On International Women’s Day 2025, Wanda Goldwag OBE, Chair of Covent Garden Market Authority, shares her thoughts:

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"On International Women’s Day (8^th March) I thought it was worth reviewing how the role of women at New Covent Garden Market is evolving.

It has traditionally been a male-dominated site since opening in 1974, particularly during the early hours of the morning when the vast majority of the sales teams, warehouse workers and porters have been men. We recently marked the 50th anniversary of the market’s move to Nine Elms and in many of the historical images, you would be hard-pressed to find a female face amongst the workforce. However, if you walk around the site these days, either during the early morning operational hours of the fruit & vegetable and flower markets or at other times of the day, you will definitely find a larger female presence.

The trading floor may retain much of its fabled atmosphere and a wholesale market is still ostensibly an industrial environment, but undoubtedly some of the harsher edges have smoothed.

NCGM still counts many families amongst its wholesale traders and often there are wives and daughters working alongside the male members of the family. It is still rare for a wholesale market business to be solely headed up by a woman, but there are several examples of husband-and-wife partnerships and plenty of daughters joining the fold, where it used to be mostly sons. The gender dynamics are changing – we will see more women owning and running businesses here.

The facilities here are also improving immeasurably. There are now just two small blocks of buildings remaining that are 50 years old and the new trading and office space is brighter, more comfortable and more pleasurable to be in. The Food Exchange, which houses Mission Kitchen and tens of modern, entrepreneurial food and drink businesses, is a delightful environment in which to work.

My own organisation – Covent Garden Market Authority – is led by myself as Chair and the board has more women than men on it. We employ a significant number of women. A large proportion of the people who work and run businesses around us in the Food Exchange are also women.

I’ve used history to give this piece some context but I’m more interested now in the fact that the male to female ratio has narrowed significantly at New Covent Garden Market and women are increasingly choosing to come to work here. Our job as the market authority is to ensure that we continue to develop and nurture a vibrant and inclusive Market, where everyone would like to work and everyone has an equal opportunity to excel."