The Road to Gender Balance: What We Can Learn from the FTSE Women Leaders Review
With International Women’s Day just around the corner, the timely release of the voluntary, business-led FTSE Women Leaders Review this week has given me a moment to reflect on the status of leadership gender equality in the UK. Building on the work of the Hampton-Alexander and Davies reports of the past, the aim of this Review is to increase the representation of women on Boards and in Leadership Teams in the FTSE 350.
The headline finding; FTSE 350 companies have met the target of having 40% women in the Boardroom three years ahead of plan, is certainly an achievement to celebrate – especially when women occupied only 9.5% of Board positions in FTSE 350 companies in 2011. According to the report, women now occupy at least one position on every Board in the FTSE 350, and 77% of FTSE 100 companies have four or more women on their Boards. The fact that this progress has been achieved through a voluntary and business-led effort shows the power that these factors have in creating real change. When comparing Board gender balance internationally, the UK currently sits in second place behind France (whose progress was largely driven by legislative quotas and was based on reports from only 40 companies compared to the UK’s 350). So even in the absence of quotas, UK businesses are driving gender diversity on Boards at a faster rate than other countries.
However, while Board-level progress is encouraging, findings concerning the representation of women in Executive Committee and Direct Report roles present a very different picture. Only 34.3% of FTSE 100 leadership positions below the board are occupied by women, and 125 FTSE 350 companies are still below the 33% Leadership Team target set for 2020. Six out of ten available roles went to males in 2022, and there are still too few women occupying CEO and Finance Director positions, with the vast majority in Human Resource Director (69%) and Company Secretary (70%) roles. Evidence from other reports show that there are only 9 FTSE 100 female CEOs (none from ethnic minority groups), and at the current rate of change, it will be approximately 70 years before there are equal numbers of male and female FTSE 100 CEOs.
So, while achieving 40% female Board representation three years earlier than intended is a good indication that we are moving in the right direction...it’s also clear that there remains a vast amount of work to do to achieve true gender balance at an Executive Committee level.
How do we get there?
Part of the solution, as the Review demonstrates, is representation. The more women that are appointed to leadership positions, the faster this change will happen. After all, without role models, who should we aspire to be? But representation isn’t the only driver and those of us who work in the DEI space know the solution is not that simple. True change requires more than just creating a diverse Board and Leadership Team; it requires establishing an inclusive culture, equitable policies and practices, and a strong sense of belonging among all employees.
The FTSE Women Leaders Review is undoubtably helping to move the needle in terms of female representation, but more work is needed to ensure companies are addressing the barriers preventing women from rising to the top and creating the kind of work environment that allows women to thrive.
Here at Equiida, we believe in the power of unlocking inclusion one leader at a time and utilise coaching, leadership effectiveness and search and succession to achieve that with our clients. There are a number of associated challenges around driving an inclusive environment that I will be unpacking as part of this series of articles. I’d be fascinated to hear views and opinions on this topic, and look forward to engaging with those of you that are passionate about this space.