THE number of women on the boards of the UK’s biggest listed companies has decreased since last year, according to a new report.
It reveals that almost three quarters of PLC boards now have no women on their executive committees.
The annual Women Count report by the Pipeline, a company delivering female leadership programmes, said the number of FTSE 350 companies with no women on their executive committees had decreased since 2016, with eight more firms – a total of 262 – operating with all-male boards.
Founders of the organisation, which launched the Women Count last year, said the findings should act as “a wake-up call”.
Despite targets to ensure at least 33 percent of private board members across the UK are women, the Women Count 2017 found that only 16 percent of executive committee members were female, the same percentage as the 2016 report.
It also found that less than 10 percent of executive directors were women despite evidence showing that a higher proportion – those with at least 25 percent – of female executives could help nearly double profits.
It is claimed that if all companies in the FTSE 350 performed similarly to those with a higher proportion of female executives, those firms could have made a combined £5 billion.
The percentage of women on FTSE 350 executive committees in P&L [profit and loss] roles has also dropped from 38 percent to 35 percent and more companies have no women in executive P&L roles.
Electricity, oil, gas, steam, waste and water sectors appeared to perform slightly better on gender diversity than all FTSE 350 combined with at least 25 percent women on their executive committees. Retail also performed better than other industries in appointing women to executive roles.
Donald Brydon, chairman of the London Stock Exchange Group, who wrote an introduction to the report, said: “Women Count 2017 continues to confirm that FTSE 350 companies with 25 percent or more women on their executive committees perform better financially. It is therefore concerning that the percentage of women on executive committees has stagnated. It is clear that companies will have to do more systematically to meet the government’s target.”
Lorna Fitzsimons, co-founder of the Pipeline, said: “This report is ringing a very loud alarm bell for business. With agendas dominated by Brexit, the focus on gender diversity at senior levels has been slipping.”
She claimed it was an economic issue as well as an equality one, adding: “This report should serve as a call to arms for us all.”
Last month the Scottish Government announced that the number of women appointed to public boards had increased by 20 percent since 2012. It has a target for 50:50 boards in the public sector. However the Scottish Parliament does not have the ability to establish a private sector quota as it is a reserved issue.
Talat Yaqoob, director of campaigning organisation Equate Scotland, said that having diversity in the boardroom was essential.
“Boards with a fairer balance of women on them have been evidenced to perform better time and again but the message is clearly not getting through,” she added, claiming that the pace of change was “glacial”.
“Women with merit and ambition continue to be overlooked and grossly under-represented – this is bad news for the economy as well as equality.”
In November the UK Government published the Hampton-Alexander review’s initial findings on increasing the number of senior women in FTSE companies.
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