BRIEFING PAPER Number SN5170 , 27 July 2017 Women in Public life, the By Vyara Apostolova, Carl Baker & Richard Professions and the Cracknell Boardroom Contents: 1. Politics 2. Public Bodies 3. Enterprise and Employment 4. Firsts for Women in UK Public Life www.parliament.uk/commons-library | intranet.parliament.uk/commons-library |
[email protected] | @commonslibrary 2 Women in Public life, the Professions and the Boardroom Contents Summary 3 1. Politics 4 1.1 Westminster 4 1.2 Devolved bodies 5 Scottish Parliament 5 National Assembly for Wales 6 Northern Ireland Assembly 6 Greater London Assembly 6 1.3 Ministers 6 1.4 Local government 7 2. Public Bodies 8 2.1 Public appointments 8 2.2 Civil servants 8 2.3 Judges 10 2.4 Armed forces 11 2.5 National Health Service 12 2.6 Teaching 12 2.7 Police 15 3. Enterprise and Employment 17 3.1 Managerial and senior positions 17 3.2 FTSE companies 18 3.3 The professions and associates 18 3.4 Unions 20 4. Firsts for Women in UK Public Life 21 3 Commons Library Briefing, 27 July 2017 Summary How are women represented in public life, the professions and the boardroom? This note sets out key trends and statistics, covering politics, public appointments, civil servants the judiciary, the NHS, education and private sector professions. Most of these have seen the proportion of women grow over the short and longer term, although the rate of progress is slow in certain sectors and there remain areas where women are significantly under- represented. In very few of the sectors examined do women exceed the 51% of the UK population that they comprise.