Gender & Local Government Leadership 2010/11

In recent years there has been considerable work done by government, local government organisations and political parties to increase the diversity of local representation. This has had some success, and although both women and minority groups remain seriously under-represented, advances have been made.

This contrasts sharply with the decline in women in leadership roles, and it is also known – although statistics are sparse – that there are very few leaders from BME communities. It is not known whether or not the age profile of leaders reflects that of councillors.

In addition, the development of new regional and sub-regional structures give added importance to the role of local leadership, and the creation of more elected mayors would also impact on the diversity of this group.

If the diversity of local leadership is to be increased, and if it is to be more representative of the communities it leads and serves, it will be necessary first to understand the current situation, and this research will contribute to that.

The objectives of the project, supported by Local Government Ideas and Development, are:

• to establish the current diversity of local government leaders and elected mayors in terms of gender, ethnicity, disability and age

• to establish the routes into local government leadership for both men and women

• to establish the diversity of key portfolio-holders

• to develop an understanding of the dynamics of local government leadership elections and mayoral candidate selections

• to make recommendations for improving the diversity of local and regional leadership.

 

This project follows on from earlier reports on local government leadership which are available from the Publications area of this site, and the new report will be published in March 2011.