Companies failing to push equality in boardroom
Mar 08 2011
UK urged to address gender equality in the boardroom as it falls behind EU countries
Women are making little progress in the boardrooms of UK businesses, occupying just 23 per cent of board positions.
The UK ranks fifth out of 13 European Union countries surveyed on proportion of female boardroom members, according to accounting firm Grant Thornton’s International Business Report (IBR).
Poland has the highest number of women senior managers in the EU at 31 per cent, followed by Sweden at 30 per cent.
The UK also lags behind emerging economies China and Brazil, where women occupy 31 per cent and 29 per cent of boardroom seats respectively.
The survey of 500 UK businesses finds that only 3 per cent of companies are being led by a female CEO, well below the average of 10 per cent across the EU.
Sacha Romanovitvh, head of people and skills at Grant Thornton says, ‘Private companies make up the backbone of UK plc and it is a poor reflection on the whole economy that the improvement on this issue is so minimal.'
She warns that the UK risks falling behind other economies if gender equality in the boardroom is not addressed.
‘Life choices such as having children should not be a barrier for women to excel and progress in the workplace and sufficient provisions need to be made by employers to enable all talent to progress, whatever their personal circumstances,’ Romanovitch adds.
Comment by Claire Johnson
Wednesday 29th June 2011I worked as a Commercial Director for a large company who made over £25m profit. I was the only female director on the board and with only a couple more at our other companies across the UK. Although challenging in a male dominated industry I enjoyed my role, despite the usual comments on my sex, age and even hair colour! When I became pregnant - this was unacceptable to them and just a few months after returning from a short maternity leave (which I worked from home throughout so as not to disrupt business) I was made redundant in a restructure that left no other director redundant. However,on a positive note this has allowed me to set up on my own which will hopefully work out. In my experience - Women are not welcome in the board room.
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