continued under-representation of women in terms of the proportion of councillors who are women, and the ‘gender gap' that … exists in terms of council leadership and the portfolios that men and women hold on council cabinets or executives. It moves … about the substantive representation of women in local government …

An award‐winning equality scheme has helped almost to treble the proportion of senior‐management jobs held by women at …’s employees were women, but only 13 percent of senior‐management jobs were held by women and there were no female chief officers …. Today, almost 32 percent of senior‐management positions are held by women and two out of five chief officers are women …