About Us
Women in Public Life launched in January 2020 to inspire and support the women of Guernsey to stand for public office.
We are a group of local volunteers – women and men.
We are not a political party or association – we support all women regardless of their political viewpoint. We don’t endorse or fund any candidate for any role.
We simply give women information about public office opportunities and encourage and support them to consider putting themselves forward.
By ‘public office’ we mean roles created by legislation or policy to which members of the public are elected or appointed. Not just Deputies, Douzeniers and Jurats – but also committees, panels, commissions and tribunals.
People in public office make important decisions on behalf of everyone in the Island. Yet in many public office roles, women are significantly under-represented. Women are 50.5% of the local population but only 28% of States Members and 34% of Douzeniers.
When women put themselves forward for interview or election, they are just successful as men. The problem is that not enough women stand in the first place.
Something is stopping them and Guernsey is losing out on talent and experience as a result.
We’re working to identify those barriers and to help overcome them.
Some of women’s reluctance could apply to anyone – limited knowledge of the roles that are available, busy lives, concern about being exposed to public scrutiny in a small island.
But women experience some specific barriers that aren’t as common for men:
1. Women think they have to be perfect – internal research by Hewlett Packard showed that women assume they need to meet 100% of the criteria for a job before they apply, whereas a man will apply if he meets 60% of the criteria. Talented women are over-estimating the requirements of the role and under-estimating their skills and experience.
2. Women don’t feel they belong – When women look at high-profile public office roles, they don’t see many ‘people like me’ and they can assume, either consciously or sub-consciously, that they don’t belong there. Plus, women don’t get tapped on the shoulder as much as men do.
It is these barriers, and more, that Women in Public Life wants to help overcome. We aim to make it crystal clear to women that they ARE wanted in public office and they DO have the skills.
Our work is an example of Positive Action which is specifically permitted by Guernsey’s current Sex Discrimination in Employment Ordinance and the new Anti-Discrimination Ordinance.
Our committee
Shelaine Green
Shelaine was Chair of the Guernsey Disability Alliance from 2009-16. She was a member of the Complaints Panel for 4 years.
Martina Lenfestey
Martina is Asst Bursar of Blanchelande College. She was part of La Houguette Primary School Committee for six years.
Ceri Turton
Ceri studied politics at university and was a Douzenier for two years. She is a Company Secretary by profession.
Linda Rolf
Linda runs her own communications consultancy. She was a Women's Devel't Forum committee member.
Paul Chambers
Paul is a documentary photographer. He is a member of the Guernsey Literary Festival committee.
Our ambassadors and advisers
Hana Plsek
Hana is Counsel in the Guernsey Employment Law practice of Mourants. She was a Douzenier for St Andrew's from 2020-5.
- We are open and transparent and always act with integrity.
- We respect those with different views and seek to understand their perspective.
- We respect confidentiality.
- We share resources equally among the women we support.
- We collaborate widely, with related groups and with public office recruiters.
- We use non-emotive language, letting the facts speak for themselves.
- We welcome trans women.
- We take proactive steps to increase the diversity of prospective candidates and volunteers. We are keen to include and advance under-represented groups.
- We are non-partisan. Political views are not relevant.
- We encourage women to join the pool of candidates so that Guernsey has a wider choice of talent. We do not endorse or financially support candidates in their campaign for office.
- We encourage men to join us as ambassadors.
- We do not tolerate bullying, harassment, discrimination or unwanted behaviour, as defined here. We reserve the right to exclude participants from our events, groups or social media if they do not respect our values.
- We ask that participants or supporters never claim to represent or speak as Women in Public Life without permission.
Everyone involved with Women in Public Life is a volunteer. No-one is paid.
We do not receive any grant funding from the States of Guernsey.
Some of our events are kindly sponsored by local businesses but our website, leaflets, advertising and other costs are funded by donations from our volunteers and from individual supporters like you.
The more funding we receive the more women we can inspire to stand for public office so please donate now to play your part.
Women in Public Life Guernsey is a local charity set up as an unincorporated association.
We hold annual member’s meetings at which our Chair, Treasurer and Secretary are elected.
If you would like to become a formal voting member of Women In Public Life, fill in our online membership form.
You don’t have to become a formal member just to keep in touch with us. Click here to join our mailing list.
We are registered with the Guernsey Registry (NP273) and are a member of the Association of Guernsey Charities (No. 474).
Important information:
Our accounts as at 30 June 2025
Women in Public Life builds on and broadens the success of the Power of the Voice campaign that helped increase female representation in the States from 11% to 30% at the 2016 general election.
The founder of Power of the Voice campaign was Deputy Yvonne Burford who was Environment Minister at the time and the only woman on the ten-person Policy Council.
Yvonne joined forces with Michelle Johansen, founder of the Women’s Development Forum, the Soroptimists (represented by Cathy Bailey) and Saboohi Familli, then head of the College of Further Education.
Roberta Blackman-Woods MP was the guest speaker at the first Power of the Voice event in November 2015 which also featured a panel discussion with Yvonne and three more of the five female Deputies who were in the States at that time.
Groups similar to Women in Public Life already exist across the world and we are grateful to them for all we have learned from researching their approach.
We are particularly indebted to Elect Her (UK), Women for Election (who are based in Ireland) and Women for Election Australia for all their advice and support.
