May’s task force backs women in business
PM follows Telegraph campaign by setting up committee to help female entrepreneurs
THERESA MAY has ordered the creation of a Downing Street committee to boost the number of women starting businesses just weeks after The Daily Telegraph launched a campaign to help female entrepreneurs.
The task force, which will meet every two weeks, will ensure all policy developed by the Government considers the impact on women and focuses on increasing their role in politics, business and society as a whole.
It comes just weeks after the launch of a Telegraph campaign to champion women in business and tackle the disparities in start-up funding between the two genders.
The committee of peers, MPS and policy experts will focus on a set of key goals and will also look at how to end violence against women and girls in the UK and around the world.
Members will be free to suggest new ideas for ministers to consider and a number have already been discussed, including regional hubs to encourage women to start companies and plans to help employees who left work to return to their careers.
It came as Jayne-anne Gadhia, the chief executive of Virgin Money and the author of the Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter, said all new businesses should be set up with “50:50 gender equality throughout the organisation”.
Speaking at the Treasury’s International Fintech conference, the bank boss described feeling “intimidated” and “patronised” at male-dominated industry events, even as the chief executive of a bank herself.
Ms Gadhia said the City was “far, far worse than any other industry at achieving progression of women to senior levels”.
Matt Hancock, the Culture Secretary, was in the audience for the speech and nodded throughout. He said afterwards: “Gender diversity is absolutely critical, you cannot secure all the talent we need if we only fish in half the pond.”
The Prime Minister has long been a champion of women and set up the Women to Win group of young female Conservatives to help increase their representation in Parliament. The new committee is understood to be a top priority for the Government and Mrs May particularly. It will build up a picture of women’s lives in all aspects of society and seek to focus minds on which policies will make the biggest difference. The first meeting of the group took place earlier this week where the objectives were agreed. It is chaired by Nikki Da Costa, the head of legislative affairs at No10.
Baroness Anne Jenkin, a campaigner for female participation in politics, said the group was aiming to ensure decisions affecting women were carefully considered and the response to issues, particularly domestic violence, were “joined up”.
Baroness Bertin, David Cameron’s former aide, businesswoman Baroness Manzoor, and Tory MPS Gillian Keegan, Maria Caulfield, Michelle Donelan and Kirstene Hair also attended the first meeting. The group will try to address gaps between departments where policy developed by housing
experts may miss concerns held by those in the Home Office or Justice department.
Craig Tracey MP, who chairs an influential group of MPS campaigning to encourage more women to start their own businesses, said: “It is a great platform for me to get directly in to the heart of Government some of the excellent work and findings the all-party group members are producing around female entrepreneurship and women in business.”
He highlighted the need for regional women’s business hubs in the UK, a model used in America where women are setting up businesses at twice the rate of men. Mr Tracey also called for better access to data on the number of female entrepreneurs, and better financial awareness among women.
Earlier this month the Prime Minister backed the Treasury’s women in finance charter which commits signatories to increase training schemes to ensure young women are promoted into senior roles and do not leave the company. The new group will also look to tackle the issue of women who leave work to have children and struggle to return, amid claims there is an untapped pool of talent which could boost the British economy by millions if women were helped to come back to work. It comes as businesses around the country prepare to face up to their gender pay gap, as the deadline for declaring the difference between the pay of women and men approaches.
Figures show that while 33 per cent of new businesses are started by women, they attract just 9 per cent of current start-up funding annually.
A Number 10 source said: “Promoting opportunities for women is one of the Government’s key priorities, and this group – which will work alongside our other campaigns on BME, housing, education and the environment – will continue to drive policies that give women every chance to succeed.
“It’s important to recognise there isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ policy that works for every woman across the country. A female executive in Yorkshire won’t face the same challenges as a mum returning to work in the south-east, and our ongoing work will ensure this Government’s policies reflect that.”