The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has launched a bold new plan to tackle the lack of women leaders.
The initiative, called ‘Our Time: Supporting Future Leaders’, is the first and largest-scale programme of its kind to be adopted in the public sector. The new scheme will take crucial action to address the gender imbalance in leadership roles, and bridge the gender pay gap.
‘Our Time’ will work through pairing high-potential women with senior staff champions (men and women) who will help to open up the professional networks, opportunities and contacts often needed to progress within workplaces.
Research shows that positions of power in every sector of society are dominated by men. Currently women make up just 7 FTSE 100 CEOs, none of whom are BAME, only 32 per cent of council chief executive positions, 26 per cent of cabinet positions, and 28 per cent of charity CEOs.
Women still face cultural and social barriers to career progression, including a lack of formal support or organisational policies to help them progress and to tackle harmful attitudes and gender stereotyping.
