Dr Elena Doldor from the School of Business and Management has co-authored the Female FTSE Board report, launched today at KPMG London. The report is the official census for women on corporate boards in the UK.
This year’s report shows that the percentage of women has increased to 26% on FTSE 100 boards and to 20.4% on the FTSE 250 boards. However, the rate of progress has slowed since the Davies closing report in October 2015 and only one in four new board appointments have gone to women. In order to meet the 33% target for FTSE 350 Boards by 2020, a constant turnover is required and an appointment rate of one in three board positions going to women.
Progress in the executive ranks and in the executive pipeline remains very slow. Only 9.7 per cent of executive directors in the FTSE 100 are women, dropping to only 5.6 per cent in the FTSE 250. Below board level, women hold 19.4% of roles on FTSE 100 Executive Committees.
The authors suggest that companies should do more to support women’s careers below board level. They encourage companies to monitor and report gender balance across all seniority levels, and argue that gender targets can be effective tools to achieve gender balance and cultural change in organizations.
Today’s launch event will host over 150 influential business leaders and policy-makers. Event speakers include Nicky Morgan, Minister for Women and Equalities and Sir Philip Hampton, Chair of the new Hampton-Alexander review into women senior leadership roles.
The report is co-authored with academics at City University London and Cranfield University.
A copy of the report can be found here: