The Female ‘Gold Rush’
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October 12, 2011 TheFreshOutlook  |
Lord Davies expected to announce on Wednesday that almost a third of recent appointments in FTSE 100 went to women.
The former trade minister is expected to deliver a progress report at Downing Street this afternoon, revealing changes in UK business.
Six months after Lord Davies originally published his report on gender diversity in February, urging the largest UK companies to increase the percentage of women present in their boardrooms, the former trade minister is expected to give his review of their reaction.
Of the 83 FTSE 100 appointments secured since February, only 25 have gone to women, dealing a blow to Lord Davies’ target that by 2015, one in four people in the boardroom should be a woman.
PM David Cameron is writing to laggards, urging companies to set targets. According to the Financial Times, the prime minister’s letter is expected to say: “There is still a long way to go to encourage the best to rise to the top of industry, regardless of their background or gender.”
Further statistics obtained by headhunters Augmentum Consulting revealed that 16 out of the 25 women appointed since the report had previously acted or are currently acting as a non-executive director at another company.
The statistics also revealed that of the other nine women appointed only six were new to the main board.
Speaking to The Fresh Outlook, Phoebe Miles, a consultant at Augmentum Consulting, spoke of the high numbers of women simply moving between similar roles: “Short term we expected it to have and it has happened … The pool of qualified women is limited and will run out; it’s like a gold rush.”
She added: “The UK is much more risk adverse – we’ve even been called ‘straight jacketed’ in relation to other countries as we are very nervous about putting people in who haven’t had main plc board experience.”
When asked if she thought that the incentive was taking too much of a generalised approach to all sectors of the business industry, she replied: “Yes, it probably is a rather crude blanket approach but I think it is a critical and necessary evil and at least it’s not quotas… To apply generalised targets across the variety of sectors is difficult but it is supposed to be a jolt and I do support Lord Davies, but I am critical.”
Ms Miles also expressed that it was “a bit of a shame that the focus is on the boards and not on the pipeline”.
Aimee Stebbing, a Lawyer at Davenport Lyons and steering committee member of the 30% Club, reiterated Ms Miles’ concerns when speaking exclusively to The Fresh Outlook:
“Board diversity cannot be expected to change overnight … the issue is not whether the statistics are skewed, but how we can grow the pipeline for female talent to ensure that the women ready for board positions are there, so that we attain the 30% target, organically and without quotas.”
In response to The Fresh Outlook’s question of whether Lord Davies’ 2015 target was realistic or not, she said: “It is an attainable target and should be one that FTSE 100 companies can easily reach with encouragement and consensus.”
Adding: “The UK is a beacon for good corporate governance and I think that the growing membership of chairmen to the 30% club means that hopefully no enforcement will be necessary.”
By Laura Beard
[Image courtesy of bisgovuk]