Election sees boost to female leaders

The growing ranks of female union general secretaries have been swollen after last month’s election of Michelle Stanistreet to lead the NUJ journalists’ union.

Stanistreet, currently the union’s deputy general secretary, was elected unopposed to become the union’s first ever woman general secretary and will take up the post on 1 July this year.

Current incumbent Jeremy Dear said of Stanistreet that the union would be “in the best possible hands”.

Stanistreet’s election means that women now constitute more than one in four TUC-affiliated union general secretaries.