According to Nicola Sturgeon, women who do not have children are labelled as “cold-hearted bitches” who put their professions before starting a family.
The First Minister, who is now 52 and has been married to fellow SNP stalwart Peter Murrell for more than ten years, has previously been under intense scrutiny on why she never had children.
However, she admitted to having a miscarriage five years before in 2016.
She emphasised the importance of speaking out about her experience yesterday in an interview with The Guardian, stating that “if you are a woman, particularly in a senior position, without children, there is an assumption made that you’re a cold-hearted b**** that has decided to prioritise your career over having children.”
Although her private life has received a lot of attention and debate, she said that “guys don’t get that.”
“Alex Salmond is the ideal case,” she said, “because I can’t think of a single interview he gave throughout his tenure as First Minister or SNP leader explaining why he didn’t have kids.”
Miss Sturgeon added: “If there are things you can do to try to turn the dial a little bit, I’ve got a duty to do that.”
She also said she felt a responsibility to lessen the stigma associated with the menopause.
When asked to describe what constituted a woman, an issue that many senior politicians have either struggled with or avoided, she said that it encompassed both transgender people and women who were born women.
The bulk of women, she said, are individuals like us who were born women and are biological women, with just a very tiny percentage being trans women who are also women.