First minister Nicola Sturgeon has delivered a withering response to a male Conservative member of the Scottish parliament who asked her what she's doing to help men who suffer from the gender pay gap.

During the weekly First Minister's Questions session on Thursday afternoon, Conservative MSP Gordon Lindhurst followed up a question about how the gender pay gap affects women with his own concerns about men.

Although Lindhurst conceded that the gender pay gap affecting men "may be less of an issue" than the gender pay gap affecting women, he asked Sturgeon what she was doing to help men to hoots of derision from other MSPs.

"The economy committee also heard evidence that in some areas men suffer from a gender pay gap in relation to women," said Lindhurst.

"While this may be less of a problem than that affecting women, what steps is the Scottish government taking to ensure a balanced approach which addresses the issue where it does affect men?"

The SNP MSPs behind Sturgeon shouted that Lindhurst's question "kind of makes the point" and the first minister joked that female Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson "is slowly sliding under that desk in front of her right now".