Celebration of women in senior leadership roles held on International Women’s Day

A celebration of women in senior leadership roles at BCP Council is taking place today on International Women’s Day (IWD).

The three most senior elected positions in the authority are held by women: Leader (Vikki Slade), Deputy Leader (Millie Earl) and Chair (Lesley Dedman).

The three mayors for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole are also female as are three out of four chairs on local parish councils.

Some 55 per cent of the council’s chairs of committees are women as are 70 per cent of the senior management team.

Cllr Slade will celebrate the achievements of women at the council and in the community at an event to mark IWD today, Friday 8 March.

She will call on local business leaders to sign up to a new council-run informal mentoring scheme, to support and encourage women returning to the workplace after a career break.

Cllr Slade, pictured, said while the authority had not yet achieved total political gender balance with only 43 per cent of councillors being female, there was still cause to celebrate the progress made.

She said: “We have a unique situation of three women in positions of political leadership at BCP Council with three female mayors and significant female representation in our management team too.

“Those facts need celebrating: it certainly gives a different presence when you sit in a meeting, and you’ve got women in the room.

“Gender parity is vital to a fair democracy – women are more likely to rely on the services that councils run, from childcare to education to social housing – so their voice must be heard to ensure services help the users.

“That’s why we’re launching a mentoring scheme to help coach women in our community to success when they return to work from a break in their career, whether because of caring responsibilities or other reasons, and I’d like to ask business and organisational leaders here today to pledge their involvement.

“But while improvements have been made towards fairer gender parity at BCP Council, we still have some way to go until we achieve diversity in other ways, and we are working on doing better.”

Cllr Slade said she wanted to inspire more women to get involved in local politics.

She added: “Local politics is a perfect opportunity for women to really lead their communities and to see whether it’s for them.

“One of the people that inspired me most in the last 12 months, is a homeless mum who I have helped.

“She’s opened my eyes to the challenges some people, particularly women in our community, face.

“Following her journey and trying to make a difference to her life and the lives of her children has driven me to keep going on the most challenging of days.

“I think being an advocate for others is the most powerful thing we can do in politics.

“Once you’ve done that once, you’ll want to again and again. That’s why I do politics.”