Only 13 women run top firms – just like in 2009
RBS appoints first female boss of a big bank but...
THE number of women running Britain’s biggest 350 companies has barely changed in a decade, prompting concerns that efforts to get more women into boardrooms are having only limited success.
A survey by The Mail on Sunday found that just 15 FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 firms are run by a woman, with that figure set to decrease to 13 after the imminent departure of two female bosses.
That would leave the number of women FTSE chief executives exactly the same as it was in 2009 despite the arrival on Friday of Britain’s first female boss, Alison Rose at RBS.
The numbers, which have been verified by City networking firm BoardEx, were last night greeted with exasperation from campaigners keen to see the gender divide closed.
Charlotte Valeur, chair of the Institute of Directors, said companies have made efforts to recruit more women but many have been offered non-executive roles, which are parttime advisory positions with no management responsibility.
The 30% Club – set up in 2010 to increase gender diversity on boards – said 36.4 per cent of all non-executives are women compared with just 10.6 per cent of executive board roles.
‘Progress has been made on gender diversity in the boardroom but many women in UK boardrooms are in non- executive roles with frightfully few female CEOs in the FTSE 350,’ Valeur said.
‘Companies need to take a long hard look at their recruitment processes and ask what barriers are being put up that prevent women and ethnic minorities from advancing both in executive roles and to the board. Women must be trusted not just to be part of the discussion, but also to lead it.’
This year has seen several women leaving chief executive positions, including Kate Swann at SSP and Veronique Laury from Kingfisher. And Imperial Brands chief Alison Cooper said last month she will leave when a replacement is found.
In addition, Avril Palmer-Baunack will cease to be executive chairman – which means she assumes chief executive duties – of a listed company because her firm BCA Marketplace has been acquired and will leave the stock market imminently.
Dame Marjorie Scardino became the first female chief executive of a FTSE 100 company when she was appointed chief executive of Financial Times owner Pearson in 1997. The appointment of the Texan journalist-turned-lawyer was hailed at the time as a ‘significant advance for women executives’.
Last month the 30% Club said Britain’s boards had achieved its target ahead of a 2020 deadline with 30 per cent of all executive and non-executive roles now held by women – 903 out of 3,008. In 2010, only 9.5 per cent of seats at board tables were occupied by women.
Ann Cairns, global co-chair of the 30% Club and executive vice-chair of Mastercard, said last month that ‘30 per cent is the number at which a minority group starts to become heard and considered – that target is our floor, not our ceiling’.
Efforts to boost the number of women in the top tiers of the UK business world have been going on for decades. In 1991, then Prime Minister John Major launched Opportunity 2000, saying: ‘ Enabling women to get to the top must go hand in hand with enriching women’s job opportunities on every rung of the ladder.’