A national campaign was launched today to highlight the low levels of female councillors.

The push comes with one month to go until local elections are held across the country.

The Fawcett Society says less than a third of councillors are women. And in Bradford this figure is less than a quarter. Only 21 out of the 90 available seats on Bradford Council are held by women.

However, two of the district's party leaders are women and one of these is also the authority's head.

Councillor Margaret Eaton (Con, Bingley Rural), has been on the Council for 20 years with a decade as group leader. She became Council leader in 2000.

She said: "I would like to see more women but the Govern-ment needs to take a serious look at the format of Council working which is not conducive to family life."

Coun Eaton, who is also leader of the Council's Conservative group and vice-chairman of the Local Government Association, said councillors were spending long periods with paperwork and committees on issues which were not even local.

Councillor Jeanette Sund-erland (Lib Dem, Idle and Thackley) was first elected in 1994 and is group leader for the Liberal Democrats.

She said: "It is becoming increasingly difficult to find good-quality women to become councillors. It is a big problem in Bradford. Some committees are virtually all male in their composition.

"I think a lot of women come against the stereotypical image of a politician being a late-middle-aged male.

"I also think a lot of what politics involves is not very attractive to women. To be a councillor you need to do a lot of work unsupported and the idea of having to shout and scream across a council chamber is not very appealing."

To attract more women to becoming councillors, Coun Sunderland recommended greater support for women candidates and for people to let go of the idea of politics being a typically-male pursuit.

Labour group leader Councillor Ian Greenwood said women had a strong role to play in local government and said his party wanted to encourage as many as possible to come forward. "We think it is very important and are taking positive action to increase the numbers," he said.

The society's Make Some Noise campaign aims to highlight the lack of balance on many councils. It calls for all political parties to ensure they are better reflecting the people they represent, to get women's voices heard on local matters.

The launch of the campaign comes as candidates for next month's local elections are announced.

Less than 20 per cent of MPs are women and there are only two black women in parliament. There has never been an Asian woman MP at Westminster.

For details, log on to www.faw cettsociety.org.uk