THE Federal Government has pledged $490,000 to get more women involved with councils across Australia.

The funding comes after all councillors elected to the Cardinia Shire council last year were male.

The balance is more even in Casey where five of 11 civic leaders are women.

Country-wide less than one-third of councillors are women, while 20 per cent of senior management roles are filled by women, and only 7 per cent of chief executives are female.

Federal Local Government Minister Anthony Albanese and the Minister for the Status of Women, Tanya Plibersek, said the disparity was unacceptable and the Federal Government was working with the sector to lift the participation of women.

The Federal Government will fund a “50:50 Vision: Councils for Gender Equity” program with $250,000, provide $100,000 in scholarship funding to enable women in local government to participate in a executive leadership program and provide $100,000 to improve collection of data and reporting on the status of women in the sector.

It will also give $40,000 to Local Government Managers Australia for its 2010 management challenge, which will involve about 130 councils identifying strategies to promote gender equity in their councils. Mr Albanese and Ms Plibersek agreed that it was vital that local governments provide representation and governance for the entire community.