Women 'break through the glass ceiling' at Rochdale Council

Date published: 10 April 2008

Rochdale Council has been placed third in the country for levels of female employment among its top earners in a recent study.

More than half of the council’s employees in the highest paid 5% are women, putting Rochdale in the top three in a GMB Union report.

The diversity of the Council’s work force has been praised by Labour Parliamentary Candidate Simon Danczuk. He said: “It should always be policy to appoint the best person for the job but it is well known that there have been discriminatory barriers preventing women from attaining senior positions on councils in the past. I am pleased to see that Rochdale is leading the way in equal opportunities to ensure that the male domination of top posts was brought to an end.”

Thurrock Council in Essex topped the GMB list, which used figures from the end of April last year. 56.1% of women workers make up the top 5% of earners in Rochdale Council.
Kamaljeet Jandu, GMB National Equality & Diversity Officer, said: “Women in local Government have started to break through the glass ceiling into the top jobs. It is no accident that this has happened where trade union organisation is strong and fights for equal opportunities."

Amna Mir, Labour’s Candidate for Smallbridge and Firgrove, who is bidding to become Rochdale’s first Muslim woman councillor, also welcomed the report but added that there is still much work that needs to be done across Rochdale to promote equal opportunities for women.

“I want to see women from all communities in Rochdale given the opportunity to fulfil their potential,” she said. “Despite the fact that my uncle did not believe in girls having an education, I was lucky that my husband pushed me to learn and go to college. I do not want to see women held back by prejudice.”