More women are leading UK businesses, but it’s still a man’s world

A RECORD number of women are leading UK businesses, but there are still twice as many men in the most senior positions, figures show.

Last year, 14,000 women in the UK were made directors of small and medium sized enterprises, taking the total number of females in directorships at small and mediumsized enterprises (SMES) to an all-time high of 201,900.

Despite the rise in female leaders, there are still more than twice as many men at the top of SMES in the UK, with 429,038, equating to 68 per cent of directors. The Telegraph’s Women Mean Business campaign has looked to shed a light on the start-up funding gap that exists between men and women in the UK.

Overall, just 9 per cent of funding into UK start-ups currently goes to women-run businesses each year, and according to the Entrepreneurs Network, men are 86 per cent more likely than women to be venture capital funded and 56 per cent more likely to secure angel investment.

Sarah Friend, a partner at accountancy firm Moore Stephens, who conducted the research, says: “Over the last decade, the number of women starting businesses has accelerated rapidly and SMES are now outperforming the biggest businesses in delivering female business leaders.

“However, more needs to be done to address the funding gap between men and women-led start-ups in order to level the playing field.” While women hold 32 per cent of director roles at SMES, in the UK’S biggest companies, they are less well represented.

Of the FTSE 100 companies, last year only 28 per cent of board members were women. At the very top, only seven out of the 100 are led by women, which is fewer than the eight FTSE companies led by men called David.