care sector that rewards its workforce and offers the elderly a secure future. And a society where hatred against women – no matter the source – is condemned by all. Or is that just too difficult?