Industry | 2009.08.22
UK firms fail to get women on board
Harriet Harman hits out at \'old-fashioned, backward looking companies\' as Observer research shows that 90% of top firms have an equality policy – but only 3% of them have a woman as chief executive
The male stranglehold on power in the upper echelons of British business is laid bare today in new research commissioned by the Observer. Women occupy just 34 of the 970 executive director positions at companies in the FTSE 350 index, according to a survey by the Co-operative Asset Management.
When it comes to non-executive director posts – which do not involve any management power – woman fare slightly better, but still occupy only 204 of the 1,772 jobs available.
In the most senior positions of all, women\'s representation is stuck in the single digits. Leaders such as Baroness Sarah Hogg, chair of venture capitalist 3i, and Dame Marjorie Scardino, chief executive of media group Pearson, remain in a tiny minority.
Only four chairmanships are held by women, equivalent to 1.3% of the total, and just nine women serve as chief executives, or 3%.
No fewer than 132 of the companies surveyed, including Barclays Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland, are men-only zones, without a single woman at board level.
Overall, female representation stands at just 8.8%, taking both non-executive and executive directorships into account. This feeble showing is despite the fact that more than nine out of 10 companies in the survey claim to have an equal opportunities policy.
Harriet Harman, Leader of the House of Commons and minister for women and equalities, this weekend asked for the full background to the research in order to consider its findings with the Department for Business.
"This is a very important piece of research," she said. "It shows how important it is for companies to have accountability on gender. A company in the grip of the old-boy network is never going to be successful in the modern world. If they can\'t see half the population as worthy of a say, then they are in the grip of structural prejudice. What does it say about a company that they have an all-male board? It is backward-looking and old-fashioned."
The Co-operative study suggested a yawning gap between most companies\' public declarations of support for equal opportunities and their behaviour in practice. The report identified a "pinch point" for women – the level of senior positions at which their numbers begin to thin out. The researchers found that this "pinch point" frequently coincides with flexible working becoming less available.
Trish Lawrence of lobby group Opportunity Now said: "The majority of workplaces are designed around a mid-20th-century lifestyle, with an outdated approach to where, when and how work happens. Flexibility... should be a business imperative.
"The lack of women in senior positions may be attributed to the fact that women are much more likely than men to take a career break, and even more likely to take responsibility for child and elder care. We need to \'normalise\' flexible working arrangements, encouraging more men to take advantage of these arrangements and sharing the caring responsibilities, while also enhancing their work-life balance."
The research also revealed that only a quarter of the companies in the survey mentioned that they offer flexible working, and those which provided details of the balance between men and women in their organisation were in a minority. Just over a third disclosed the gender split of their workforce, and a mere one in five gave details of the gender split in management.
Dr Ros Altmann, a former economic adviser to No 10 Downing Street, said: "I suspect many executives would be shocked to see these figures. It could be that they have not realised the extent of female under-representation."
Professor Alex Haslam of Exeter University, who has conducted extensive research into the boardroom barriers facing women, described the findings as alarming.
"They fit with a bigger picture in which it is clear that, despite a vaunted commitment to policies of equality and inclusiveness, women are still struggling to achieve recognition in the corporate world," he said.
"This is all the more alarming because a large body of data suggests that this change is needed urgently, not for cosmetic reasons but in order to realise the full potential of both leadership and industry."
Among the exceptions are media group Pearson, which came top in the survey with a female chief executive and finance director, as well as a diversity policy to help recruit and promote other under-represented groups. Support services company Mitie, in second place, also boasts women in its top two executive roles.
The Co-operative has pledged to start taking account of women\'s representation on boards when it assesses companies from an ethical, social and corporate governance perspective.
Altmann called on other big investors, including pension and insurance funds, to follow the Co-op\'s lead.
"In terms of ethical and socially responsible investing, the idea that most major UK companies have virtually no female executive board representation is an issue that investors should factor into their assessments of corporate responsibility," she said. "These large investors increasingly represent women clients, as women\'s wealth has substantially increased over the years."
John Reizenstein, managing director of the Co-operative Asset Management, said: "All businesses say they want the best leadership, but how do they know they\'ve scoured the widest choice? Our study shows that while a few companies are reaping the rewards of \'equal opportunities\', too many seek only to comply with the law."
Headhunters say that one major reason women do not reach the top is that male bosses often appoint people similar to themselves. Virginia Bottomley, the former Tory MP who chairsthe executive search agency Odgers Berndtson, said: "The majority of the population is female and the majority of those going to law and medical schools are female.
"It is inexplicable that women are not better represented at the highest levels of industry, commerce, finance and government. People often hire in their own image – I urge them to look out of the window rather than in the mirror."
By numbers
• There are 519 male MPs and 126 women.
• In 2002, the British Film Institute analysed UK productions from the previous two years. Out of 350 films, only eight were directed by women.
• Only 32% of students studying GCSE economics and 41% of those studying GCSE business are girls.
• In both the judiciary and police force, about 10% of senior roles are held by women.
• Women represent 45% of the UK working population, but just 19% of the IT workforce.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/a[...]siness-harriet-harman-equality
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