THE First Minister has been championing equality and opportunities for women since taking office, so she may have been a little taken aback at First Minister's Questions.

Kezia Dugdale challenged Nicola Sturgeon on how women have been doing under the SNP, on college places, engineering apprenticeship and in low paid jobs.

Ms Sturgeon, more used to telling girls and women to work hard and you'll smash the glass ceiling, had to defend the SNP record on further education and skills training for those very women.

Perhaps the surprise line of questioning was responsible for the delayed reaction in answers.

For a while I thought I was watching a remake of the old Two Ronnies Mastermind sketch on 'answering the question before last'.

Ms Dugdale asked how many women were in college places compared to 2007 when the SNP took office.

Ms Sturgeon said her opponent was once again "talking Scotland down" and lamented how she thought Ms Dugdale shared her passion about opportunities for women.

Next question: How many women in engineering apprenticeships?

That's when we get the answer to the previous question with some figures about spending on college education which, said the First Minister, was " more than Labour even spent" and some words about female employment figures being better in Scotland than the rest of the UK.

Next question: How many women earn less than the living wage?

So, the answer of course is about funding for modern apprenticeships which Mr Sturgeon said was at 25,000 and then we catch up and the living wage is addressed in the same answer.

However, while trying to keep up with which answer was to which question it was surely a good sign the debate about opportunities for women was conducted by two women in front of a female Presiding Officer.

However, when the eyes start to scan the rest of the chamber on its busiest session of the week, the overwhelming image is of baldy white men. No glass ceiling for them.