Report: Women comprise 40 per cent of board members of top UK companies

Women now make up nearly 40 per cent of the boards of Britain's biggest 100 companies, compared with just 12.5 per cent a decade ago, with recommendations in place to enable more female representation in top management, a government-backed report said on Tuesday (22).

• Researchers reviewed women's representation in about 24,000 positions in firms on Britain's blue-chip FTSE 100, mid-cap FTSE 250 and FTSE 350 indices.
• This puts Britain in second place globally, up from fifth in 2020 and just behind France which has a nearly 44 per cent representation, according to the report.
• Homebuilder Taylor Wimpey this month named Jennie Daly as CEO and Britain's largest pet supplies retailer, Pets At Home, appointed Sky UK executive Lyssa McGowan as its CEO.

The review also set out four new recommendations, including increasing the minimum board and leadership representation of women in FTSE 350 companies to 40 per cent by the end of 2025.

In July, Britain's financial regulator also said at least 40 per cent of board members in blue-chip companies should be women. Read full story

The latest report also found that female board representation in 2021 in the FTSE 250 and FTSE 350 grew by roughly 37 per cent and 38 per cent respectively.

British business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng lauded the progress, but said there was still more work to be done, with many companies yet to hit a 33 per cent target set by previous reviews.

"Only one in three leadership roles and around 25 per cent of all Executive Committee roles are held by women and there are very few women in the CEO role," Kwarteng in a statement.

The report also said that number of women in chair roles across the FTSE 350 rose to 48 in 2021 from 39 a year earlier.

Water utilities Severn Trent and Pennon, and Holiday Inn owner IHG are three of the companies with women in chair roles.

(Reuters)