I am delighted to contribute. During the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee’s inquiry into female participation in sport, MSPs visited the Fighting Chance Project (Scotland) in Dunfermline. That project, which inspires young people to make positive changes in their lives through judo, is transformational. For me, the physical and mental benefits of doing martial arts have been massive. I have worked in industry all over the world, and karate has given me the confidence to travel alone and hold my own in what often felt like a man’s world. As a contact sport, it taught me when to pull my punches and when to land them. Karate also taught me the importance of perseverance and how to push through failure. Sport is often so much more than physical activity.

In the committee, I fully supported doing an inquiry into female participation in sport, because we need to understand the barriers to participation and find ways to finally overcome them. Some of those barriers are systemic—they include misogyny, sexism and stereotyping, as we have heard today. The media have a huge role to play in shifting the dial on that.

Some of the barriers are structural, with funding and resource allocation and access to facilities particularly coming to mind. The leisure sector in Scotland is under significant pressure, as I know all too well following the closure of Bucksburn swimming pool in my region earlier this year. The Scottish National Party Government must step up and do all that it can to protect such facilities, because the unintended consequences will be considerable.

Finding innovative new ways to access facilities is important, too. I was especially interested in the Scottish Sports Association’s recommendation that we look at access to the school estate, and I hope that we can take that forward as we build on the inquiry. I was encouraged to hear Maree Todd say today that she is supportive of that.

There are other factors that deter women and girls from sport. In her evidence to the inquiry, Baz Moffat from The Well HQ persuasively made the point that,

“Until we educate the people who look after girls about female health ... and implement that into our coaching education ... we will still see a gender gap in female participation and performance.”—[

Official Report, Health, Sport and Social Care Committee,

23 May 2023; c 42.]

Given the issues of self-consciousness, managing periods, changing physiology, women’s health conditions such as endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome, pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum recovery, pelvic floor dysfunction, urinary incontinence, lack of time owing to caring responsibilities, perimenopause and hormonal changes, it is little wonder that the gender gap in sport begins at the age of puberty and persists until women are in their early 40s.

We have different physiology, different patterns of mental and physical development and different milestones, from menstruation to menopause, that impact us profoundly. Fair Play for Women, in its submission to the inquiry, shared the point that some sporting injuries in women

“occur more at certain times of the month ... because ligaments are affected by variation of female hormones” throughout the menstrual cycle. I echo that organisation’s calls for greater funding and research in that area.

Earlier this year, triathlete Emma Pallant-Browne shared on Instagram a powerful photo of herself bleeding through her swimsuit during a race. That sparked an international conversation, some of it positive and, sadly, some of it not. Emma simply said that she felt that it is not healthy to feel ashamed of your period. Other female athletes and Olympians celebrated Emma’s pragmatic approach to periods. She managed to destigmatise menstruation by showing that she was comfortable with it.

In her evidence to the inquiry, former athlete Eilidh Doyle highlighted the importance of sportswear and of feeling comfortable when competing. It is not just about fit; it is about colour. I know from first-hand experience of karate the anxiety that wearing a white gi can cause. Sport associations and governing bodies must show sensitivity in that regard.

A further consideration relates to the safety of women in sport and the implications of trans inclusion for competitive fairness. Sport should be welcoming, but not at the expense of women’s safety or fairness, and that extends to the changing room, too. One of my constituents told me that she no longer takes her granddaughter swimming because a local leisure centre has introduced mixed changing facilities and her granddaughter no longer feels safe or comfortable. Women and girls must have safe and protected spaces where they can get changed.

Our inquiry covered a huge amount of ground, and I wish that I had more time to do it justice. Following the shared passion that we all have, I hope that our inquiry will be built on by the sports leadership in Scotland to bring about the change that we need.