The Greater London Authority (GLA) is set to become the first and largest public body to introduce a city-wide leadership scheme to tackle the shortage of women in senior positions and reduce the gender pay gap.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was spearheading the women in leadership push — pairing high-potential women with both male and female senior staff members across London bodies — to give more women access to professional networks, opportunities and contacts needed to progress in an organization.
“It is shameful that in 2018 women remain underrepresented at all levels of government and leadership roles,” he said. “As a proud feminist, I want London to be a shining light in the fight for gender equality. I am pleased that we are showing the way, launching the first and biggest initiative like this in the public sector.”
The “Our Time: Supporting Future Leaders” program will include the GLA, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, Transport for London, the London Legacy Development Corp and Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corp.
Waltham Forest and Lambeth are the first councils to sign up to the scheme, with Khan confident others will follow.
“All of us must tackle inequality wherever we see it,” he said. “I want to encourage all industries across the capital to commit to addressing the shocking imbalance we still see in positions of power today through adopting this scheme.”
The onus will not be on women to improve their skills, but on employers to ensure that women can move into the most senior positions, a spokeswoman for the mayor’s office said.
All public and private companies with more than 250 employees last month were forced to publish their gender pay gap for the first time, with eight out of 10 revealing they paid men more on average per hour than women.
Analysis of the data showed that a lack of women in senior, better-paid roles was a key contributing factor. There are only six female chief executives in the FTSE 100 — none from a black or ethnic minority background.
Women make up 32 percent of council leaders and 28 percent of charity chief executives, Fawcett Society research showed.
The GLA has a 6.14 percent pay gap, while at Transport for London it was 19.7 percent, the Metropolitan Police 12.5 percent, and the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority 5.9 percent.
China’s military news agency yesterday warned that Japanese militarism is infiltrating society through series such as Pokemon and Detective Conan, after recent controversies involving events at sensitive sites. In recent days, anime conventions throughout China have reportedly banned participants from dressing as characters from Pokemon or Detective Conan and prohibited sales of related products. China Military Online yesterday posted an article titled “Their schemes — beware the infiltration of Japanese militarism in culture and sports.” The article referenced recent controversies around the popular anime series Pokemon, Detective Conan and My Hero Academia, saying that “the evil influence of Japanese militarism lives on in
ANTI-SEMITISM: Some newsletters promote hateful ideas such as white supremacy and Holocaust denial, with one describing Adolf Hitler as ‘one of the greatest men of all time’ The global publishing platform Substack is generating revenue from newsletters that promote virulent Nazi ideology, white supremacy and anti-Semitism, a Guardian investigation has found. The platform, which says it has about 50 million users worldwide, allows members of the public to self-publish articles and charge for premium content. Substack takes about 10 percent of the revenue the newsletters make. About 5 million people pay for access to newsletters on its platform. Among them are newsletters that openly promote racist ideology. One, called NatSocToday, which has 2,800 subscribers, charges US$80 for an annual subscription, although most of its posts are available
GLORY FACADE: Residents are fighting the church’s plan to build a large flight of steps and a square that would entail destroying up to two blocks of homes Barcelona’s eternally unfinished Basilica de la Sagrada Familia has grown to become the world’s tallest church, but a conflict with residents threatens to delay the finish date for the monument designed more than 140 years ago. Swathed in scaffolding on a platform 54m above the ground, an enormous stone slab is being prepared to complete the cross of the central Jesus Christ tower. A huge yellow crane is to bring it up to the summit, which will stand at 172.5m and has snatched the record as the world’s tallest church from Germany’s Ulm Minster. The basilica’s peak will deliberately fall short of the
Venezuelan Nobel peace laureate Maria Corina Machado yesterday said that armed men “kidnapped” a close ally shortly after his release by authorities, following former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro’s capture. The country’s Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed later yesterday that former National Assembly vice president Juan Pablo Guanipa, 61, was again taken into custody and was to be put under house arrest, arguing that he violated the conditions of his release. Guanipa would be placed under house arrest “in order to safeguard the criminal process,” the office said in a statement. The conditions of Guanipa’s release have yet to be made public. Machado claimed that
RSS