Leichhardt Council supports women in leadership

A Woman’s Steering Group initiative proposed by Deputy Mayor Linda Kelly was unanimously approved in a Leichhardt Council meeting on June 24.

“We will access the shared stories and the power of shared experience, to create the narrative of women in leadership roles in the Leichhardt municipality. We will feature women who are role models and whose experience can create diverse points of reference to the emerging generation of women taking public roles in employment, business leadership and civic life,” said Councillor Kelly.

Leichhardt Council’s Employment and Economic Budget will dedicate $5000 to the initiative. The project will involve an annual breakfast as well as in training programs that will foster networking and presentation skills for women.

Cr Rochelle Porteous is happy to support this initiative from Cr Kelly in promoting females in leadership and believes more can be done in order to enable pathways for women.

“It’s quite a hostile environment for women in council,” said Cr Porteous.

“When you’re also working a day job and you have family responsibilities … the actual culture of a lot of councils is not just adversarial, but I’d go as far as to say often quite bullying. It’s a very poor environment for women to be working in a lot of the time.”

“I endorse having breakfasts, but I actually think there’s a lot of policy and procedures that also need to be addressed.”

Cr Simon Emsley said the Women’s Steering Group is a step in the right direction in improving the visibility of underrepresented groups in the community.

“It’s a very welcome addition to the mission the council has at its disposal to direct more equitable outcomes for the community … I’m very concerned that councillors are represented in the community [in terms of] age, gender, but also language backgrounds.”