Number of women executive directors rises after two years of decline

Citation

(2003), "Number of women executive directors rises after two years of decline", Career Development International, Vol. 8 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi.2003.13708bab.006

Number of women executive directors rises after two years of decline

Number of women executive directors rises after two years of decline

Numbers of women directors in FTSE 100 companies have increased following two years of decline, according to Cranfield School of Management research.

Up to 7.2 per cent of all FTSE 100 board directors are female – an increase of seven women, making 75 in 2002, compared to 68 in 2001. The number of female executive directors has risen by 50 per cent, from ten in 2001 to 15 in 2002.

Marks & Spencer tops the table for the second year running, with a 27-per-cent female board – two female executive directors and a female non-executive director. Sainsbury's comes a close second, with a 25-per-cent female board, one female executive director and two non-executive directors – a significant improvement on the company's 27th place position in 2001.

Professor Susan Vinnicombe, director of the Centre for Developing Women Business Leaders at Cranfield School of Management, co-authored the report with senior research fellow Val Singh.

Professor Vinnicombe said: "The increase in the number of female executive directors in the FTSE 100 is particularly pleasing. If this increase of 50 per cent per annum continues we will have gender parity on corporate boards in seven years. Yet with the median total earnings of FTSE 100 lead executives passing £1.5 million this year, gender parity would require a quantum leap in male attitudes to power-sharing and remuneration for women."

Val Singh commented: "The welcome trend in appointments of second and third female directors to FTSE boards shows an increasing openness by some chairmen and chief executives towards walking the talk on diversity and valuing difference. The time is right for reviewing the traditional all-male composition of board membership, so that the voice of women as stakeholders, employees, managers, consumers and shareholders in business and society can be heard."

Clara Freeman, chairman of Opportunity Now, whose organisation will present the award to the company with the highest percentage of women on their board at the annual Opportunity Now awards in April, said: "It is bad for women, bad for business and bad for the economy to waste the potential of half the UK's workforce. Chairmen of companies on this list should question how effective their leadership development is when only 12 companies have female executive directors."

The research reveals that there are 39 top companies with no women directors. There is only one female chief executive (Marjorie Scardino, of Pearson) one female chairman (Baroness Hogg, of 3i) and one female joint managing director (Marie Melynk, of Morrison Supermarkets).