First Minister Nicola Sturgeon claimed Labour in Scotland is “languishing” in a desperate position after deputy leader Kezia Dugdale attacked her record on supporting women.
The Scottish Labour MSP hit out at the SNP’s record in power, claiming cuts to colleges under the Scottish Government had impacted most severely on female learners.
Ms Dugdale went on to criticise the Government for the low numbers of young women taking up apprenticeships in engineering, as she claimed more than 260,000 female workers are “struggling” to get by on pay levels that are below the living wage.
The Labour MSP told the SNP leader: “Just saying you are for gender equality doesn’t make it so. Hundreds of thousands of women in Scotland applauded when this First Minister walked through the front door of Bute House. They are already wondering what difference it makes.”
But Ms Sturgeon insisted the SNP had delivered improvements for women, highlighting the high level of women in work in comparison to the UK
She said: “Scotland has the highest female employment, the lowest female unemployment and the lowest female inactivity rate of any UK nation. That’s a result of the actions this Government has been taking.
“I think it’s because people see this Government delivering right across this country, whether they are men or women, that they are opting to support the SNP and have left Labour languishing in an obviously very desperate position.”
The exchanges between the two rivals came after another poll suggested the SNP could be on track to make sweeping gains in May’s general election, at the expense of Labour, which has a majority of Scottish MPs.
Ms Dugdale hit out: “The SNP’s record of supporting women isn’t one they should be proud of.
“College cuts hurting women the most, quality apprenticeships for young women lagging miles behind men, and voting against a Living Wage for hundreds of thousands of women in Scotland.”
The Scottish Labour deputy leader had pressed Ms Sturgeon on the number of women attending college, the number of female engineering apprentices and the the number of women workers who are paid below the Living Wage.
She told Holyrood: “The reality is under the SNP the number of women studying at college all across Scotland has fallen by 85,656. The cuts to colleges are hurting women the most, that’s women who want to get a better education so they can get a decent job.”
Raising the issue at First Minister’s Questions, she added that of the 25,000 modern apprenticeships that began last year, just 68 involved young women training in engineering
“Under the SNP women are being locked out of the jobs of the future and being deprived of the opportunity to develop their skills,” Ms Dugdale claimed.
She continued the attack, saying the “reality is 264,000 women earn less than the Living Wage – that’s more than a quarter of a million Scottish women locked into low-paid work, struggling to make ends meet”.
Ms Sturgeon, who has ensured that half her cabinet team are female, stressed she was “passionate about increasing opportunity for women”.
She told Ms Dugdale this was why the Scottish Government had increased free childcare, adding ministers were “determined to go even further” on this if the SNP wins next year’s Holyrood elections.
The First Minister continued: “It’s also why we have been taking action to make sure those who do go to our colleges come out of our colleges with a better chance of having the qualifications that will equip them for the workplace.
“We will continue to take the real action to ensure that women, young people and indeed everybody in Scotland, has the opportunity we want them to have and we will leave Labour to its desperation.”
She told Ms Dugdale: “We are spending more on colleges today than Labour ever did throughout their entire time in office, we have delivered a commitment to maintain full-time college places and in 2013-14 approximately 14,000 more students successfully completed courses leading to recognised qualifications than was the case in 2008-09, that’s an increase of 33%.
“So we are delivering on providing the opportunities that women, that young people, that people across Scotland, need, and this Government will continue to do so.”
She insisted: “I do want to see more women go into modern apprenticeships, I particularly want to see more women go into modern apprenticeships in careers like engineering.”
She also said there were “growing numbers” of companies paying workers the Living Wage.
Ms Sturgeon hit out: “We will leave Labour, who have had ample opportunities to tackle these things in the past, to talk about these things. This Government will get on with doing them and delivering.”