In the press: Director of National Women in Business Awards welcomes female Prime Minister

The appointment of a female Prime Minster sends out a positive message to women who want to achieve their aims, according to the managing director of a female business networking group.

Griselda Togobo, managing director of Forward Ladies, welcomed Theresa May’s appointment, claiming it will encourage more gender balance in government. But Ms Togobo warns the issue of gender balance and diversity still hasn’t been solved.

In an interview with the Yorkshire Post, Ms Togobo said: “We now have a female PM but that’s not to say that we have solved the issue of gender balance and diversity within business.

“There are sectors in business where women are grossly under-represented. We don’t have enough women in engineering, we don’t have enough women in STEM, and we don’t have enough women on boards.”

Forward Ladies aims to promote female role models in businesses. One of the ways the organisation achieves this is through its annual National Women in Business Awards. The shortlist for this year’s awards, including the co-founder of Companion Starlifts Clare Brophy, has been announced and the standard of entries was “outstanding”, according to Ms Togobo.

She said: “The awards are a way of showcasing the amazing work of the role models that we have across business.

“This year we’ve had the biggest number of entries. We attracted fantastic nominations from across the country. We were very excited by the blend of diversity of the women who entered the awards.”

Debra White, a judge on the awards panel and regional director of small businesses for HSBC added: “These entrants are the future entrepreneurs of our country, with the Forward Ladies event to showcase the best Britain has to offer.”

Clare Brophy, co-founder of Companion Stairlifts, is shortlisted in the retail and SME Growth categories.