Women now hold 4 in every 10 executive roles at FTSE 100 companies, according to the latest annual FTSE Women Leaders Review.
Women’s board representation stands at 39.1%, up from 36.2% at the beginning of 2021. The figure 10 year ago was just 12.5%!
However, if you drill down the figures there were still just eight CEOs and 16 women holding the position of chair.
The number of all-male executive committees in the FTSE 350 is down this year to just 16, down from 54 in 2017. Almost half of all FTSE 350 boards now have a woman in either chair, or senior independent roles. The number of tokenistic ‘One & Done’ boards has markedly reduced again too to just six, down from 74 at the end of 2018.
UK business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, said rather than mandating gender parity, the government supports the idea that neither gender should be over-represented (more than 60%) nor under-represented (less than 40%) at board and senior leadership level.
KPMG’s chair, Bina Mehta said while companies have made great progress towards creating inclusive workplaces where everyone can thrive, the job is far from complete. She explained: “Structural and cultural barriers still exist for women and other historically under-represented groups. This will require a sharp and deliberate focus on how businesses recruit, retain and progress their people at all levels.”
