Barrister and QC Cherie Blair was the keynote speaker at the launch in London yesterday of Women 1st, an initiative to promote the career development of women in the hospitality, leisure, tourism and travel (HLTT) industry.

According to research by People 1st, the sector skills council for the HLTT industry, despite 59% of the HLTT workforce being female, just 6% of hospitality company directors are women, compared with an average across all industries of 12%.

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.”

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 will try to achieve this through a leadership network, mentoring and coaching, training and development, and recognising the achievements of up and coming female industry leaders through the sector-focused Shine Awards.

Rhonda Floyd, senior customer services manager at restaurant chain McDonald’s, concluded the launch with an inspiring personal account of her role within the McDonald’s Women’s Leadership Network and how such initiatives really do help get the most out of women managers.