For the fourth year running, the definitive Women Count report has found that there has been no progress on gender diversity in senior roles in the FTSE 350. Funded by The Pipeline, the UK’s leading business diversity business, this research tracks the number of women in executive positions and on Executive Committees.
Despite the government setting a target for there to be a third of women in leadership positions at these companies by 2020 and despite a flow of formal reviews into this area including by Lord Davis and Hampton Alexander, Women Count 2019’s results show this has been another wasted year of little to no progress. This report has found that:
- Only 3.7% of FTSE350 companies have female CEOs – and this is down from 4.6% two years ago
- More than 85% of companies have no women executives on their main boards
- Only 9% of executive directors on main boards are women, unchanged since 2017
- A mere 17% of FTSE350 executive committee members are women, a tiny increase of just 0.8% since last year
- One in five companies have no female members of their executive committees at all
- At the current rate of progress it will take until about 2090 before executive committees achieve gender balance
- Just 5% of executive committee positions are held by women with profit & loss responsibility
- More than half of FTSE350 companies have no women on their executive committees in a P&L role at all
Lorna Fitzsimons, Co-founder of the Pipeline, said:
“Over the last four years ‘Women Count’ has proven that the FTSE 350 is not a meritocracy. When over 90% of men hold all the major positions from CEO, Executive Director and P&L roles there is something seriously wrong. The top listed companies are systemically failing to utilise their equally if not more talented female colleagues. We need to redefine the BEST person for the job and factor in the value of diversity to the Executive Committee’s performance. Businesses severely limit the talent they attract and retain as well as their bottom line when they exclude women. It’s time for the government and fund managers to force change.”
The insurance industry
The Pipeline report also found the representation of women on Executive Committees in P&L roles and Executive Directors on Boards in the insurance industry is low and has dropped by 1% since last year. A very small rise (3%) was seen in the representation women on Executive Committees which shows a great deal of work still to do.
Interestingly Direct Line bucked the trend in insurance and could be seen as a gender equality success story. Two of the Group’s ten members of the Executive Committee are women namely Penny James as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Kate Syred as Managing Director of Household and Partnerships. They also have a strong pool of female leaders just below the Executive Committee with three out of four of their key technology roles being held by women – the Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Data Officer.
Women Count 2019 found that insurance companies in the FTSE 350 had:
- 20% representation of women on their Executive Committees
- 7% representation of women in P&L roles on their Executive Committees
- 5% representation of women as Executive Directors on their Boards
Simon Linares, Human Resources Director at Direct Line Group, said:
“To attract and retain the best people from every background you need to stand out and be different. We want every single one of our people to feel able ‘bring all of themselves to work’. We are always looking for ways to support our core value of diversity and inclusion, working with The Pipeline really helped us to identify what’s important for women to be able to progress in our business. Together we supported and developed our middle management and it is starting to bear fruit. The Board has always been around 40-50% female and we now have a really effective group of great female leaders just below the Executive Committee which puts us in a really strong position for the future.”
Penny James, CEO at Direct Line Group, commented:
“Often women won’t naturally push themselves forward and as we progress through our careers, it’s important that we are challenged and supported in equal measure. As a company we recognise that to enable women to fulfil their potential, we need to offer support throughout their different career stages. Diversity and inclusion should not simply be a target and a page in the annual report, it’s vital for the success of the business and when the Board and Executive Committee support that, it massively enables and accelerates the chances of progress. I am proud of what we have achieved so far but we need to do more to tackle the gap. It’s not only the right thing to do, but it will make for a better and more successful business.”
To address this problem, the Pipeline is calling on:
- The UK government nationally and locally to adopt a target of 33% women on Executive Committees as a requirement in public procurement for organisations with annual turnovers in excess of £100 million.
- Pension Fund trustees to require their fund managers to have 33% female partners making their investment decisions.
- Fund managers to take the 33% minimum target of women on Executive Committees into account when making investment decisions.
- FTSE 350 companies to have minimum targets of 33% female representation on their executive committee and at least one-woman executive director on their main board.