Lack of female councillors in authority
HALTON Borough Council has the biggest gender imbalance among its councillors in the Liverpool City Region (LCR).
Cllr Marie Wright (health) is the only woman sitting on the cabinet and only 33% of its elected members are women.
A recent report from the Institute For Public Policy Research found that more than 3,000 female councillors would be needed to reach a 50-50 gender balance in local government.
The study, Power To The people? Tackling The Gender Imbalance In Combined Authorities And Local Government, found that only 33% of councillors and 17% of council leaders across the country are women.
The analysis concluded that to achieve gender parity, more than 12,000 women would have to put themselves forward in local elections if 3,000 were to then be successfully elected.
At the rate that female councillors are now stepping forward for the council, this could take 68 years to achieve.
In the rest of the city region, Liverpool was top with 45% of councillors being women, and four out of 10 cabinet members.
Knowsley has the second highest rate on 43%, and three female cabinet members out of seven.
Just over a third (36%) of Sefton councillors are women, one third of its cabinet members are women, and its deputy leader Cllr Marion Atkinson is one of two women in the deputy role in the LCR.
St Helens has a similar rate of women as Sefton at 35%, but is the only council in the area with ● more women than men in cabinet positions, with six out of 10.
Twenty-two of Wirral’s 64 councillors are female or 34% and it has a 50-50 gender ration on the cabinet.
The IPPR report recommended that legislation should be put in place to ensure all local and combined authorities have at least a 60-40 balance, something which only Liverpool and Knowsley councils have.
Clare McNeil, IPPR associate director, said: “Radical change is needed if devolution is to be about bringing power to the people, rather than consolidating it among white middle-aged men.”