Look at this image of Scotland’s newly appointed cabinet and then compare it to a picture of our own – can you spot the difference?
Scotland’s new first minister Nicola Sturgeon last week appointed a cabinet made up of 50% women and 50% men: a perfect gender balance.
Sturgeon described the appointment as “a clear demonstration that this government will work hard in all areas to promote women, to create gender equality and it sends out a strong message that we will start the business of redressing the gender balance in public life starts right here in government.”
She is absolutely right. As Georgina Dent pointed out today, the most powerful way a government can prove it takes gender equality seriously is by embodying it. A government can only credibly tells its constituents to combat gender discrimination if it can prove it is taking real action to combat gender discrimination itself.
With a single female representative in cabinet, our government fails this test.
Scotland’s first minister also said her own appointment as the first female first minister sends the message to “all girls and women” that “if you are good enough and work hard enough, you can achieve anything”.
The same can be said of her cabinet which tells the country that women and girls have an exactly equal chance of being appointed to national leadership positions as men.
A picture of a cabinet with 50% females sends a clear message that in Scotland the government offers women an equal chance at success. By contrast, a picture of a cabinet with 18 men and 1 woman sends a clear message that in Australia, the government offers a slim chance at success for women and girls but the odds are heavily stacked against them.
Aside from the deeper more symbolic message in Scotland’s cabinet there is something completely refreshing about the image. What do you notice about the picture?
In this group of men and women the hair, make-up and clothes of any single women is far less important; it stands out less. The physical appearance of female leaders remains a vexed and contentious issue which is exacerbated by the fact these females remain in the minority. Against a sea of suits, a lone female is bound to stand out and it lends itself to an inevitable degree of scrutiny about her clothes, her hair and her make-up. As Karl Stefanovic’s suit experiment so effectively proved men avoid this type of focus altogether by effectively looking the same.
This visual of Scotland’s new cabinet shows that when females start to approach equal numbers, those cosmetic weapons that can be used against women become far less relevant and effective
Because aside from just being a more diverse group, it looks like a more diverse group. And how much more interesting and diverse does it look compared to the more predictable Cabinet shots?
A picture really does speak a thousand words and in the case of Scotland’s new cabinet they’re incredibly positive and powerful words. In years to come perhaps we will look at this image as evidence that diversity can stem discrimination and that decisive action to combat gender inequality at the highest level gives us a better chance to stop it spreading at the lowest.