In October 2011, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills published an update on the Coalition Government’s pledge to promote gender equality on the boards of listed companies.
The update accompanies a progress report published by Cranfield School of Management showing that in the six months since publication of Lord Davies’ review on ‘Women on Boards’, only 33 FTSE 100 companies have heeded his recommendation to set themselves targets for the number of women they aim to have on their boards. Of these 33, only ten have set themselves targets of greater than a 10% increase.
Since the review, 21 women have been appointed to board positions out of a possible 93. This represents 22.5% of all new appointments, some way short of the 33% recommended in the Davies report.
The number of women now holding FTSE 100 board directorships is 155 out of a total of 1,092 positions (14.2%). This is up from the 12.5% published in the 2010 Female FTSE report from Cranfield (December 2010).
The report of Lord Davies’ review on ‘Women on Boards’ was published in February 2011. it recommended that UK listed companies in the FTSE 100 should aim for a minimum of 25% female board member representation by 2015.
Click here for details of the 6 month Monitoring Report by Cranfield School of Management
