The fight for women's right goes on both at home and abroad - there is much work to be done

Now that I am not just a serving politician, but also have the privilege of being First Minister, it is so often the women and young girls I meet in this job who inspire me.

Just this week I met eight year Lauren – a young lady who, despite learning difficulties, is helping connect Scotland with the world through the ‘Flat Stanley’ [literacy] project. And last week, I had the privilege to join Liberty’s Shami Chakrabarti on stage to oppose any attempt to scrap the human rights act.

This week I will be joining a group of inspirational women from all walks of life to discuss our lives, our approach to our jobs, and the issues and challenges that don’t just affect women but that are relevant across the world at this time.

At Women in the World – held for the first time in London - will be women from 17 different countries and from all walks of life. From internationally renowned actresses and campaigners to refugees from the current crisis in Syria, from government ministers to the mother of Malala Yousafzai.

We’re not there to make speeches or great pronouncements. We’re there to tell our stories.

And there will be as many different perspectives at the two day event on the challenges facing women in the world today as there will be stories to tell and I am looking forward to hearing as many of them as possible.

One of the issues discussed and one close to my heart will be suffrage. We have come a long way in Scotland and the UK, from finally securing women’s right to vote less than 90 years ago.

Women are now entitled to – though don’t always receive – equal pay, we can own property in the same way as men, we are entitled to the same education as men. The rights and responsibilities we bear are and should be equal, but yet challenges remain.

At home we have made progress on improving female representation in our politics but there is more to do. We have a lot more work to do on improving positive role models for young women and in encouraging young women to look beyond traditionally female careers to believe and know that they can pursue any career they want to.

We must do more with employers to make sure that having a child doesn’t mean putting a fulfilling career on hold and that women are able to return from maternity leave to restart their careers where they left off.

And we must be tolerant of the different lives and lifestyles that women will choose.

Above all – what I believe is the key to tackling the remaining challenges facing women– is that men become our partners in that fight for equality.

Why would any society want to stifle the talent of half of their population?

Fully empowering women is a huge benefit to everyone in society. It’s probably the single simplest way in which we can sustainably increase our productive potential and significantly boost our economy.

I don’t believe we can continue to underuse the talents of half of our population. Equality isn’t just women’s problem, it’s a problem we all have to solve.

I am pleased to say that things are starting to change - our female employment rate is now the second best in the European Union as we have more than halved the gender gap in just three years.

I am confident that by working together we can give everyone an equal chance to fulfil their potential and realize their dreams.

But it is not just economic inequality - the continued battle for equal pay and efforts to end gender segregation - that we have to address.

We must deal with the violence that is still perpetrated against women, we must ensure that our young people grow up respecting each other regardless of gender and we must have in place a structure to protect those who need it.

Scotland was among one of the first countries to publicly sign up to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – these include goals on achieving gender equality targets by 2030. And it is right that those goals – agreed in New York last week - place as much responsibility on developed countries as they do on developing nations.

Violence against women is damaging and destructive wherever it takes place. That is why we have significantly increased funding to make sure that court cases are heard more quickly, doubled the number of rape crisis centres and introduced ‘Clare’s Law’ – which allows women to check whether a partner has a previous history of domestic abuse.

But we also have a role to share our experiences with other countries, which is why I raised domestic abuse as an issue when I spoke in China - a country where laws on domestic abuse are very new.

Economic empowerment of women in Scotland is about equal pay and equal opportunity – in other countries it is simply about a woman’s right to work. A fight that has been won here. A fight that will have different resolutions in other countries.

The western media obsession with what women wear – is something we can choose to accept, to subvert or to object to – but elsewhere what a woman wears may not just be a political statement, it can be a crime.

So as we continue, with real determination, to address the remaining barriers to real equality at home, we must also share our experiences and learn from the experiences of others. A woman’s right to equality has no geographical boundaries.

As one of three female party leaders in the Scottish Parliament it can be easy at times to forget, looking around parliament at First Minister’s Questions, that whilst women have come far in politics it is less than 90 years since all women in the UK were granted the right to vote.

That fight for women’s suffrage will be centre stage soon, with the release of a new film, telling the story of the suffragettes. For many young women it may be an introduction to the challenges faced by those that went before us. As we face the next round of challenges at home and abroad it is a story that we should never forget and one that should inspire us as we continue to strive for equality.