FIRST minister Nicola Sturgeon has told how she regrets emulating “aggressive” male behaviour in her early days in politics.
Speaking to The Herald for International Women’s Day, Ms Sturgeon says the approach led to her being judged as adversarial and unsmiling – “stuff that would never be said about a man”.
During a wide-ranging interview about gender equality, sexual harassment and sexism, the First Minister also disclosed that despite holding Scotland’s highest public office she is still subject to “mansplaining”, adding that there were “still a lot of dinosaurs out there”.
Nicola Sturgeon interview: 'Even as First Minister men try to explain politics to me'
Asked how her life had been affected by discrimination, Ms Sturgeon said it wasn’t until she entered politics that she started to experience gender barriers.
“The SNP had always had strong women, such as Winnie and Margaret Ewing, and Margo MacDonald,” she said. “But most of the people I was surrounded with were men. I’ve gained more understanding of this by looking back, but I know that influenced how I behaved as a politician when I was younger.
“You start to adopt – unconsciously – behaviours, the stance, the approach. In politics it leads you to be more adversarial and aggressive in your approach and as a young woman, behaving like the men behave inevitably leads to people seeing you as taking yourself far too seriously.
“It’s a no-win situation and you quickly realise this. If you behave in the way people expect women to behave, the danger is you are treated as not being serious enough. If you emulate the behaviours of the men around you, you are accused of not being feminine.”
Herald View: There is much still to be done on women's rights and representation
Ms Sturgeon, who has described former First Minister Alex Salmond as her mentor, added: “In my early days in politics I probably did subconsciously emulate male behaviour too much. A lot of the stuff written about me in my younger days was all about how I was adversarial and never smiled – stuff that would never be said about a man.”
As to how her approach has changed over the years, the SNP leader, who joined the party in her native Ayrshire after the 1987 General Election, admitted it took time to find her own style of politics.
“The older I’ve got, the more experienced I’ve become, the more you learn to be yourself,” she said. “You gain a bit more confidence.
“If I’m ever asked to impart advice to younger women – particularly in politics but more generally, too – the first thing I say is this: just be yourself.”
Lamenting the fact that she still sometimes finds herself to be the only woman in the room or in a minority, Ms Sturgeon said despite being leader of the country some men still felt the need to “mansplain” things to her.
“Even as First Minister I get men trying to explain politics to me,” she said. “I like to think most guys mean well when they do it, but it’s definitely still a thing. To be fair lots of guys are much more conscious now of how they behave but – dare I say it – there are still a lot of dinosaurs out there.”
The First Minister said she was in favour of using legislation to redress inequalities in areas such as pay and representation for women, adding that wider cultural change was also vital.
“We’ve got to look at how we accelerate the progress,” she said. “For people who don’t want that, the challenge goes back to them – how can we accelerate the pace of change in a different way?
“We simply cannot be sitting here in 10 or 20 years’ time and for things not to have changed. My niece is 11 – if we’re still talking about these things when she’s a young woman then we’ll have failed another generation.”
Nicola Sturgeon interview: 'Even as First Minister men try to explain politics to me'
Ms Sturgeon was speaking as she extended the Young Mentor initiative, which gives a young woman aged 18-23 the chance to be personally mentored by her. She called on other women in leadership roles to offer the same opportunity.
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