“We don't want to turn the chamber into a church”

This is the response I was given by a male colleague after I raised the issue of noise as a barrier for me being able to participate in the Chamber. 

This is only one example of the type of behaviour exhibited and defended by many of my - mostly male - colleagues. 

No woman gets into politics by accident, regardless of our party, we have all had to work hard for it.

In some respects I was better prepared than most new MSPs. I had spent the last seven years working as a parliamentary researcher, so I knew Holyrood well.

Yet, increasingly, I have found that our chamber is being dominated by a discourse that prioritises competition, one-upmanship, and machismo over serious debate.

It is part of a culture that myself and a lot of other women MSPs have become increasingly worried about - a culture that sees mostly male colleagues feeling free to interrupt, shout down and abuse points of order for political point-scoring.

The toxicity often extends to social media, which has become far more hostile since the debates on GRR and the publication of my Bill on buffer zones. The abuse from strangers, mostly men, is one reason why I use Twitter far less than I used to.

Despite all of this, and in some ways because of it, there is a camaraderie that has developed between a lot of MSPs across different parties. Sometimes we will text each other across the chamber with congratulations on a good speech or a chiding for ‘stealing’ a question. 

Our parliament has long held a reputation for its modern, progressive, and positive culture, with contrasts often drawn between our Chamber and Westminster. 

We must work to preserve that reputation and that culture rather than resorting to the kind of toxic, disrespectful, and misogynistic tone that has deterred so many excellent women from getting involved in politics.

Gillian Mackay is the Scottish Green MSP for Central Scotland