Three quarters of councils don’t have maternity policies

New research from the Fawcett Society has found that around three quarters of local councils still don’t have maternity or paternity policy in place for their councillors.

Just 34 per cent of the 4,980 councillors elected in May were women. According to the Fawcett Society, this means that, at this rate of change, we won’t see gender parity in local councils until 2077 – over 50 years away.

The organisation says that there has been an increase in the number of councils that have maternity or paternity policies in place. However, only 24 per cent of councils have a maternity or paternity policy in place for their ‘ordinary’ councillors. In 2019 just seven per cent had these policies in place.

Additionally, only 25 per cent of councils have a maternity or paternity policy in place for their senior cabinet-level councillors. In 2019 just eight per cent had these policies in place.

The Fawcett Society is calling for local councils to implement maternity and paternity policies by using the Local Government Association’s toolkit, to make being a councillor more accessible to women.

Felicia Willow, Fawcett Society interim chief executive, said: “This was a bumper year for new councillors – but the data shows that sadly we have more of the same. Almost all councils are dominated by men. The pace of change in local government is far too slow.

“During the pandemic we saw how significantly councils matter for women, whether that’s the care packages for disabled  women that were disrupted or the children’s centres for new mothers that suffered closures.  In light of this stagnation, political parties which are failing to make progress need to urgently set out their action plans for a change of course. Councils are making some headway with policies – now we need to see action from the parties.”