Presiding Officer puts mentoring top of the agenda at Welsh Women’s Summit

21 March 2013

The National Assembly for Wales’s Presiding Officer, Rosemary Butler AM, will make role models for women a top priority in a speech to the Welsh Women’s Summit on Thursday, 21 March.

The Wales Women’s Summit, organised by Women Making a Difference, will take place in the historic Pierhead building between 10.00 and 13.00 on Thursday.

During a speech to the summit, the Presiding Officer will outline how mentoring should play an important role in breaking down barriers to women getting involved in public life.

The Presiding Officer has spent the past year travelling around Wales listening to women as part of her “Women in Public Life” programme.

It culminated in a national conference in the Assembly in November.

“I have been looking for solutions to address the real and perceived barriers to women’s contributions to public life,” the Presiding Officer will say in her speech.

“One of the key issues I have heard in all my meetings and events is the importance of good role models in this area.

“I have already started hosting a series of lectures by inspirational women who are succeeding in traditionally male dominated spheres.

“Recently I welcomed Baroness Susan Greenfield, who gave an incredibly inspiring talk about women in science.”

Following a mandate from the “Women in Public Life” conference at the National Assembly in November, the Presiding Officer wrote to the leaders of all four political parties in Wales asking them to give consideration to the decreasing number of women Assembly Members and how their respective parties may encourage more women candidates.

She was also mandated to look at how more role models and mentoring programmes could be developed in Wales.