- Mary Goudie, Baroness Goudie
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Mary Teresa Goudie, Baroness Goudie (born 2 September 1946) is a Labour member of House of Lords. In 1998, she was made a Life Peer as Baroness Goudie, of Roundwood in the London Borough of Brent. She was the European director of public affairs for the World Wide Fund for Nature (UK) from 1990 to 1995. She also worked as a public affairs consultant from 1995 to 1998.
Mary Goudie, Baroness Goudie Member of the House of Lords Personal details Born Mary Teresa Brick
2 September 1946Political party Labour Party (UK) Spouse(s) James Goudie Children 2 sons Residence London, England and Cape Cod, Massachusetts Contents
Early life
She was born to Martin and Hannah Brick who came to London from Ireland. She grew up in London and was educated at Our Lady of the Visitation, Greenford, London and Our Lady of St Anselm School, Hayes.[1]
Career
In 1971, Goudie became the youngest woman elected to the London Borough of Brent Council. During her time on the Borough Council she worked to advance the Campaign for a Housing Aid Centre and a Law Centre and she helped found a Housing Association for the Borough. She later became a freelance public affairs consultant.[2]
Baroness Goudie was campaign manager to Rt Hon Lord Hattersley who became deputy leader of the Labour Party.
In 1998, Goudie was appointed a life peer in the House of Lords. She was the European director of public affairs for the World Wide Fund for Nature (UK) from 1990 to 1995.
House of Lords
Goudie is a senior member of the House of Lords. [3] She has been a member of the British Irish Inter-Parliamentary Committee and was Vice Chair of the Tax Law Rewrite Committee. She also serves on the All-Party Identity Fraud Committee and since 2010 she has been a member of the Committee of Selection. She is also co-chair of number of All Party Groups. Previously, Goudie was a member of the Communications Committee, the Procedures Committee and the European Committee on Law and the Constitution.
She continues to work in the House of Lords to promote the issues of women and children. In the last Parliament she was active in pushing through one of the government’s major reform: The Equality Bill. She is vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Equality Group.
Global Activism: Human Trafficking and Women’s Issues
Goudie is Chair of the Women Leaders’ Council to Fight Human Trafficking at UN Gift. Goudie has championed the ratification of the United Nations’ Treaty on Human Trafficking, as well as the Treaty of the Council of Europe on Human Trafficking. In March 2007, Goudie launched the global initiative to fight human trafficking and continues to lead this campaign. Additionally, she is involved with the G8 and G20 to promote the role of women and children in the global economy.[4]
Goudie is a member of the Executive and Board of Directors of Vital Voices Global Partnership. In this role she has been involved in training community and business leaders and parliamentarians on social and political issues around the world.
Goudie is also a member of La Pietra Coalition, an organisation dedicated to creating “equality in law; equality in business; equality in learning; equality in jobs” by 2020. In 2011, the Coalition promoted its goal of “empowering women is smart economics” to the G20 and have the member states put it on their agenda. [5]
In recognition of her work, Baroness Goudie was awarded the 2010 GlobalPower Award by the Center for Women Policy Studies.[6]
In 2011, Baroness Goudie contributed to the book What next for Labour? Ideas for a new generation. Her chapter, titled ‘Can We End Poverty Globally? Asking the Hard Questions’ and outlines how women are central to aid reform, considering where to invest aid, selecting the right partners and defining programmatic goals.[7]
Goudie is Chair of the Women Leaders’ Council to Fight Human Trafficking at the United Nations.[8] In December 2010, attended and presented at the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking — UN GIFT Conference "End Human Trafficking Now", dedicated to enforcing the UN protocol.
In October 2011, Goudie is a speaker for the Fortune Most Powerful Women’s Conference where she addresses the topic of Shaking up the Boardroom: Will Quotas Work.[9]
In 2011, Goudie also gave presentations at the WomenSphere Pan European Summit in Oxford, UK; and the WomenSphere Global Summit in New York City. [10]
Philanthropy and Community Activism
Goudie has been a patron of the Community Foundation of Northern Ireland since 2000, which benefits projects focussed on women and children. As such, she has worked to increase the foundation's endowment through a variety of sources, including the British government, foundations and individual donors. In 2007 she launched the Patrons fund to ensure sustainability and is leading this new campaign.[11]
In Scotland, Baroness Goudie has served on the governing Board of Napier University where she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in 1999. She was also a member of the Board of the Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice in Glasgow.[12]
In the UK, Goudie is a founding member of the 30% Club and serves on the steering committee, an organisation promoting the inclusion of more women on UK corporate boards. [13] After the publication of the Women on Boards report published in February 2011 and spearheaded by Lord Davies of Abersoch, CBE, Goudie commented on the report, discussing how chairmen and investors need to commit to achieving greater representation on boards and headhunters also need to put forth more female candidates. [14]
Goudie also wrote an article for the Parliamentary Gazette about the under-representation of women in politics. [15]
Goudie sponsors a blog BaronessGoudie.com dedicated to raisng the profile of issues related to human rights generally, human trafficking, gender equity and the rights of the child.
Parliamentary expenses inquiry
On 25 October 2009 Scotland on Sunday suggested that while the Baroness lived in London she listed her main residence as a flat in Glasgow when claiming House of Lords expenses. This had resulted in her claiming £230,000 of subsistence allowances intended as payments for those outside the capital, who need help to meet the cost of accommodation in London.[16]
After an investigation ending in December 2010, the Clerk of the Parliaments said that he had doubts about the designation of the Glasgow flat as a main residence, when Goudie had a residence in Belgravia. However no further action was to be taken; she had apologised in writing and repaid £5,130.50 relating to a period when she was sick and unable to travel. In total, Goudie had claimed about £168,000 in overnight expenses and £82,000 for travel to and from the Glasgow property over a 9 year period. Goudie sold the Glasgow flat in 2010. [17]
Personal life
Goudie is married to James, a barrister. The live in a house in Belgravia, London and have two sons. She also has a holiday home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. [17]
She is a close friend of former Prime minister Gordon Brown and a trustee of his wife Sarah Brown's charity PiggyBankKids.[18]
External links
- BaronessGoudie.com BaronessGoudie.com
- Announcement of her introduction at the House of Lords House of Lords minutes of proceedings, 27 July 1998
References
- ^ Dod's parliamentary companion - Google Books
- ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6889016.ece
- ^ http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/mary-goudie/27021
- ^ http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2011-03-24a.846.1
- ^ http://lapietracoalition.org/members/, http://lapietracoalition.org/about/our-history/
- ^ http://www.centerwomenpolicy.org/news/newsletter/EnewsNovember16_2010.asp
- ^ http://www.whatnextforlabour.com/contributors/
- ^ http://www.ungift.org/ungift/wlc/participants.html#goudie
- ^ http://www.fortuneconferences.com/mpws/speakers.html
- ^ http://www.womensphere-europesummit.com/baroness-mary-goudie/
- ^ http://www.communityfoundationni.org/About-Us/Message-from-the-Patron
- ^ Scotland's top 50 powerful women
- ^ http://www.30percentclub.org.uk/about-us/steering-committee/
- ^ http://www.i-l-m.com/edge/davies_review_six_months_on.aspx
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/aug/17/women-missing-top-posts-britain
- ^ Baroness 'claimed £230,000' - Scotland on Sunday
- ^ a b Peer let off despite 'doubts' about her expenses - Telegraph
- ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6889016.ece
Categories:- 1946 births
- Living people
- Female life peers
- Labour Party (UK) life peers
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