Dr Elena Doldor co-authored the 2015 ‘Female FTSE Board Report’, the official UK census for women on boards. The report launch was hosted by Barclays and was attended by over 150 senior business leaders. Speakers at the event included Rt Hon Vince Cable (Secretary of State for Business), Nicky Morgan (Secretary of State for Education, Minister for Women and Equalities), and Lord Mervyn Davies (Women on Boards Steering Group).
This year’s report found that women now account for 23.5% of FTSE 100 board positions. By then end of 2015, the top 100 companies are likely to meet the 25% target for women on boards recommended by the Davies Review in 2011. While this is substantial progress, the report called attention to the lack of women in executive roles, warning that change cannot be sustained unless future actions focus on women at all levels of the organization.
Dr Elena Doldor, co-author of the report, said: “It will be difficult to sustain the pace of change without more ambitious and sustainable measures. Our predictions suggest that as we approach 2020, women’s representation on FTSE 100 boards is likely to stagnate around 28%. There are still not enough women on executive committees or in the executive pipeline. Introducing aspirational and measurable targets for women at all levels is the only way to achieve real progress.”
Minister for Women and Equalities, Nicky Morgan said: "We have almost doubled women's representation on FTSE 100 boards in four years; we only need 17 more women to be appointed to these boards and we will have met the 25% target we set ourselves. When we started this work in 2011 there were 21 FTSE 100 boards that had no women on them. Now there are no all-male boards left. This is great news. But to keep on track we also need to ensure that women are well represented at senior executive level too, making them ready to take up board level positions.”
Dr Elena Doldor is a Lecturer at Queen Mary University and member of the Centre for Research in Equality and Diversity (CRED). She is also a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield School of Management.
Download the full report