THERE are few better times in the year than the eve of International Women’s Day to consider, in brief, the situation of women in Scotland. This year will be the last March where Nicola Sturgeon will be in office, though the possibility that she will be followed by another woman seems quite likely.

Under our first female First Minister, a number of promises for change have been made and some important reforms have been enacted, particularly around public-sector understanding and responses to gender-based violence.

The Scottish government’s Equally Safe strategy around the eradication of gender-based violence has begun the work of taking a systemic approach to undoing several centuries of ingrained misogyny through interventions in education, local authority practice and in healthcare.