Book: Women Hold up Half the Sky by Nicola Sturgeon

I wanted to commemorate my first visit to the legendary Portobello Bookshop in Edinburgh. So I picked this up as my secondary choice. I actually came to buy what I later discovered was a terrible book.

I loved the phrase Women Hold up Half of the Sky, which I don’t recall hearing before, so that intrigued me on its own. I can hear myself using this phrase a lot in the future. When I noticed that the hardback version was signed and was encouraged by my sister, I decided to buy it. I’m glad I did, especially since the hyped book turned out to be a letdown.

An early fact in Women Hold Up Half of the Sky, a book of speeches, is that 5 of 15 postwar UK PMs went to Eaton up until 2020. And then we hear about many working-class Scots who have changed the world, or at least deeply inspired the former Scottish First Minister. Many of these I had to look up, like Jimmy Read. NS so often references, credits, or thanks other people in her speeches. I love learning about the credit given to ideas picked up from other nations, too.

I already look to Scotland for leading initiatives and hope England will follow. Yes, it’s a small country, so change can happen more quickly, but that doesn’t mean we should be slow in making the country better for everyone.

The list of achievements where Scotland has led is long, including charging for single-use plastic bags, banning smoking inside, and providing free prescriptions. We are still waiting for free prescriptions (surely the administration costs alone make it worthwhile), and I don’t hold out much hope for free bus travel for the over 60s; only London offers that. I recall when they introduced free sanitary products for all in education, which became law in 2021, and we don’t have the same in England, although there is currently support.

‘Scotland has welcomed 40% of Syrian refugees in the UK.’ - from a 2016 speech.

Starting speech sentences with the overused ‘let me clear’ thankfully died down after a few speeches. However, ‘I'm not going to talk about’ was picked up instead.

I love the positivity of being Scottish, a country I have loved since my first visit. It’s a tiny nation with an international outlook. I am brimming with pride for them.

The book also made me look up the author Arundhati Roy. A name I knew but had not looked into. I stopped reading and watched an hour-long interview NS did with her at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. I can see why she is called upon to interview so many authors at book festivals. That interview, in turn, made me immediately watch The Great Hack.

Oh, what joy it is to have an unplanned evening.

If you care about greater shared prosperity, you need to unleash the economic power of women - Christine Lagarde.

For sure, there is much to be said about gender equality. A segment of the speech given to the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries:

‘…fully empowering women is probably the single simplest way to sustainably increase productive potential. Gender equality can help to transform the global economy.”

Next up, by sheer coincidence, is the Mary McAleese book. I learnt of that through reading Let’s Talk. I’m working my way through some good learnings by international women leaders this year.