Call to punish firms that fail to put women in top jobs
CITY heavyweights have called on the next prime minister to punish companies that continue to keep women out of the boardroom.
Dame Inga Beale, who was the first female boss of insurance market Lloyd’s of London and stood down last year, said the “time for action around setting targets and quotas for gender balance in senior leadership roles is here, with repercussions for those that don’t achieve it”.
She called for the Government to impose “some sort of levy for those noncompliant firms that could then be used for further research into achieving better gender balance or be used internally to fund specific programmes for female talent development”.
Dame Jayne-anne Gadhia, who ran Virgin Money until last year and is one of the few women to have led a British bank, agreed that if businesses do not take gender diversity sufficiently seriously and repeatedly fail to deliver, “everything from a levy, regulation or even legislation should be on the table”.
Sir Philip Hampton, Glaxosmithkline’s chairman who is leading a review into gender representation in Ftse-listed firms, said he hoped that Britain could make progress “without fines or levies or legal quotas”.
However, he warned that if there was too little progress, “the Government will have to decide whether it wants to look at other levers”.
The call for action comes a year after it emerged that leaders in some FTSE companies believe women “don’t want the hassle” of sitting on a board, that women struggle with “extremely complex” issues, or they do not “fit comfortably” into the board environment.
Sir Philip said last week that while there has been progress in terms of board diversity – just four FTSE 350 companies still have all-male boards compared with 152 in 2011 – most highprofile executive roles still go to men.
Recent research shows 85pc of FTSE 350 firms do not have a female board member in an executive role. Just 3.7pc have a female chief executive.
The lack of female leaders is a particularly stark issue in the City, where large institutions are feeling intense pressure.
Magic circle law firm Freshfields has told lawyers in its dispute litigation department that they must engage more female barristers as the 276-year-old firm aims to correct its dismal track record on gender equality.
Freshfields scored lowest in gender pay gap analysis conducted across the UK’S top ten law firms this year with a gender pay gap of 57.6pc.
Earlier this month lawyers from the team were encouraged to attend a social “speed networking” event aimed at improving its engagement with female counsel.however, guests estimate that out of a couple of hundred attendees, the ratio of barristers to Freshfields lawyers was roughly two to one.
Divisional partner Craig Montgomery said the event was not held as “a direct result” of the firm’s gender disparity findings, but as part of “a wider initiative around everyday gender equality”.
He also said that while there was “no point trying to strongarm people” to attend, there was “widespread enthusiasm” for the initiative across the firm.