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

LGBTQ+ Equality Panel

Race Equality Panel

Older People’s Equality Panel

Youth Combined Authority

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 current members are:

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

Carol-Ann Whitehead - The Zebra Partnership

Elizabeth Stanley - Wraparound Partnership

Emma Persand - Lemur Health

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

Sally Carr - The Empowerment People

Sharon Maginn - 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 2021/22 (PDF, 288Kb)

(Accessible) Women and Girls' Equality Panel - Annual Report 2021/22 (.Docx, 208Kb)

Women and Girls' Equality Panel - Terms of Reference (PDF, 129KB)

Tackling gender and racial discrimination: A joint statement by GMCA, Mama Health & Poverty Partnership and Women's Resource Centre (PDF, 82KB)

VAWG Workplan 2023