In June 2007 the Cultural Leadership Programme hosted 'Women at the Top', a well-attended Dialogue exploring the issues related to women in leadership in the cultural and creative industries. Amongst the wide-raging discussion, attendees pointed to the lack of contemporary empirical research to underscore the differing views and perspectives - whilst some saw significant evidence of change others felt that little progress had been made. But where was the evidence?
One of the key recommendations from that debate was to collect the data relating to women, in order that future debates could draw upon hard evidence to determine progress and the journey forward.
At the launch of the CLP publication 'Meeting the Challenge', the issue again featured with the then Culture Minister, Margaret Hodge MP questioning the progress of women across the sector. The ensuing debate across the media again revealed a disparity of views and opinion on this issue - but few hard facts.
Responding to the demand for a consistent evidence base, in 2007 CLP commissioned Trends Business Research to review earlier research and collate the information from across the sectors to create a baseline overview of women in leadership. This project marks the start of a longitudinal study to track the evidence of progress over time.
Early finds from the report indicate:
Only 39% of the Creative & Cultural workforce is female, compared to a UK average of 46%. This means that there are fewer women in the creative industries to consider for leadership roles compared to the economy as a whole.
Across the Creative & Cultural sector there are 32,800 female leaders and 82,450 male leaders. This means that for every 1 female leader in the sector there are 2.5 male.
Compared to their male counterparts female leaders are more likely to have worked exclusively in the Creative & Cultural sector, have high qualifications, have worked on a part-time basis and are generally younger.
The Women in Leadership Baseline will be available in early 2009.
