Nicola Sturgeon became Scotland’s first female first minister on Wednesday, telling the Scottish parliament that her election sends a message to girls and young women across the country that “the sky is the limit to what you can achieve”.
As Sturgeon was officially voted in by the Holyrood parliament, with only the Conservative leader Ruth Davidson standing in nominal opposition, she told the chamber: “To become first minister is special and it is a big responsibility. To make history as the first woman first minister is even more so.”
“I hope my election does indeed open the gate to greater opportunity for all women. I hope it sends a strong, positive message to all girls and young women across our land: there should be no limit to your ambition for what you can achieve, if you are good enough and you work hard enough, the sky is the limit to what you can achieve, and no glass ceiling should ever stop you from achieving your dreams.”
She was congratulated on her election by Labour’s Jackie Baillie, and Davidson, who said that she was “delighted that people will look to Scotland and see another woman reaching the top”. Sturgeon received 66 votes, with 15 for Davidson and 39 abstentions.
Thanking her husband, the SNP chief executive, Peter Murrell, and family, who were watching the vote from the balcony, Sturgeon gestured to her eight-year-old niece. “She doesn’t yet know about the gender pay gap or unequal representation or the barriers that make it so hard for so many women to pursue careers. My fervent hope is that she never will, that by the time she is a young woman she will have no need to know because they will have been consigned to history.”
She also thanked her predecessor, Alex Salmond, who was sitting a few rows behind her on the back benches, adding that she had “no doubt he has a big contribution yet to make to politics in Scotland”. In his resignation statement to Holyrood on Tuesday, Salmond continued to hint broadly that he would stand for election to Westminster in next May’s general election.
Sturgeon went on to say that her government would be “bold, imaginative and adventurous”. Since September’s independence referendum, she said, “democratic politics has never been more alive and the expectations people have of their politicians and parliament have never been higher”.
“My role is to build a Scotland that all those who live and work here can be proud of, a nation both social democratic and socially just, a Scotland confident in itself, proud of its successes and honest about its weaknesses, a Scotland of good government and civic empowerment.”
Suggesting a change from Salmond’s more combative style, she added: “I want all members to know that where we are on common ground you will find in me a willing and listening ally.”
Pledging to govern “for all of Scotland” she said: “It will surprise nobody that I will continue to argue the case for more powers. I do believe that the more we are able to do as a parliament the better we can serve the people who elect us, but I will also and always do my utmost to govern well with the powers we have now.”
Sturgeon will be formally sworn in at the court of session in Edinburgh on Thursday, and will receive the royal warrant. She is expected to undertake a wide-ranging reshuffle of the cabinet by the weekend.
