More action needed for women’s role in devolution

The Fawcett Society is calling for women’s voices to be better heard in devolution, after finding that women make up just 21 per cent of all members of the boards of combined authorities.

The new report, Including Women’s Voices, calls for changes to get more women around the top table, while also highlighting the need to get the voices of ordinary women heard in policymaking. As such, the society calls for each Metro Mayor to create a permanent, resourced, and diverse Women’s Commission that can engage the grassroots and scrutinise policy decisions.

The paper, which is the result of two years spent working with women in Greater Manchester and the West Midlands to put gender onto the devolution agenda, also found that some boards have as few as one in 10 female members and that only one of the 95 members of these groups is a woman of colour. More obviously, none of the eight ‘Metro Mayors’ are women.

The Fawcett Society suggests that councils introduce opposite-gender assistant cabinet members so that more women involved in key discussions – as has been done in Greater Manchester - and for the government to change Combined Authority constitutions to require that they are gender-equal.

Gemma Rosenblatt, Fawcett Society head of Policy and Campaigns, said: “Devolution is looking like old politics not new – with power in the hands of men. All eight ‘Metro Mayors’ are men. And men make up four-fifths of those at the top table. Devolution still presents an opportunity – but only if big changes are made to bring women in. If devolution fails to engage with half the population, it risks the success of the whole project.”