Nicola Sturgeon has praised sports broadcaster Eilidh Barber for walking out of an awards ceremony in protest at “unacceptable” comments in a speech.
The Perthshire-born host left the Scottish Football Writers’ Awards part way through the speech, and later said remarks by the after-dinner speaker Bill Copeland were “degrading” to women.
She also said the speech included “homophobic jibes” and that “offensive racial terms should never be funny”.
Barbour said on Twitter she had “never felt so unwelcome in the industry I work in than sitting at the Scottish Football Writers Awards”.
The event, she added, was “a huge reminder there is still so much to do in making our game an equal place”.
‘Shocking illustration of discriminatory attitudes’
The SFWA later apologised to anyone who was “offended or upset by material from one of our after-dinner speakers” – with the organisation pledging the walkout would be a “catalyst to review and improve the format of our future events”.
Raising the issue at Holyrood during First Minster’s Questions, SNP MSP Joe FitzPatrick – a former sports minister in the Scottish Government – said the event appeared to “be a shocking illustration of the outdated discriminatory attitudes that still exist in football and indeed in journalism that need to be eradicated”.
In response, Ms Sturgeon agreed that what had been said was “unacceptable”, as she stressed the need for men to change their behaviour.
The First Minister paid tribute to Barbour and others at the event “who I think very courageously took a stand and spoke out”.
She said: “I very much agree with those sentiments.
“From what I have read about what occurred at that particular awards dinner, it was unacceptable.
“I pay tribute to Eilidh Barbour and others, who courageously took a stand against it and spoke out.
I was at these awards tonight and sat through the same sexist and racist jokes made by a keynote speaker. My table walked out at the same time Eilidh’s did https://t.co/aEAV4VqLtn
— Gabriella Bennett (@palebackwriter) May 8, 2022
“It is never easy for any woman to speak out in that way, particularly in what is traditionally a man’s world, and Eilidh Barbour and her colleagues deserve credit for doing so.
“What we have seen over the past week — that is one example; I think that another has been reported — is that sexism and misogyny still run far too deep in our society and it is a reminder that they must be tackled.
“It is also a reminder that that starts with male behaviour and that it is male behaviour that we must see changed.”
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph earlier this week, Barbour
