The FTSE Women Leaders Review is backed by the government and monitors women’s representation in 24,000 positions across the UK’s biggest companies. This year they published their 2021 report, which details that the UK are now second in international rankings for women’s representation on boards at FTSE 100 level, with nearly 40% of positions now held by women, compared with 12.5% 10 years ago.
Whilst this progress is remarkable, and a great achievement for women, the report also highlights areas where there is still work to do. For example, only 1 in 3 leadership roles and around 25% of all executive committee roles are held by women and there are very few women in the CEO role.
To ensure British companies continue to raise their game and open up opportunities to everyone, the FTSE Women Leaders Review report has set out bold new recommendations, including:
- the voluntary target for FTSE 350 Boards and for leadership teams is increased to a minimum of 40% women’s representation by the end of 2025
- FTSE 350 companies to have at least one woman in the Chair, Senior Independent Director role on the Board and/or one woman in the Chief Executive Officer or Finance Director role by the end of 2025
- extending the scope of the FTSE Women Leaders Review beyond FTSE 350 companies to include the largest 50 private companies in the UK by sales
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: “UK businesses have made enormous progress in recent years to ensure that everyone, whatever their background, can succeed on merit – and today’s findings highlight this with more women at the top table of Britain’s biggest companies than ever before.”
You can find and read the whole report here.
