The Women Who Changed Modern Scotland

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A BBC TV channel for Scotland which will broadcast every evening and will show drama, factual, comedy and news programmes made in Scotland

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Kirsty Wark uncovers the stories of some of Scotland's most important female pioneers.

BBC Scotland

Kirsty Wark

Catherine Abbott

Rachel Bell

The Women Who Changed Modern Scotland: Series 1: Breakthroughs and Backlash

Breakthroughs and Backlash

Series 1

BBC Scotland - The Women Who Changed Modern Scotland, Series 1, Breakthroughs and Backlash

Kirsty Wark meets Nicola Sturgeon and other women to explore life in the devolution era.

Kirsty Wark navigates the devolution era and reveals what happens when women take the lead, from the shattering of the highest glass ceilings to the toxic social media backlash.

In the final episode, Kirsty Wark explores the devolution era and discovers what happens when women take the lead and seize control of the megaphone, in politics, in communities and in the workplace. During these years, there have been many breakthroughs to celebrate, some of which Kirsty discusses when meeting Scotland's first female first minister, Nicola Sturgeon. But, as their conversation reveals, such breakthroughs have frequently been accompanied by a backlash. As more women have put their heads above the parapet, they have also had to face new forms of hostility, including threats and abuse on social media, and the manipulation of new technologies to coerce and control.

In her exploration of these highs and lows, Kirsty meets women who have campaigned passionately and persistently for better representation in the new Scottish Parliament, and celebrates the fact that more women were elected to represent Scotland on a single day in 1999 than had been elected over the previous 80 years since women were first eligible to stand for parliament. She also explores how having more women in positions of political power has transformed all of our lives, whether through shining a light on period poverty or passing new domestic abuse legislation that is now seen as a global gold standard. She also speaks to women who have put Scotland and its history on the map, reclaiming its past as well as its present.

At Doune Castle, one of the filming locations for the TV series Outlander, Kirsty meets Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander series of novels, to discuss the boost that the ‘Outlander effect’ has given to Scotland’s tourist industry. Kirsty also hears from Scottish nursery nurses who, in 2003, began what would become the largest and longest all-out strike since the miner’s strike of the 1980s. However, the nursery nurses weren’t the only women to find their voice in recent years, as Kirsty discovers when she seeks out a new generation of young Scottish activists who continue to push for change. These include Pinar Aksu, who fights for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, and Back Off Scotland’s Alice Murray and Lucy Grieve, who are responding to anti-abortion protests by campaigning for buffer zones to be established around women's healthcare facilities.

The Women Who Changed Modern Scotland: Series 1

A BBC TV channel for Scotland which will broadcast every evening and will show drama, factual, comedy and news programmes made in Scotland


Kirsty Wark uncovers the stories of some of Scotland's female pioneers.

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The Women Who Changed Modern Scotland

Series 1

Breakthroughs and Backlash

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