Northern Powerhouse 'dominated by men'
Campaigners in Sheffield say something needs to be done about the lack of women represented in the Northern Powerhouse.
Gender equality campaigners in Sheffield say something needs to be done about the lack of women represented in the Northern Powerhouse.
New research has revealed the vast majority of senior positions are held by men - women occupy just one of the seven chairs of the established or proposed 'combined authorities'
The report - out today from the Fawcett Society - also shows just 28% of top posts in combined authorities are taken by females.
Charlotte Mead, from Sheffield's Women's Equality Party, told Hallam something needs to be done:
"How can we best serve society if the people that are making all the decisions or the people that hold all the power and are making the decisions for the rest of society are only made up of one part of society? Those decisions are not going to best serve everybody."
"This Northern Powerhouse - there are not enough women represented so we need to do something about that. But it's not just that - it's right across the board. We need to start thinking about all areas of our society and our decision making differently to how we've thought about them so far and it needs to be more than the lip service that it has been up to now."
"It's not going to be as successful as it could be if it is only thinking and is only representing one section of society and if that section is men, it's not going to be as successful as it could be. We're missing out on talent, we're missing out on opportunities, we're missing out on success if we don't involve everybody."
The Northern Powerhouse is the government's plan to devolve more power to the North of England.
It's included the creation of several combined local authorities.
But Sam Smethers, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, says it's not going to plan:
"The truth is, whether we intend to or not, we are devolving power from women to men by establishing new structures for local government with no regard for gender equality or diversity."
"We know that 75% of local government employees are women and women are disproportionately dependent on local services. Women's representation matters but at the moment the Northern Powerhouse risks becoming just another boys' club.''
Lauren Lucas, head of projects at the Local Government Information Unit, said:
"The diversity of leadership across local government is simply not good enough. We see this very clearly as the prominent voices around the devolution agenda continue to emerge.''