There are now 153 women holding 176 FTSE 100 board seats (out of 1,098 board positions) compared to last month’s figures of 141 women holding 163 FTSE 100 board seats (out of 1,086 board positions).
Deputy Director of the Cranfield International Centre for Women Leaders, Dr Ruth Sealy, commented: “It is really encouraging to see a continuing fall in the number of all-male boards and so soon after publishing last month’s report. I am also aware of one or two of the nine remaining all-male FTSE 100 boards who are working towards introducing their first female director, which is great news.”
She continued: “The progress towards gender balance in UK boardrooms is not just coming from those who are appointing their first female board member, but also from those FTSE 100 companies with multiple female board members, demonstrating real transitions towards more gender balanced cultures. For example, National Grid has announced that its fourth female board member, Nora Mead Brownell, will take up a Non-Executive Director(NED) position from 1 June, joining Linda Adamany, the Rt Hon Ruth Kelly and Maria Richter. With this appointment National Grid will join the illustrious ranks of those companies with over 30% women on board.”
Director of the International Centre for Women Leaders at Cranfield, Professor Susan Vinnicombe OBE and co-author of the report with Dr Ruth Sealy said: “Cranfield has been urging UK FTSE chairmen, chief executives, executive search firms, investors, journalists and women to demonstrate progress in gender diversity in the boardroom for over a decade. We have always been clear about the untapped female talent pools and I am delighted with the progress that has been made, particularly in recent months.”
Professor Vinnicombe continues to be a member of Lord Davies' ‘Women on Boards’ steering board. The Davies Review recommended a minimum target of 25% female representation on the boards of FTSE 100 companies by 2015. Cranfield predicts 26.7% of directors could be women by 2015 and 36.9% by 2020, which will exceed the targets set in the Davies report.
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