Women and Girls' Equality Panel
Women and Girls' Equality Panel
About Greater Manchester’s equality panels
The Greater Manchester Equality Panels have been established to advise, support and challenge Greater Manchester’s political leaders and policy-makers to tackle the discrimination and disadvantage that cause injustice and inequality in society, and champion Greater Manchester as an inclusive city-region. They do this by working together with the GMCA and partners to:
- Provide insight into Greater Manchester’s diverse communities, enabling political leaders and public bodies to listen and engage in a more targeted and effective way
- Communicate key messages to our communities as trusted sources
- Codesign policies, programmes and strategies to ensure they work effectively for communities
- Support an asset-based approach, highlighting new opportunities (and challenges) for positive collaboration that build on the resources and strengths within our communities
The Women and Girls’ Equality Panel is one of seven equality panels established and funded by the GMCA. Other equality panels include:
Disabled People’s Equality Panel
Faith and Belief Advisory Panel
Aims of the Women and Girls’ Equality Panel
The Women and Girls’ Equality Panel was established in December 2020. It aims to accelerate gender equality and ensure women and girls across Greater Manchester have their voices heard and influence GMCA policy and decision-making.
The Panel meets four times a year, and aims to:
- Advise the Mayor and GMCA on key issues and the inequalities facing women and girls, and provide solutions
- Provide a critical voice and scrutinise the work of the Mayor and GMCA
- Undertake specific pieces of work to reduce the inequalities experienced by women and girls in the city-region and across society
Working groups
The Women and Girl’s Equality Panel currently has two working groups, which meet every 6-8 weeks:
Education, Skills and Employment: Key themes the group explores are the foundational economy, childcare, skills pathways, what ‘good employment’ means, women’s self-employment and co-operatives, as well as care and commissioning.
Violence and Women and Girls Working Group: Key areas of focus for the group include gender-based violence, women’s safety in public spaces, victim support, sexual objectification, and migrant women with No Recourse to Public Funds.
The working groups will be discussing their forward plan and topics that will be discussed in the new year and updates to this will be made in the new year.
Membership
The Women and Girl’s Equality Panel was originally formed after an open application process. Seventeen women were chosen by the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, and the portfolio lead for Equalities (at the time), Cllr Brenda Warrington, leader of Tameside Council. The Panel is now 25 members strong, and the members represent a diverse range of women and girls from all boroughs in our city-region. Whilst the members operate in an individual capacity, many are also employed by organisations aiming to tackle issues experienced by women and girls.
The Panel opens applications for new members yearly, so please keep an eye out if you are interested in applying to sit on the Panel. Until then, if you wish to express your interest and/or become an ally of the Panel, please email womenandgirls@pankhursttrust.org.
The Panel opens applications for new members yearly, so please keep an eye out if you are interested in applying to sit on the Panel. Until then, if you wish to express your interest and/or become an ally of the Panel, please email womenandgirls@pankhursttrust.org.
The current members are:
Panel Members and Organisation
Gemma Aitchison - (VAWG Chair) Yes Matters UK
Annie Emery (VAWG Chair) - MASH (Manchester Action on Street Health)
Emma Persand (ESE C0-Chair) - Lemur Health
Sally Carr (ESE Co-Chair)- Empowerment People
Halyma Begum BiTC (Business in The Community)
Vic Stewart - The Alchemist, The 6% Club
Gail Heath - Pankhurst Trust
Memory Nyahunzwi - Olive Pathway
Brenda Warrington - Tameside Council
Nicky Porter - GMP
Fiaza Manzoor
Vicky Marsh - Safety 4 Sisters
Elizabeth Stanley - Wraparound Partnership
Angie Power - Diversity & Employment Solutions
Nadia Ali - Heaton Norris Community Centre & Make a Difference Community Group
Lynne Stafford - Gaddum
Neha Sareen - Student
Noor Al-Saffar - Student
Amy Rothwell - Boo Coaching & Consulting, Women’s Housing Action Group, Bolton Maternity Voices Partnership
Sharon Maginn - Retired Deputy Head, School Governor & Volunteer for The Princes Trust.
Circle Learning Solutions
Taslima Ahmad - Creative Design & Manufacture UK
Facilitators and GMCA Leads
Cathy Mcdonaugh - GMCA
Hannah Hatton - GMCA
Anabel Butler - Pankhurt Trust
Eleanor Radford - Pankhurst Trust
Contact the Women and Girl’s Equality Panel
The Women and Girl’s Equality Panel is facilitated by The Pankhurst Trust.
If you would like to keep up to date on the work of the Panel and subgroups, you can join our Allies Network. Just email womenandgirls@pankhursttrust.org and ask to sign up to our Basecamp. Through Basecamp we will share useful information about topics that affect women and girls in Manchester and ask you for your input.
You can also keep up to date and get involved with the Women and Girl’s Equality Panel by following GM 4 Women 2028 on Twitter.
Women and Girls Equality Panel - Annual Report 2022/23.
(Accessible) Women and Girls' Equality Panel - Annual Report 2021/22 (.Docx, 208Kb)
Women and Girls' Equality Panel - Terms of Reference (PDF, 129KB)
Women and Girls' Equality Panel - Annual Report 2021/22 (PDF, 288Kb)
Position statement against the closure of rail ticket offices 2023