The Post Office hosted a panel of four female postmasters for the first time as part of a wider strategy to improve representation.

The move comes as part of the Post Office’s five-year strategy to deliver a ‘New Deal for Postmasters’, which aims to create a greater role for postmasters in the running and operations of the business and strengthen their voices across the organisation.

The event which took place on 11 March to coincide with International Women’s Day offered the panellists the opportunity to share insights on their leadership experiences, offer advice to their younger selves and discuss the contributions they make to their communities.

The panellists included Sara Barlow, who runs the Rainhill Post Office and recently became the first woman to join the Post Office Board as a non-executive director.

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Gurpreet Dhillon of Stone Cross Post Office, Ying Shi of Caterham Post Office, and Fiona Malone, who runs Tenby Post Office alongside her husband.

Ms Malone said it was nice for the panel to share their experiences collectively and find that many of them had been “really positive”.

“Quite recently, when you talk about the post office, people have a bit of a negative view,” she said. “So, it was nice to talk about some positive things about the post office.”

“We’ve all been through difficult situations, and that’s why we kind of shared our stories, as a kind of inspiration that you can get through things, and you can get over things.”

Ms Malone added that she hoped there would be similar events in the future but stressed that it might not be an all-female panel next time.

She added: “You need to be a little bit careful, because we don’t want to be just saying it’s just because we’re female we do this. It’s because we’re experienced postmasters.

“We’ve got a good story to tell, male or female.”

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