The WNC are delighted to announce that its newly updated Women in Public Life Today: A Revised Guide has now been published.

The 2009 Revised Guide builds and expands on the document produced in 2004, explaining how women can become active in public life and why their representation is so important.  It contains information about various public bodies and advice about how to apply for positions.  Furthermore, the Guide profiles a number of women from various backgrounds who are holders of public appointments.  They share their experiences, routes to public life and offer suggestions about how to overcome any barriers that women might encounter along the way.   Their examples demonstrate that women from a variety of backgrounds and regions can use their skills and experiences to make a valuable contribution through a public appointment.  This is especially important in light of the persistently low figure for women’s representation in public office, which still stands at less than 35%.   

We therefore hope that this Guide will encourage other women to use their wealth of talent and experience to make their voices heard. 

We hope that you find the Guide a useful and informative tool for encouraging more women to become involved in public life.  We would also welcome feedback on the Guide; send any comments to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The BCS Specialist Group provides networking opportunities for all BCS professional women working in IT around the world. The Group's main objective is to provide support for female IT professionals, as well as mentoring and encouraging girls and women to enter IT as a career.BCSWomen works with partners to offer networking opportunities, CV Masterclasses and events for undergraduate women interested in IT careers.The BCS Women's Forum is a focal point for discussion to inform policies and action across the sector, helping to share knowledge with a wider community and building inclusive workplace and training cultures.                                                                                            

The Forum has a strategic panel to help shape the work programme, to raise awareness of the need for action and to build an inclusive IT profession that is better for women.BCSWomen e-group was established in October 2001, to connect women of all ages from around the globe through a network dedicated to women working in IT worldwide. It currently has approximately 1000 members throughout the UK.  Many of these women are specialists in diverse and interesting areas of IT: development, system deployment, network administration, project management, people management, and so on.  There is still a big shortage of women in this area, yet those that do take this route will normally find themselves in work that is very interesting, and in an environment that is dynamic and highly motivated. They can however miss female contact in their work place. It is hoped that the networking opportunities provided by this e-group should help to fill this gap.

See http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=nav.8630 for details.