Women in public life, the professions and the boardroom - Commons Library Standard Note

Published 07 March 2012 | Standard notes SN05170

Amended 09 March 2012

Authors: Richard Cracknell

Topic: Employment, Equality, Members of Parliament

This note sets out the key statistics and trends for female representation in public life, the professions and the boardroom. The note covers politics, public appointments, civil servants the judiciary, the NHS, education and leading private sector vocations. Most of these vocations have seen the proportion of women grow over the short and longer term, although the rate of progress is slow in certain sectors and there remain many areas and positions where women are significantly under-represented. In very few of the sectors examined do women exceed the 51% of the UK population that they are.

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