Nicola Sturgeon has described the environment for women in politics as “harsh and hostile”.
In a BBC documentary, The Women Who Changed Scotland, she said: “The environment for women in politics is much harsher and more hostile than at any time in my career.
“Social media provides a vehicle for the most awful abuse of women, misogyny, sexism and threats of violence for women who put their heads above the parapet.”
In the show, filmed in the summer and presented by Kirsty Wark, the First Minister said she was often asked to explain why she had not started a family.
“If you are a woman without children, an assumption is made about you. My predecessor didn’t have children either. I don’t remember a single interview in which Alex Salmond was asked why he didn’t have children.
“For a period I felt that I couldn’t do an interview without being asked that question. In two politicians you see very starkly that differential situation.”
She stressed that the Scottish Parliament has been positive for women. She added: “A parliament that has a bigger number of women in it over the years has softened the macho image.”
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Sturgeon described the point in the 2010s when all three parties were led by women as “a very positive visual representation of what politics can be like”.
She added: “We have gone forwards and then backwards, now a bit forwards again. But what we thought of as real progress has been quite transient.”
●The Women Who Changed Scotland is on BBC Scotland, Tuesday, 10pm
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