Seventy per cent of FTSE 350 companies have no female exec board members
The pandemic has set back gender parity prospects for top jobs by four years, according to a new report.
Seventy percent of companies on the FTSE 350 have no female executives on their main board and will lag behind men until 2036 amid the pandemic.
There has been a sudden slow rise for female appointments in 2021, with just 15 companies of the 350 having female chief executives.
The report conducted by The Pipeline maintained that companies have failed to modernise and reform their businesses, an opportunity offered by the pandemic.
“This report shows how the top of the UK’s major businesses are still an almost total male preserve,” said co-founders of The Pipeline, Lady Margaret McDonagh and Lorna Fitzsimons.
It was reported that sectors in engineering were one of the worst performing of the FTSE 350 companies with just one fifth of female executives. Whereas media was one of the best performing companies with 44 percent female commitees.
The report concluded that there has been “minor progress” with reducing the number of FTSE 350 companies with all-male executive committees.
“It is high time that we move beyond business as usual, to make one of today’s key inequities in society a thing of the past,” stated group chief executive at Aviva, Amanda Blanc.