Stockport Council Chief Executive to chair new Women and Girls’ Equality Panel

Chief Executive of Stockport Council, Pam Smith, has been announced as co-chair of a new Women and Girls’ Equality Panel being set up in Greater Manchester.

The panel is being established to ensure that all women and girls have equality of opportunity to start well, live well and age well.

As well as aiming to accelerate gender equality and look at issues affecting women and girls’ lives, the panel will work on understanding and responding to issues affecting women arising from, or worsened by the coronavirus outbreak.

The panel will be chaired by Greater Manchester’s Lead for Ageing and Equalities Cllr Brenda Warrington, and Chief Executive Portfolio Lead for Equalities and Ageing and Stockport Council Chief Executive, Pam Smith. Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester Beverly Hughes will also be a core member. Cllr Warrington said: 

It is vital that we address inequality issues across the city-region, enabling women and girls to live their best lives.

“The recent pandemic has created new challenges for everyone in the city-region, including women and girls and a key part of the panel’s work will be in understanding and addressing these.

“The outbreak will have created a number of inequalities, as well as increasing existing ones and it is vital that we see what we can do to combat these to ensure we have an equal society for all.

“This panel will help us to do this and make a real difference in accelerating gender equality across Greater Manchester. This group is being created to work for all women and girls and I would urge people to apply to join, to ensure that the membership is diverse and inclusive and we hear from as wide a range of women from different backgrounds and with different experiences as possible.”

The Women and Girls’ Equality Panel is now open to women across the city-region to apply to join. Applications are being sought from those who are able to advise on key matters related to policy and activity, engage with their networks and ensure that they represent the views of those organisations working in similar fields.