Equality for all equates to fairness for all

Earlier this month at Holyrood, MSPs marked International Women’s Day.

An important celebration because it allows us to take a look back through history to see the trials and triumphs women have overcome.

But I also think it is right that it should be a marker of illustrating all that has been achieved.

Looking at my own family, events which took place more than 40 years ago, still impact today.

My wife rejoiced when the Equal Pay Act came into operation on 1 January 1975.

For the first time in her career she had been able to enter the company’s pension plan.

It meant she was in the firm’s plan right to the point of her retirement. However, entering it later due to the changes, meant it is around 20% lower than it might have been.

While it is not often given much thought, something which took place quite some time ago, still has implications.

Working in the finance industry, my wife was pretty much on her own, because there were not many women at her senior level.

I am incredibly proud of all she achieved in her working life – one of only two women among the 300 or 400 people who would attend the Association of Investment Companies annual dinners.

My wife was also a mentor to Audrey Baxter, the executive chairman of Baxter’s Food Group.

It is fantastic to see there are some women at senior levels in businesses across Scotland.

This of course can only increase.

In the same week to mark International Women’s Day, thousands of women descended on the Houses of Parliament, including those from my own constituency to protest against changes to pensions.

And only last month, Banff and Buchan MP Dr Eilidh Whiteford had a bill voted through at Westminster to help protect women against gender based violence.

Women have influenced politics for a long time.

The Great Reform Bill is currently before the Parliament at Westminster.

It is important to remind ourselves of the last Great Reform Bill, which removed the right of women to vote.

The electorate in those days was very small and there was a property qualification, but women who met that qualification and who were not married or were head of household could vote.

That danger exists with the Great Reform Bill today, as it potentially takes away rights and equalities for a wide range of people.

Fairness for women in no way diminishes men; rather, it rewards all of us in society, because equality for all is a necessary prerequisite of fairness for all.