Women for Media expands to share more female voices

Australia’s Women for Media network has expanded to the UK, with the service now connecting journalists to British female leaders in the property sector for media comment.

Women for Media, created by Carol Schwartz AM (pictured) and the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia (WLIA) in 2012, continues to increase the visibility of Australia’s most senior female leaders as thought leaders and experts in the media. The service was used very effectively by the Australian media to obtain diverse comment from the property sector on the recent federal Budget.

The UK database, established by the 30% Club in partnership with WLIA, provides journalists with similar easy access to senior female thought leaders in government, finance, business and the not-for-profit sectors.

Schwartz, who is currently chair of the Property Male Champions of Change, says that she hopes to “see the number of senior female leaders commenting in the media grow and the benefits of diverse thought leadership in public discourse flow from that.”

The Women for Media UK initiative forms part of the 30% Club’s continued campaign to ensure 30 per cent female representation on FTSE-100 boards by the end of 2015. The figure currently sits at 23.6 per cent, up from 12.6 per cent in 2010.

According to Helena Morrissey CBE, 30% Club Founder, “having more women speak up in the media on a wide range of topics is an important aspect of the 30% Club’s continuum of change towards a society where a mix of men and women at all levels is just seen as the norm.

“We very much hope that this database, which has been carefully created with the Australian founding initiative and which will continue to grow, will help solve that, and be useful for both journalists and women looking to build their profiles.”