Bridging the Gap: Leadership, Employability, and the Future of Women and Girls in Scotland

In Scotland, we pride ourselves on progressiveness, championing equality, innovation, and opportunity. Yet, for many women and girls across the country, these values remain ideals rather than realities. As we look to the future, investing in leadership, employability, and transferable skills for women and girls is not just a matter of social justice but a national imperative. 

Recent reports indicate that while Scotland has made strides in promoting gender equality, significant challenges remain. The PwC Women in Work Index 2025 reveals that Scotland has retained its top spot among UK regions, with a notable increase in female labour force participation to 75% and a reduction in the gender pay gap from 11.8% to 8.3% between 2022 and 2023. However, the UK as a whole has slipped to 18th place among 33 OECD countries, its lowest ranking in over a decade. This decline is attributed to a widening participation rate gap and being outpaced by other countries in achieving workplace gender equality. Further analysis highlights a troubling outlook: women are still underrepresented in senior roles across sectors, face persistent pay gaps, and are more likely to experience insecure or part-time employment. Young women, especially from marginalised communities, remain locked out of leadership pipelines before their potential is even realised. 

The urgency of change is clear but so too is the opportunity. If Scotland is to meet its aspirations for a fair, inclusive, and prosperous future, we must place the empowerment of women and girls at the centre of our policies, institutions, and cultural mindset. 

Challenging Leadership Norms 

Leadership is still too often shaped by outdated norms and images of authority that are masculine, rigid, and exclusionary. For young women, especially those navigating intersections of race, disability, or socio-economic disadvantage, these norms can feel alienating or even unattainable. 

What we need is a radical reimagining of leadership: one that values empathy, collaboration, and resilience just as much as decisiveness or charisma. Programmes that support early leadership development through mentoring, civic engagement, or student governance are key tools that can help build this new leadership culture from the ground up. When girls are shown from a young age that leadership is for them, they start to believe it. 

This isn’t hypothetical. Initiatives like Young Women Lead, National Advisory Council on Women and Girls, Girlguiding Scotland’s peer-led programs, and the Scottish Government’s Women in Leadership initiative are already laying groundwork for change. But these efforts must be scaled, supported, and made more accessible to girls across all communities. 

Employability and Transferable Skills 

Leadership doesn’t begin in the boardroom, it begins with confidence, communication, and the ability to adapt. Transferable skills such as critical thinking, digital literacy, teamwork, and public speaking are not only essential for employability; they are the scaffolding for long-term empowerment. 

Yet too often, the development of these skills is unevenly distributed. Girls are still discouraged from certain STEM fields or high-paying vocational paths, while gender stereotypes continue to shape career aspirations. For instance, for every 115 UK tech roles only one will be filled by a woman and despite the growing demand for talent in Scotland’s technology sector, women only make up 23% of the digital workforce. We need to dismantle the idea that some skills or careers are inherently gendered. Furthermore, women grow up learning they must prove themselves twice as hard to be deemed worthy, reinforcing a culture where perfectionism and self-doubt limit opportunities before the application even begins. 

Embedding transferable skills in schools, colleges, and community programs must be a national priority. This means not only teaching technical capabilities but fostering an environment where girls are encouraged to take risks, ask questions, and lead. Additionally, work experience and internships must be reformed to be more inclusive. Paid placements, mentorships with diverse role models, and flexible structures can make a huge difference in how young women access and envision their futures. 

The Role of Higher Education and Community Support 

In 2024, Scotland’s Census revealed that women in Scotland are more highly educated than men but hold fewer than half of managerial roles. Clearly, the issue is not ability but opportunity. Thus, Scottish universities and colleges have a unique role to play in creating gender-equal futures beyond a title. From expanding access bursaries to offering women-centred career support services, higher education can be a powerful tool for change. Approaches like the Aurora program contribute to this aim, but it must involve more than just individual projects and become a core institutional value. 

Equally, grassroots and community-based organisations are essential. Whether through youth work, feminist societies, or volunteer networks, these spaces often offer women and girls their first taste of leadership. These spaces must be funded, protected, and valued not as “extras” but as foundational to Scotland’s future to compliment their academic achievements with further participation. 

I speak from experience. As someone who has worked in policy-focused internships, student engagement roles, and activist groups, I’ve seen how leadership opportunities of all sorts can transform confidence and open doors. From coordinating events on reproductive rights to researching and contrasting evidence on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, I’ve developed skills that go far beyond any single job. But crucially, I had to seek these opportunities out. We must work toward a future where these opportunities seek out every woman and girl. 

Intersectionality Matters

 

No conversation about leadership and employability for women is complete without recognising intersectionality. Women of colour, LGBTQ+ individuals, disabled women, and those from lower-income backgrounds face compounding barriers in every sector. 

Tailored support must reflect this reality. We cannot treat “women” as a single, homogeneous category. Programmes must listen to and be led by those with lived experience of multiple inequalities and policy must be responsive, data-driven, and accountable. 

Looking Ahead

Scotland has a chance to lead by example. We can be a country where every girl is told she is capable of greatness not once, but over and over again, until she believes it. Where leadership is no longer coded as “male.” Where careers are accessible regardless of postcode, skin colour, or accent. And where skills, soft or technical, learned in classrooms or communities, are recognised, nurtured, and celebrated. This vision is not a distant dream. But it requires investment, courage, and above all, belief in our girls, in our women, and in the kind of Scotland we want to become.