Gender equality is ‘still generations away’

New report shows men continue to dominate positions of power in UK public life

WOMEN are still missing in large numbers from Britain’s top jobs.

Despite more women being elected in 2019 than ever before, just 34% of the House of Commons is female. That falls to 27% when looking at the House of Lords, and 24% when looking at MPs who attend cabinet.

Only one in five local council leaders is female, and 35% of councillors across England and Wales.

A lack of female representation is not just limited to politics.

Only 17% of Supreme Court Justices, 27% of High Court Judges and 23% of Court of Appeal judges are female.

In acting, only 32% of people cast in British films were female, as were only 16% of British film directors.

And in business, just 6% of FTSE 100 CEOs were women, and only 32% of directors on FTSE100 company boards.

The report also found that just 21% of national newspaper editors are women - with just four in the top jobs.

The analysis - by gender equality charity The Fawcett Society - also highlighted an “alarming” lack of women of colour at the highest level of many sectors.

Just 2% of the House of Lords are women of colour, as are just 4% of the cabinet and 5% of local councillors in England, and there are no women of colour in the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales or Northern Ireland Assembly.

Dr Zubaida Haque, Deputy Director of charity Runnymede Trust, said: “It’s astonishing to think that there has been a significant and growing black and ethnic minority population in this country (now one in six people) since the arrival of Empire Windrush in 1948 and yet we have never had a nonwhite Supreme Court judge, or a Civil Service Permanent Secretary or a CEO of FTSE-100 companies who is a woman of colour.”

Areas that have fallen back when it comes to female representation include sport governing bodies (21% women, down from 26% in 2018), senior civil servants (21%, down from 31% in 2018) and CEOs of professional bodies (23% down from 30% in 2018).

However, while there is a long way to go, change is possible.

After the 2019 general election, for the first time women MPs are in the majority in the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties, and women of colour now make up 17% of women MPs - in line with the population as a whole.

Sam Smethers, Fawcett Chief Executive said: “Despite much lip service about the importance of having women in top jobs, today’s data shows we are still generations away from achieving anything close to equality.

“We are wasting women’s talent and skills.”

“If we want change, we have to make it happen.

“That means quotas, targets and policy interventions to remove the barriers to women’s progression.”