Chamber and committees

I thank members for supporting the motion on increasing the participation of women and girls in STEM, as well as colleagues who will be speaking in the debate.

I am grateful to the wonderful women whom I was privileged to speak to during my research, and I extend my thanks to the organisations that submitted informative briefings ahead of the debate.

STEM—science, technology, engineering and mathematics—subjects are integral to almost every aspect of modern society, from food production to advancements in medicine, economic forecasting, our growing space sector and arts and culture. STEM is a key driver of economic growth in Scotland.

My personal interest in the subject is deeply linked to the north-east’s energy sector and the rapidly growing demand for a strong STEM workforce to help to facilitate our ambition to become a global energy hub. In his report, “Making the Switch”, Professor Paul de Leeuw of Robert Gordon University reminds us that the north-east hosts a workforce that

“possesses the specialist knowledge, experience and expertise required to deliver and accelerate the energy transition.”

However, women make up only about 25 per cent of the oil and gas industry workforce and approximately 18.5 per cent of the offshore wind sector. Of course, that is seen elsewhere, with women underrepresented in STEM on multiple levels. Although progress has been made in closing the gender gap, the gap still exists. The parity in STEM learning between boys and girls diverges as children move through secondary school, with girls being significantly less likely than boys to learn STEM subjects beyond higher stage—the leaky pipe analogy.

In its briefing, Close the Gap highlights that

“fewer girls take STEM subjects at Higher level such as physics ... computer science ... and engineering science compared to boys.”

Close the Gap also points out that

“73% of female STEM graduates do not pursue a career in this area”

and that only

“9% of STEM professors are women and women account for 11% of directorships in the STEM sectors.”

Gender stereotypes, a lack of role models, a lack of access to STEM programmes and challenges around work-life balance and family responsibilities all play their part.

I spoke to many women working in the STEM sphere, who spoke about how children’s attitudes about gender and work roles become fixed at an early age and heavily influence their future subject choices, as Close the Gap sets out clearly in its briefing, and about the crucial role of inspirational teachers and lecturers, supportive parents and carers in encouraging, but not forcing, STEM learning and careers.

The Teach First report, “Missing Elements: Why ‘Steminism’ Matters in the Classroom and Beyond”, highlights that only half of the United Kingdom population is able to name a female scientist. However, the good news is that we can now buy a Barbie professor, so all is well in the world.

Beyond education, I heard about unwelcoming work environments in which stereotypes about the different roles of men and women were strong. One academic spoke of our increasingly gendered society and how some men are, as she put it, blind to the issues of gender imbalance.

Another academic spoke of the subtle barriers that women in STEM face while at the same time being constantly reminded of her role as a STEM influencer. An engineer told me of the pressure that she felt to try harder to do more to prove herself. The lack of access to flexible working and good-quality part-time jobs was evident, as was, critically, the lack of access to affordable, good-quality childcare. There are common themes in the challenges that are faced by girls and women, but there is also much consensus on how to respond and some great examples of work that is already under way.

Aberdeen City Council, Robert Gordon University, the University of Aberdeen and NESCol—North East Scotland College—have developed the Aberdeen computing collaborative, a computer science curriculum from early learning to the senior phase that is designed to encourage young people to consider a career in teaching computer science.

Shell’s girls in energy partnership is a one-year course delivered with NESCol and Fife College to showcase the energy industry’s career opportunities to girls in the senior phase. Today, the centre for health data science at the University of Aberdeen is holding the annual women in data science conference, which will coincide with the annual worldwide data science conference that is being held at Stanford University and at about 200 other locations worldwide.

I was also pleased to note that Equate Scotland is working in partnership with ConStructEd Scotland to offer a hands-on construction experience for women in graduate or postgraduate engineering. I look forward to hearing other examples of progress during members’ contributions today.

I welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to the careerwise programme and the women into STEM pipeline project, and I am encouraged that more female students are enrolling in maths and science college courses and that female undergraduate engineering student numbers are increasing.

What needs to change? First, we need to tackle gender stereotypes. Although initiatives such as taster sessions for girls are welcome, they are insufficient to create sustainable change. Earlier intervention in early years settings is required, as is prioritising gender-competent leadership, particularly in wider education settings. We also need to actively recruit more women into roles in which they are underrepresented and to support women to access reskilling opportunities—that is particularly relevant to the energy sector.

Crucially, expanding access to affordable childcare is required. In that regard, the Scottish Government’s expansion of early learning and childcare to all three and four-year-olds and to eligible two-year-olds is hugely significant not only in improving the health and wellbeing of children and parents, but in supporting parents into work, study or training.

I very much look forward to hearing the minister’s response to members’ contributions today. Again, I thank everyone for their support in bringing forward this debate.

Following First Minister’s question time today, I will hold a members’ business debate on encouraging women and girls into science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Given the importance of STEM, particularly to the north-east economy, and its role in Scotland’s transition to net zero, what action is the Scottish Government taking to motivate women and girls to pursue careers in it?

Before I bring in Jamie Greene, I will come back to Collette Stevenson’s earlier questioning on the impact on victims’ families. I would be interested, Daljeet Dagon, to hear a little bit about the work of Barnardo’s on supporting children, whether they are victims or are, as Alison Penman mentioned in her opening remarks, becoming perpetrators—for want of a better word—in their own right. What are you seeing in Barnardo’s on that?

Martin MacLean has a final word.

Yes, I am happy with that. It is appropriate that we keep track of progress and ask to be updated as and when there are developments. Thank you very much indeed.

That concludes our business in public for this morning. We now move into private session.

Our next item of business is an evidence-taking session on tackling online child abuse, grooming and exploitation. This is the committee’s second evidence session on the issue, following our initial consideration in May last year.

I am very pleased to welcome to this morning’s meeting Daljeet Dagon, who is programme manager at Barnardo’s Scotland; Stuart Allardyce, who is director of Stop It Now! Scotland for the Lucy Faithfull Foundation; Wendy Hart, who is deputy director for threat leadership and child sexual abuse at the National Crime Agency; Joanne Smith, who is policy and public affairs manager at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Scotland; Detective Superintendent Martin MacLean, who is the head of the national child abuse investigation unit in the specialist crime division of Police Scotland; and Alison Penman, who is a senior manager at Dumfries and Galloway Council, and depute chair of the child protection group of Social Work Scotland. A warm welcome to you all, and thank you for your written evidence. I refer members to papers 2 and 3.

I intend to allow around 90 minutes for this session, so we will move straight to questions. To kick things off, I invite each of the witnesses to make some short opening remarks about the work that their respective organisations are undertaking and have been developing on the issue. I will start with Daljeet Dagon.

Thanks very much. Gosh! There was a lot in those opening remarks, and a lot for us to try to unpick in our questions.

I will now open it up to members, who I know have some questions that they want to ask. We will start with Russell Findlay.

I suggest to members that they should direct their questions to specific panel members so that we use our time as efficiently as we can.

Thank you for that helpful clarification. Jamie Greene wishes to come in, then we will hear from Russell Findlay.

A very good morning, and welcome to the 17th meeting in 2023 of the Criminal Justice Committee. There are no apologies this morning, and Fulton MacGregor is joining us online.

Our first item of business is a decision on whether to take in private item 6, which is consideration of today’s evidence. Do we agree to take that item in private?

Members indicated agreement.