In 2011, the coalition government recommended that all UK companies listed on the FTSE 100 should aim for at least 25% of their board members to be female by 2015.
We’ve certainly started to see more females in the boardroom since then, with Tesco chairman John Allan even making the remarkable claim that white men could soon be an ‘endangered species in the boardroom’.
So just how much have things changed since the report was published seven years ago?
With International Women’s Day falling on March 8th, our friends at SilverDoor serviced apartments have carried out their own research into gender representation in UK business, analysing publicly available information to find the current board members of each of the current FTSE 100 companies, which you can view for yourself below.
The research found that while 72% of current FTSE 100 companies do meet the 25% recommendation, the average percentage of female representation on board sits at just 28.93%.
One of the other interesting takeaways from the research was that some of the industries which have claimed it to be too difficult to attract female employees, such as manufacturing and construction and chemicals, pharmaceuticals and healthcare actually had over 30% female board members.
In addition, only 8% of businesses had a woman as their CEO, founder or MO, only one had at least a 50-50 split and three companies had just one female board member.
So, what does the research tell us? It seems that while the picture may be changing, there’s still a lot of work to be done before women have an equal voice in the UK’s top businesses.
Check out the research for yourself below!
An infographic by SilverDoor Apartments
Author
Paul Slezak
With over two decades of experience in the recruitment and human capital industry, Paul Slezak has established himself as a transformative force in the realm of leadership and career coaching, group facilitation, and talent acquisition. His unique perspective, drawn from his early career as a leader in global recruitment firms and his entrepreneurial success with his own start-up, has enabled him to make a significant impact on leaders, teams, and organizations across the world. Paul's passion for helping others achieve success and high performance is evident in his commitment to transforming leaders and their teams at local, national, and international levels. He specializes in promoting the importance of human-centered intelligence, focusing on soft skills such as authenticity, transparency, and trust to complement business-centered acumen and drive better workplace outcomes. As an impartial facilitator, Paul brings his expertise to team offsites and strategy days, ensuring alignment on goals, values, and culture while keeping participants on task. His engaging and energetic presence, coupled with his unique "entertraining" and "edutaining" delivery style, enables him to connect with audiences both large and intimate, sharing personal and professional anecdotes that inspire and energize.
