A recent report by Lord Davies investigating the imbalance of women with Directorships in the top 350 FTSE companies shows that it will take 70 years to address the lack of women at boardroom level, going by the current rate of change.
He suggests that the make-up of our boardrooms should be based on as wide as possible mix of skills, experience and performance.
He also argues that this is currently not the case as women are being excluded, therefore those companies are missing out on their vital input, skills and leadership qualities.
Research has shown that in 2010 women made up 12.5% of the members of the corporate boards of the top 100 FTSE companies. This was up by 9.4% in 2004. Lord Davies suggests that this rate of growth is still too slow.
He goes on to say that women are very successful in university and the early part of their career but the attrition rates increase as they progress through the company.
There is strong evidence which suggests that board rooms with at least three or more women on it perform better than those who don’t.
Lord Davies made several recommendations, one of which was that all chairmen of the top FTSE 350 companies set out the percentage of women they aim to have on their boards in 2013 and 2015.
Chairmen should announce their aspirations no later than September 2011.
All Chief executives should review the number of women they aim to have on their executive committee by 2013 and 2015.
Lord Davies has researched the reasons as to why women are not getting the top directorship roles. He suggests that there are not enough women getting through to the top management levels and that there are more than enough women out there that are capable of filling a directorship role.
Most male directors in the top 350 companies come from similar backgrounds, education and networking, leading to a ‘group thinking’ mentality at board level where decisions are more likely to get nodded through than if there were more women on the board, asking questions and not afraid to challenge decisions.
This table shows the gaps in middle management right up to the top at executive level for women.
The following graph shows the attitudes of those at higher levels to having women on the board.
Lord Davies’ report on boardroom targets seems to have been largely ignored by the top FTSE 350 companies. Most have been slow to announce their targets despite the deadline for them to do so coming to an end on 9 September.
Two different sets of research show that fewer than 20 firms have set and announced gender targets before the deadline.
Only eight companies in the top 100 have managed to announce their targets.
Does this complacency show that the top 350 companies still do not take women at board level seriously?
Small business does better: research for The Independent on Sunday shows 25 per cent of directors of SMEs are women. But even this is low, compared to quotas of up to 40 per cent being introduced in France, Spain and Norway.
Only a quarter of directors at Britain's medium and small-sized firms are women, according to research produced for The Independent on Sunday.
The gender disparity in the UK's biggest listed companies is well known, but the survey shows that the problem is also rife in the grassroots businesses that drive the economy.
Analysing 619,000 firms with 500 or fewer employees, database company Blue Sheep found that 70 per cent of their directors were men, 25 per cent women and 5 per cent unknown.
Why then do we have this huge gulf between men and women at the top of business in the 21st century?
It seems we are still dominated by the ‘old boy network’ mentality even in the SME sector.
How do we change this trend; can we change it?
Sources:
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