Only 8 out of top 100 companies in the UK headed by women: Report

A recent report by Cranfield School of Management has revealed that even though UK's top-listed companies have made progress on gender targets, they still have very few women in senior leadership positions.

The report says that the proportion of female executive directors across the FTSE 100 has flatlined at 13.7 per cent for the second consecutive year as only eight out of the city’s top 100 businesses are run by women. It includesNatWest’s Alison Rose and Aviva’s Amanda Blanc, and 15 chief financial officers or finance directors.

However, the proportion of female non-executive directors on FTSE 100 boards was at an all-time high at 44 per cent. This includes 14 per cent of chairs and 35 per cent of those chairing board committees being women. Alison Kay, EY’s managing partner for client service in the UK and Ireland said that the research shows that progress in executive roles is “actually far more of an important metric than the number of women on boards as a whole”.

Financial News, London, quoted Kay as saying, “The lack of female representation in executive roles is particularly striking, especially when the presence of women in senior positions, critically the role of CEO and chairperson, was noted to be a strong and influential driver."

As a solution, various firms have been urged to do more to tackle diversity issues. This comes as the Financial conduct authority and the Bank of England consider prioritising aims within regulation.

Also, policymakers have proposed that executives should be required to tie their pay to meeting inclusion targets. This will make people at the top directly accountable for falling short.