Despite 59% of workers in the hospitality, leisure, tourism and travel (HLTT) industry being female, just 6% of hospitality company directors are women, compared with an average across all industries of 12%.

In an effort to change this anomaly, earlier this month People 1st, the sector skills council for the HLTT industry, set up Women 1st, an initiative to promote the career development of women in the HLTT sector. Barrister and QC Cherie Blair was the keynote speaker at the launch in London.

Blair told the audience of mainly women working in the industry: “This is not about positive discrimination. It is about making sure that all of us as a society get the best out of our people. We need to address the imbalance at the top.”

Founder of her own charity to empower women entrepreneurs in countries where they lack equal opportunities, Blair argued that the informal barriers that stop women from getting to the top must be broken down: “We must get away from the idea that if you haven’t made it by the time you are in your late 20s or early 30s then you’ve missed the boat. What about later working, when we’re in our 70s? And the idea that flexible or part-time workers are less committed than full-time employees?”

Sharon Glancy, director of business solutions at People 1st who spearheaded Women 1st, explained her vision of ensuring that by 2015 there will be at least one female candidate on the shortlist for every board position and improved gender parity in the top two tiers of organisations in the sector by 2020.

Women 1st aims to achieve this through a leadership network, mentoring and coaching, and working with employers to improve the support, training and development given to women as they progress in their career.