CURRENTLY the sad truth is that Merseyside is lagging behind the rest of the country when it comes to female employment. Many of the county's comparator areas have strong evidence of female full-time job growth - but this feature of change is not evident in Merseyside, according to figures from the 2006 Merseyside Economic Review. The overall pattern of female employment must change if we are to continue to improve as a city, but there are shining examples of female leadership in the city, from company directors to lawyers and professors. Last month, Alliance & Leicester Commercial bank hosted the All About The Woman event at the Radisson SAS Hotel in Liverpool. The networking event was attended by more than 100 of the city's female high-fliers - and guest speaker was former MI5 boss Dame Stella Rimington.