Sexist FTSE chiefs claim women aren’t fit for boardrooms

Business leaders who fail to promote female talent condemned for ‘pitiful’ excuses in official review

SEXIST bosses at Britain’s leading businesses are using “pitiful and patronising” excuses to keep women out of the boardroom, a government-backed review has found.

Leaders in some FTSE companies believe that women “don’t want the hassle” of sitting on a board; that women struggle with “extremely complex” issues, or that they do not “fit comfortably into the board environment”, the report said.

The Business Department released a list of the worst excuses to shame FTSE companies into action as it emerged that 10 of the biggest firms in the country do not have a single female board member. Ministers condemned the situation as “outrageous”, while Sir Philip Hampton, who is leading the review into gender representation in Ftse-listed firms, told The Daily Telegraph that executives needed to “step up to the plate”.

Theresa May wants women to make up at least a third of board members at every FTSE 350 company by 2020, but “pockets of sexism” are impeding that goal. Sir Philip and his steering group, which is due to publish its mid-review findings next month, have suggested that harsh punishments, possibly including fines, could be in store for firms that refuse to change their ways.

Denise Wilson, the chief executive of Sir Philip’s review, described women as a “wealth of untapped talent”, as highlighted by The Telegraph through its Women Mean Business campaign. The Hampton-alexander review was commissioned in 2016 to find ways of closing the gender gap at the top of business.

The latest findings are expected to show a significant increase in women being appointed to board positions, with the number of all-male boards falling from 152 to 10 over six years, but Sir Philip warns that progress is being hindered by some bosses who have refused to change.

Among the companies with all-male boards are Sports Direct International and the infrastructure services company Stobart Group.

Sir Philip warned that without action, the Government’s targets may not be realised by the 2020 deadline. He said: “A lot of companies are not showing the rate of progress we expect. Around a third of FTSE 350 companies still have very few women either on their boards or in senior leadership roles.

“I think almost always it’s white men who are at the top, and my sense is that there is an expectation growing up that senior positions will be occupied by white men. It’s not a basis for the identification and management of a proper meritocracy. The notion that

any portion of our leadership should be permanently inhabited by men is wrong. We’ve got to do more at the appropriate pace. We can’t wait for people’s lives to go past. There’s a lot of work to do.”

His comments were echoed by Ms Wilson, who suggested that the excuses provided by some executives showed that there would still be “pockets of sexism” amongst senior leaders.

“[There are] very unhelpful myths … that women don’t aspire in the same way that men do,” she said.

“Actually we don’t find that at all. There is not a lack of senior women capable and willing to take on these big jobs. They just don’t get picked in the same way as the men are.

“We have about 100 companies in the FTSE 350, including these 10 allmale boards, who are being very slow, started very late, who are really going nowhere.

“They appoint one woman to their board maybe and are just not understanding the importance of diversity. They are just paying lip service to it.”

Among the excuses given to the review by business leaders who failed to hire female directors were: “I don’t think women fit comfortably into the board environment”, and “most women don’t want the hassle or pressure of sitting on a board”.

Another male leader said that “there aren’t that many women with the right credentials and depth of experience to sit on a board – the issues covered are extremely complex”, while a fourth said: “All the good women have already been snapped up.”

Andrew Griffiths, the Business Minister, said: “It’s shocking that some businesses think these pitiful and patronising excuses are acceptable reasons to keep women from the top jobs.

“Thankfully, there has been great progress in recent years and through our modern industrial strategy and the Hampton-alexander review we are determined that everyone has an equal opportunity to reach the top.”