King’s College London is establishing a Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, chaired by Julia Gillard, the only woman to have served as Prime Minister of Australia.
The Institute – which will be launched at an event on Wednesday 4 April – will bring together rigorous research, practice and advocacy to better understand and address the causes of women’s underrepresentation in leadership positions across sectors and countries and the way gender negatively impacts the evaluation of women leaders.
Women face significant barriers to progress at every stage of their careers and continue to be underrepresented in leadership positions, making up just 23% of national parliamentarians, 26% of news media leaders, 27% of judges, 15% of corporate board members, and 9% of senior IT leaders.
Based at the Policy Institute at King’s, the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership will also have an active online presence, helping to build a network of researchers and practitioners, and to widely disseminate robust evidence about what is effective in promoting gender equality.
Julia Gillard said:
‘Progress on gender equality is not just slow – in some places it’s reversing. This lack of movement, combined with the current public debate about how women are treated in workplaces and wider society, means there has never been a better time to tackle these issues head-on. The Global Institute for Women’s Leadership will be well-equipped to do so. It will work to help create a world in which being a woman is not a barrier to becoming a leader in any field, nor a factor contributing to negative perceptions of an individual’s leadership.’
