1. Women in Senior Positions
Creating a Fair Society
Equality is not just right in principle, it is necessary for:
• Individuals: everyone has the right to be treated fairly and to have the opportunity to
fulfil their potential. To achieve this we must tackle inequality and root out
discrimination;
• The economy: a competitive economy draws on all the talents and ability – it’s not
blinkered by prejudice; and
• Society: a more equal society is more cohesive and at ease with itself.
Fairness and equality are the hallmarks of a modern and confident society.
Private sector boards hold much power and influence in society. Board members make
decisions that affect millions of people and it is only fair that women and men should be
represented equally in decision-making.
Representation of women in leadership positions
Institutions must reflect the diversity of the public they serve. However, women are severely
under-represented in leadership positions across a number of high-profile sectors:
• Only 19.6% of Partners in the top 100 UK law firms are women 1
• Only 10.5% of Chief Executives of media companies are women 2 .
• Only 13.3% of Chief Executives of national sports bodies are women 3
• Only 13.6% of Editors of national newspapers are women; and 4 .
• Only 17.4% of Directors of major museums and art galleries are women 5 .
1
The Lawyer UK 200 Annual Report, September 2008
2
Sex and Power Report 2008, Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Figure is out of media companies
in FTSE 350 companies.
3
Sex and Power Report 2008, EHRC
4
Ibid
5
Ibid

2. Representation of women in board positions in FTSE 100
companies
• Latest available data shows that only 11.7% of directorships in the FTSE 100 are
held by women 6 .
• Since 1999, there has been a very slow increase in the proportion of women in FTSE
100 boards – it has increased from 6.9% in 1999 to 11.7% in 2008 (Figure 1).
Figure 1
Proportion of women directors in FTSE 100 companies from 1999-2008
14%
12%
10%
percentage
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Year
Source: Female FTSE Report, 2008
• FTSE 100 banks have an even lower proportion of women directors - only 8.1% of
board seats are held by women. 7
• There are still 22 companies in the FTSE 100 with no women on their boards – this
means they have exclusively men only boards 8 :
• Only 16 out of the 149 new appointees to FTSE 100 boards were women 9 ,
representing 10.7%.
• There are an even lower proportion of women on boards in FTSE 350 companies
compared with the proportion in FTSE 100 companies 10 . A recent study shows that
women make up only 8.8 % of FTSE 350 board directors 11 .
• There are only eight ethnic minority women who hold FTSE 100 directorships out of
1,116 directorships. They represent 0.7% of FTSE 100 directors.
6
The Female FTSE Report 2008: A Decade of Delay, Cranfield University School of Management
7
Improving Representation of Women on Public and Private Sector Boards, Interim Report from Cranfield School
of Management, August 2009
8
The Female FTSE Report 2008: A Decade of Delay, Cranfield University School of Management
9
Of those board directors appointed between 8 September 2007- 8 September 2008
10
This represents a comparison based on FTSE 100 data from 2008 and FTSE 350 data from 2009
11
Co-operative Asset Management & The Observer Survey, August 2009.

3. Representation of women in senior positions by sector
There is a wide disparity in the proportion of male and female employees in senior positions 12
by sector in the UK (Figure 2).
Figure 2
Gender division of managers and senior officials by sector Male
Female
100%
90%
32%
80% 44%
70% 57% 58% 60%
66% 64% 67%
79% 75%
60%
87%
50%
40%
68%
30% 56%
20% 43% 42% 40%
34% 36% 33%
21% 25%
10%
13%
0%
communication
Health & social
administration &
Construction
Education
intermediation
Other services
Wholesale, retail
Manufacturing
business activ.
restaurants
& motor trade
Hotels &
Real estate,
Transport,
Financial
storage &
renting &
defence
Public
work
Source: Labour Force Survey Q1 2009
*This represents male and female managers and senior officials as a proportion of all
managers and senior officials.
For some sectors with near equal representation of male/female workforce, women are under-
represented in senior positions:
• In the financial sector, the share of female managers and senior officials is only
36.3% compared to 63.7% of male managers and senior officials.
• In the wholesale, retail and motor trade sector the share of female managers and
senior officials is only 34.4%, compared to 65.6% of male managers and senior
officials.
Even in sectors dominated by women, they are still under-represented at the senior level.
• Women in the education sector fill 73% of all jobs. However, they hold only 56.2% of
manager and senior official positions. Men on the other hand hold 27% of jobs and
43.8% of manager and senior official positions.
12
“Senior positions” are defined as those classified as either ‘managers’ or ‘senior officials’ using the standard
occupational classification 2000 in the Labour Force Survey.