Latest research shows that still less than one in six council chiefs are women.

The annual gender survey by The MJ's sister publication Municipal Year Book has revealed that the top job is filled by women in only 16% of councils across the whole of the UK. Researchers found a significant rise in women taking the top spot in districts, but a sharp fall in the number of female unitary chiefs. London boroughs have the most women chiefs, with a total of 30% and hold the top post in 23% of mets. But in unitaries and counties they fared the worst, with 16% and 12% of women chiefs respectively. There are no women chief executives in Northern Ireland, 9% in Scotland and 18% in Wales. There was a small overall improvement on last year's survey however, which found that 13% of chief executives were women.