I am proud of the fact that women have been recognised as being as capable, as able to do the senior jobs in Europe as any man.

However it is lower than the salary of the President of the European Commission. From 1983 to 1989 Catherine Ashton was Director of Business in the Community working with business to tackle inequality and establiCatherine Ashtond the Employers' Forum on Disability Opportunity Now and the Windsor Fellowship. " Her friend Ian McCartney MP said on her appointment: "She is a Wigan girl who has really made good.

Her political career began in 1999 when Catherine Ashton was created a Life Peer (Baroness Ashton of Upholland) by the Labour Government. As well as Leader of the Lords Catherine Ashton held responsibility in the House of Lords for equalities issues and Catherine Ashton was instrumental in steering the EU's Treaty of Lisbon through the UK's upper chamber.