‘I often think the world would be a much better place if it were ruled by women’

Sturgeon, speaking on The Shift podcast, says the world would be a “better place” if it were ruled by women and that females are still forced to work “twice as hard” as men to be taken “even half as seriously”.

I went through periods in life – and still go through periods in life now – where that sense of [ambition] is challenged and I doubt it more. I have spoken to a lot of women who feel this, friends and other women who would articulate exactly the same thing here…You really have to work so much harder to prove yourself so much more, to be taken probably half as seriously – particularly in the profession I’m in – as your average man. It can be tiresome are wearisome that we still have to do that but I’ve come to the conclusion in my life that it’s actually quite a good thing. Because you end up being better [than the men], because you work a lot harder and you have to really go so much further to prove yourself and be taken seriously. I have to be careful that doesn’t sound like an argument for women always having to struggle more to be taken seriously, because it shouldn’t be like that…But when you see women, and I’m not talking about myself here I’m talking about other women in senior positions: by and large, they’re better than their equivalent man and, more often than not, they’ve had to push themselves a lot harder to get to where they are. I often think the world would be a much better place if it were ruled by women.