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France works towards gender equality in top jobs while UK women are still struggling

Issued on: 08/11/2022 - 10:54
Modified: 08/11/2022 - 10:56

© FMM
Text by:
Michael Fitzpatrick
1 min
As larger companies in France move to meet new gender quotas for senior executives and management committee members, Britain's top firms have an "appalling" lack of women holding executive roles, a survey shows.

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"There is an appalling lack of progress of women into executive roles," concludes the survey compiled by the accountancy group EY and Cranfield University, published this week.

There are only nine women chief executives among Britain's top 100 companies, and 18 women boardroom chairpersons.

Women account for almost 40 percent of directors at firms on London's top-tier FTSE 100 shares index, but that proportion is skewed by the high number of non-executive directors, the report says.

"The research shows that FTSE businesses are increasingly hitting the targets set for female representation," Alison Kay, managing partner for client service at EY UK and Ireland, said in the report.

"However, they are falling woefully short of the intended outcome -- distributing the power and influence necessary to achieve true gender parity."

Over the last 10 years, the number of women on FTSE 100 company boards has jumped to an average 40 percent from 12.5, according to recent government-commissioned data.

What the statistics don't say
But the statistics conceal more than they reveal, with a growing tendency to appoint women to non-executive roles to boost the numbers while making sure the power remains in male hands.

"We need to tackle recalcitrant companies which do not take gender diversity seriously," says the EY report.

"And numerical parity is only a first step."

FTSE 100 companies with women CEOs include NatWest bank, directed by Alison Rose; drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, run by Alison Rose; and  hotels group Whitbread has Alison Brittain at the helm.

France already has gender quotas — a 2011 law phased in a 40 percent quota to improve the gender balance of management boards in companies listed on the stock exchange, or those with more than 500 employees and turnover exceeding €50 million over the previous three years.

Legislation intended to accelerate economic and professional equality was passed by the French parliament in December 2021.

GENDER
INEQUALITY

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