The 1990 report of the Hansard Society Commission on Women at the Top identified continuing barriers to women achieving senior positions across a range of fields in the public and private sectors, and made far-reaching recommendations for further action.

The Hansard Society Commission on Women at the Top was established in 1988, with Lady Howe in the Chair and a mandate to “identify barriers to the appointment of women to senior occupational positions, and to other positions of power and influence, and to make recommendations as to how these barriers could be overcome.” The Commission focused on the circumstances of women in senior positions since it was thought that change at the top, provided it extended beyond tokenism, would help all women.

The other members of the Commission included leading female and male representatives from business and industry, financial services, the civil service, politics, universities and journalism.

The Commission examined women’s representation across Parliament, public office, the civil service, the legal profession including the judiciary, management, higher education, the media and trade unions.

The Commission’s work included:

  • A review of published information about women in public life and employment;
  • Interviews with senior personnel in government, business and the professions;
  • Interviews with experts in organisations committed to increasing equality of opportunity, including the Equal Opportunities Commission, the Women into Public Life Campaign and the 300 Group;
  • Contact with companies known for good practice in the employment of women;
  • A survey of employers on their policies and practices towards the promotion of women to senior positions; and
  • A survey of companies on the composition of their main holding and subsidiary boards.

The Commission found that there were still formidable barriers stopping women getting to the top: of structures, of working practices, of tradition, and, above all, of attitude.

However, in its final report, published in 1990, the Commission also identified “strong evidence of what organisations can do to break down all of these barriers” and said that it would “take only a small amount of determination to make sure this country ceases to under-use nearly half of its talent.”

The Commission made recommendations for further action by political parties and Parliament, the civil service, the judiciary and the legal profession, businesses, universities, trade unions and the media. Among other recommendations, the Commission said that a Speaker’s Conference should be established in the House of Commons “to consider the ways in which parliamentary and party practices and procedures place women at a real disadvantage”.

Table of contents

  • Foreword The Rt Hon Lord Barnett, Chairman, Hansard Society
  • Summary of Conclusions and Recommendations
  • Part One - Introduction
  • Part Two - Barriers to Equality
  • Part Three - The Public Realm
  • Part Four - Corporate Management
  • Part Five - Other Key Areas of Influence
  • Part Six - Strategies for Change
  • Appendices
    • The Constitutional and Legal Framework
    • A Survey of Employers
    • Women on the Board
    • Examples of Organisations in the Private Sector who have taken Equal Opportunities Initiatives
    • Organisations that Offer Help, Advice or Training in Equal Opportunities Initiatives

Enjoy reading this? Please consider sharing it

Latest

Select committee panel (blurred)
blog / journal / 08.11.19

Select Committee development and reform: turning points over 40 years

Select committee reform over the last 40 years has been a stop-go process. Here, the Clerk of the Liaison Committee during its recent 40th anniversary inquiry traces the phases in the story and identifies the set of factors that seem to work for or against reform each time.

Select Committee development and reform: turning points over 40 years
Foreign Affairs select committee holds session
blog / journal / 08.11.19

Select Committees 40 years on: wider still and wider may their bounds be set?

A former Clerk of several House of Commons select committees looks back over 30 years at how the tempo of their work has changed, and asks whether the increase in their resources and activities can or should continue indefinitely.

Select Committees 40 years on: wider still and wider may their bounds be set?
School pupils in an assembly with their hands up.
projects

Mock Elections 2019

Join thousands of young people across the country in one of the oldest and largest civic engagement projects anywhere in the world. Our free resources provide all the materials and guidance you need to recreate the excitement and drama of a real election.

Mock Elections 2019
The House of Commons debating the Withdrawal Agreement during the Saturday-sitting on 19 October, 2019
media / coverage

Even with a majority, getting Brexit done on deadline will be no mean feat

Holding a general election only six weeks before the new end-January Brexit deadline, and with a recess to fit in too, could mean the new Parliament facing a tight timetable. The challenge will be especially great for MPs elected for the first time on 12 December.

Even with a majority, getting Brexit done on deadline will be no mean feat
Houses of Parliament aerial view
journal

Parliamentary Affairs: special issue on ‘40 years of departmental select committees in the House of Commons’ (vol 72, issue 4, 2019)

To mark the 40th anniversary of the creation of departmental select committees, this special issue of Parliamentary Affairs draws together contibutions from House of Commons officials and leading academics on the past, present and future of one of the most significant reforms to the UK Parliament.

Parliamentary Affairs: special issue on ‘40 years of departmental select committees in the House of Commons’ (vol 72, issue 4, 2019)
Prev
Next