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The City’s first Lady Mayor is a symbol of progress

3 15
11.11.2025

LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 08: Dame Susan Langley DBE arrives at the State Coach, built in 1757, on November 08, 2025 in London, England. This year The Lord Mayor's Show becomes the Lady Mayor's Show as the position is occupied by Dame Susan Langley DBE. The show the world's oldest, longest and least-rehearsed civic procession. It dates back to the early 13th century when King John granted the City of London the right to appoint its own mayor. He required that each newly-elected Mayor should come upriver to distant Westminster and swear loyalty to the Crown, and the Mayors have been making that journey for over 800 years. Around them grew up a noisy, colourful, joyous procession that over the centuries became known as the Lord (Lady) Mayor's Show. (Photo by Ben Montgomery/Getty Images)

The historic appointment of Dame Susan Langley as the City of London’s first “Lady Mayor” is a powerful symbol of progress, but women still face deep, persistent systemic barriers to equality in business, says Natasha Frangos

On Saturday, Dame Susan Langley made history not as the first woman to lead the City of London but as the first to do so with a title that reflects her gender. The shift from “Lord Mayor” to “Lady Mayor” might seem purely symbolic, but symbols matter. In a position steeped in 800 years of tradition and pageantry, where just two women have formally held the role among over 700 men, this linguistic development reflects deeper cultural change.

As Managing Partner of HaysMac and the firm’s first female leader, I’ve witnessed firsthand how titles, language, and representation shape possibilities. When young women see leaders who look like them and that are addressed appropriately, it fundamentally changes what they believe they can........

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