Women still failing to feature in the executive teams of many FTSE 100 firms, with only Severn Trent and Kingfisher managing a balanced split
Some of the UK's most well-known household names are failing to appoint women to executive positions, with more than one in ten blue chip companies having no women in their executive teams at all.
According to a report released today by female professional development organisation The Pipeline, women account for only 18 per cent of FTSE 100 senior executives.
Just two companies – Kingfisher and Severn Trent – have managed to cultivate an executive team with women accounting for 50 per cent or more, while 13 members of the FTSE 100 have no women in their senior executive team at all.
The Pipeline highlights research by consultancy firm McKinsey, which found that companies with more than three women on their executive committee have boosted their performance by 15 per cent.
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"As a chief executive in the FTSE you would grasp at anything that could improve you performance by 15 per cent," said Lorna Fitzsimons, chief executive of The Pipeline. "We work with many FTSE chief executives that do get it but the figures show this isn't as wide spread as it needs to be."
In October last year, Lord Davies published his final report about Women on Boards, which revealed that women accounted for 26.1 per cent of positions on FTSE 100 boards, although this count included both executive and non-executive positions.
Lord Davies also announced a new recommendation of increasing the number of women on boards in FTSE 350 firms to 33 per cent by 2020.