Tracy Brabin: ‘The devolution revolution much acknowledge women’s voices’

With the launch of the English Devolution white paper in Leeds last month, Labour’s devolution agenda is once again going to lead to the biggest shakeup of the political landscape in a decade.

Shifting power from the centre to unshackle potential across our many fantastic regions is an exciting, once in a generation opportunity.

We now have 12 mayors across England, representing half of the country. But when journalists talk about Mayors, are we seeing the whole picture?

Late last year I read an excellent article on mayors but as usual, no female mayors were namechecked. As the first and only female metro mayor in England for three years, I’d become used to being the anomaly, where there were more mayors called “Andy” than women.

Ask a child to draw a picture of a mayor and I imagine it’d bear a closer resemblance to Andy Burnham or Sadiq Khan than to me. And frankly understandable.

When you can’t see it, you can’t be it. I sometimes joke that as the first female Metro Mayor, when I started the job my only cultural reference point was the female Mayor in Paw Patrol, Mayor Goodway.

But in 2025 things are different.

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With the election of Kim McGuinness in the North East, Claire Ward in the East Midlands and hopefully Helen Godwin in the West of England this coming May, UKMayors is already becoming more representative of the whole population.

Women are vital in bringing their lived-experience to important political roles; delivering better buses, safety of women and girls, closing the opportunity gap and ensuring that our economic growth is inclusive, benefiting those who need a leg-up the most.

But it doesn’t go unnoticed that in so many articles, when mayors are mentioned, the focus is on the fellas.

Recognising the work of women mayors

You might say that’s about meritocracy – that those mayors are unique. But knowing the huge successes both Kim and Claire have achieved in just eight months, I’d disagree. We are all delivering at speed for our communities.

So, is it just a lack of curiosity from overstretched, busy journalists, yet to adapt to the new diversity of UKMayors? Whatever the reason, we must call it out. Men cannot be the default, factory setting for our regional leaders.

Visibility is a vital tool to a more equal society. Overlooking female mayors in the story of devolution risks creating an information gap.

When AI scrapes information from the web on what mayors do or look like, women must not be a footnote. It would fail future generations of young women who might otherwise have played their part in democracy.

So, my challenge to journalists, commentators, media bookers and editors is, as well as doing a spell-check on your next article on the devolution revolution, give it a gender-check. You’ll be doing democracy a favour.

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