Women hold a third of boardroom roles
Business Secretary says The Telegraph’s campaign has been ‘instrumental’ in raising awareness of issue
CABINET minister Andrea Leadsom joined with business leaders to hail a major milestone for the City as it was revealed that 33pc of blue-chip boardroom roles are now held by women at Britain’s biggest companies.
Bosses said the target – laid out in the Government-backed Hamptonalexander review and hit a year early – represents a significant step along the road to gender equality.
Less than a decade ago, just 12.5pc of FTSE 100 board jobs were held by women. However, campaigners warned much more work remains to be done.
It follows a long-running campaign by The Daily Telegraph to increase female representation at the highest levels of the City.
Writing in today’s newspaper, Mrs Leadsom, the Business Secretary, recalled the prejudice that she faced when starting her own City career in the Nineties.
She said: “When I had my first child, I asked my employer if I could work part time, having taken less than three months maternity leave.
“The answer came back that they’d managed fine without women senior executives so far, and certainly didn’t need part-time ones. Only by shining a light on unacceptable behaviour and calling it out for what it is, will workplaces foster an environment and culture that values men and women equally.
“The Telegraph’s ‘Women Mean Business’ campaign has been instrumental in raising awareness.”
Despite the success so far, the Hampton-alexander review found a “concerning lack of female representation” in senior leadership and key executive roles.
Dame Jayne-anne Gadhia, chief executive of Salesforce UK and former boss of Virgin Money, said: “Progress for women in business is still not good enough. We need to hold business leaders to account every day – not just because it is morally right – but because equality, diversity and inclusion improve productivity and profit.”
Dame Helena Morrissey, who until last year was head of personal investing at Legal & General Investment Management, said: “I would have been amazed if the numbers had been better for executive roles. To get that requires a societal leap and a big shift in business culture.
“Neither has happened yet. There are lots of special initiatives but that’s not the same as aiming for equal lives and a different understanding of what success means.”
The review found a glaring lack of female representation in senior executive positions at firms. For example, only 15pc of FTSE 100 finance directors are women. There is also a disparity between the blue-chip index and the FTSE 250 – in the latter, only 29.5pc of board members are female.
Sam Smethers, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, said: “It’s great to see this milestone achieved but let’s not stop there.”
Adecade ago, just 12.5pc of board positions on FTSE 100 companies were held by women – and over a fifth of boards had no women on them at all. At the time, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission predicted that it would take 70 years to reach gender parity.
Today, we’re not quite there – but we have reached a key milestone. Now, a third of all FTSE 100 board positions are held by women, and there is not a single all-male FTSE 100 board left. This strong result owes much to the fantastic work of the Hamptonalexander review, which has beaten its own target almost a year early.
When the review first began its work in 2016, it was met with a number of frankly ridiculous excuses from company chairmen for not doing more to recruit and promote women leaders. Comments such as “women don’t want the hassle or pressure of sitting on a board” and that “all the ‘good’ women have already been snapped up”. That these excuses are rarely heard now shows just how far we have come. For some, diversity on the board is now their watchword, not for its own sake, but because of the excellence that a diverse range of views brings to decision making.
Having achieved today’s 33pc milestone on an entirely voluntary basis, without the need for fines or penalties, is well-worth celebrating, and is part of my ongoing determination to make the UK the best place in the world to work and to grow a business. This doesn’t simply mean creating a high-skilled workforce, though that is a large part of it: it’s also about talented people getting the chances they deserve. To do this, businesses should be making the most of the vast array of talent and diverse perspectives we have in the UK.
Helping the UK realise its potential in this area is not only about increasing the number of women on boards, but supporting women in work across the whole spectrum. There is still a lack of female representation in several key executive roles in FTSE firms, noticeably in financial roles, which so often serve as that essential stepping stone to the very top jobs. And work by the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London reveals that far too many women continue to face hostile workplace behaviours and environments. A third of women at board or executive level say they have experienced someone making insulting or disrespectful comments towards them, compared to 13pc of men experiencing that unacceptable behaviour.
Working in the City in the Nineties, I saw myself how a male-dominated environment can limit a career. When I had my first child, I asked my employer if I could work part time, having taken less than three months maternity leave. The answer came back that they’d managed fine without women senior executives so far, and certainly didn’t need part time ones. At the time women made up eight of the around 100 senior executives.
Of course, things have changed massively in the years since. But only by shining a light on unacceptable behaviour and calling it out for what it is, will workplaces foster an environment and culture that values men and women equally.
For that reason, The Daily Telegraph’s
“Women Mean Business” campaign has been instrumental in raising awareness of issues such as this, and other barriers that too often prevent female entrepreneurs and business professionals within the workplace from reaching their full potential. I want to see our FTSE 350 companies putting clear structures in place to help women’s careers to develop. Businesses shouldn’t just be helping women break the glass ceiling – they should be removing that ceiling all together and becoming a role model for others.
For the Government’s part, as part of the Employment Bill, we will be legislating to enhance protections for women who all too often face discrimination at work as a result of pregnancy, and to introduce neo-natal leave and carer’s leave. Subject to consultation, we will also legislate to make flexible working the default.
We should be proud of the great strides this country has taken over the last decades to eradicate discrimination from our workplaces, while also knowing that we need to go further to make the UK fit for the future. The steps we are taking will both enhance business’s prospects and improve people’s lives, helping to unleash the full potential that the UK has to offer as a truly independent nation.
It would be much better if we just didn’t have to talk about diversity anymore; if equality was the absolute norm. It will take some time to get there – and I truly believe we will, especially if we keep up the good progress to date.
Andrea Leadsom is the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy