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Home | Diversity in the Boardroom | Getting Women on to UK Boards

Female FTSE 100 Report - a Year of Encouraging Progress

"When I helped launch the FTSE female index in 1999, I found that many of Britain’s boardrooms were a no-go area for women and many were populated by the 'Chairman’s chums’.

Since then we have made progress. Eight years ago 36% of FTSE 100 boards had no women – today that figure is down to 24%. But, that means that one in four boards have no women on the board so we still have further to go.

Women make up more than half the workforce and are important consumers of goods and services and that should be reflected on boards. Having balanced boards is good for business as they will better reflect – and therefore be better able to serve – their customers and employees and therefore their stakeholders.

We must continue to monitor progress and support women in the boardroom."

To read Harriet Harman’s, Minister for Women, full forward to the Female FTSE 2007, click here for a copy of the report.

The 2007 Female FTSE Index

This year Barbara Follett, Under-Secretary of State, launched the findings compiled by Prof Susan Vinnecome and Dr Val Singh of Cranfield University.

The highlights in 2006 are:

The number of non-executive female directors is at its highest for nine years;
There is an emerging polarisation between the cluster of 24 companies that are male lead and the newly growing cluster of 35 companies with multiple female directors;
The proportion of women among new appointments has increased in 2007, with 20% of new FTSE 100 director appointments going to women - the highest level since the first benchmarking report was published in 2000;
30 women appointed in 2007 - five of whom had not previously held FTSE directorships;
There are now 122 women on the FTSE 100 executive committees - an increase of 40% on 2006;
The number of female-held directorships has increased to 123 in 2007 from 117 in 2006;
While the proportion of female directorships is low(11%0, the report highlights how the composition and balance of the FTSE 100 boards has changed since 2000; and,
The encouraging results from the female FTSE 2007 indicate that significant changes ca occur within a relatively short period.

But:

1 in 4 boards still have no female members - that is 25%; and,
Both the total number of executive directorships and a total number of directorships are at their lowest level for 9 years.

This year's female FTSE report also launched an overview of the results from a UK Resource Centre into gender and boardroom culture in the Science, Engineering and Technology sector. This gives views of chairmen, chief executives, male and female directors and senior women, drawing on 59 interviews and focus groups from four companies listed in the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 and a scientific organisation from the public sector.

A good practice guide identifies a number of boardroom and director development practices that will facilitate a more inclusive and hopefully more effective boardroom culture. Click here for this guide.

For more information on pay gap click here.

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Topic resources

The Female FTSE report 2006 - hard copy only available from Cranfield University
(www.cranfield.ac.uk)

Brighter Boards for Brighter Future
Download PDF (319KB)

Building Better Boards
Download PDF (652KB)

Diversity Best Practice in the Corporate World: A Guide for Business
Download PDF (5357KB)

The Female FTSE report 2004 - hard copy only available from Cranfield University
(www.cranfield.ac.uk)

Female FTSE 100 Report - a Year of Encouraging Progress

The 2007 Female FTSE Index

Topic resources

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