Businesses needs women

Businesses needs women. Over half the UK’s population is female. Six out of every ten university graduates are women, and women are 46% of the economically active workforce. However they are still under-represented in British businesses, especially when it comes to senior management.

The Co-operative Women’s Challenge 2020 was launched at the Women’s Voices conference in the Queens Hotel in Leeds, in July 2011, to focus on these issues.

Worldwide research has shown that gender balance improves business performance. Inclusive and diverse boards are more effective and better at controlling risk. Working together men and women contribute fresher perspectives, more vigorous challenges and broader experience to ensure business success. This is even more important for organisations that are democratically owned and run by their members.

From the start, the co-operative movement has led the way in campaigning for women’s equality. The Co-operative Women’s Challenge will continue this work, aiming over the next ten years to ensure that women are fairly represented at all levels within co-operative businesses by:  

• Making our elected structures representative of our members
• Getting more women into senior management within co-operative businesses
• Rediscovering our historic role and taking a lead in campaigning for gender equality

This website has been developed by Co-operatives UK with women from across the movement to bring women's voices together, and to provide a shared space to exchange and learn from each others experiences. The site will develop and evolve based on the inputs and ideas from across the movement.

This website has been developed with the support of the Co-operative Bank as part of their partnership with Co-operatives UK. The Co-operative Bank offers a range of banking products for co-operatives, charities and social enterprises.