Three for one in my Edinburgh and Lothian Women of the Year - Susan Dalgety

Supporters of For Women Scotland and the Scottish Feminist Network take part in a demonstration outside the Scottish Parliament (Picture: Lesley Martin)

Previous winners have included Karen: Everywoman, our mothers, sisters, aunties, grannies and best friends who kept us all going during the pandemic…

And Ash Regan, the Alba MSP for Edinburgh Eastern who, in 2022, resigned from her well-paid job as a government minister, not because she was involved in a scandal, but on a point of principle.

I didn’t choose one last year – not that there were not enough first-rate contenders – but my headline sponsor pulled out at the last minute, so I had to change tack.

But we’re back on track for 2024, so without further ado, and with a very loud fanfare and an absolute deluge of glitter I present the 2024 Edinburgh and Lothian Women of the Year…For Women Scotland (FWS).

Three fabulous women for the price of one: Marion Calder, Susan Smith and Trina Budge.

Strictly speaking, Trina doesn’t qualify as she lives in the Highlands, but in recent years Edinburgh has become her second home as FWS’s campaign against gender identity theory has ramped up. That, and I make the rules.

Seven years ago, the three were ‘ordinary’ women. Marion worked – and still does – as a senior administrator in NHS Lothian, Susan was taking a break from financial services to bring up her children and Trina was a busy mum who also helped on the family farm.

A few weeks ago, these extraordinary women took a case to the UK Supreme Court, where they challenged the Scottish Government on the definition of a woman.

The cost of their legal team currently stands at around £230,000 which they have – almost – raised through crowd funding.

This level of fundraising is a phenomenal achievement in itself, but it is for their courage in taking the government all the way to the highest court in the land that they are my choice for women of the year.

Most of us delight in criticising politicians and their decisions from the comfort of our sofa. Some of us might take to social media to make our views known.

And a very lucky few of us have newspaper opinion columns where we can vent our spleen about the state of the world, whether it is the city’s housing crisis or women’s rights.

But how many of us would risk financial ruin, give up our social life to become experts in equality law and sacrifice precious time with our families to prove a point – even one as important as the legal definition of a woman?

No matter what the Supreme Court decides in a few weeks’ time, Marion, Susan and Trina deserve every accolade going.

They have shown that with grit and determination people can stand up to the most powerful force in the land – the government.

That bad laws can be challenged, and that no politician, even those who think they are invincible, can win against women with right on their side.

Congratulations For Women Scotland, now where’s that fizz?