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Davies Review

Government’s female FTSE 350 board member target missed

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By John Glenday, Reporter

March 25, 2015 | 2 min read

A new report has found that the government has failed to reach its target of a ensuring that a quarter of all FTSE 350 board members are women, despite the number of women in such roles nearly doubling over the past four years.

The Lord Davies Review found that whilst almost a quarter of FTSE 100 board positions are now occupied by women the figures for the wider sector falls just short at 23.5 per cent.

Business secretary Vince Cable observed: “I am confident we will reach our target this year, but our work is not complete. British business must keep its eye on the long game, as we strive to achieve gender parity. We have made good progress in the last 4 years, and if we continue this trend in the next parliament, I would expect to exceed a third of female representation by 2020.”

Distilling the figures down by industry however some sectors fare better than others, a recent State of the profession report compiled by CIPR found that the percentage of women at board level in the PR industry was currently 48 per cent.

Sarah Hall, board director of the CIPR, said: “While it is good to see an increase in the number of women on FTSE 350 boards, let’s not forget that quotas should only be an interim measure that help to plug the embarrassing shortage of female talent at senior level. While we are still years away from making gender parity a reality (especially at management level), quotas provide a level playing field that we are currently lacking. Ultimately our ambition should be to get to a point where they are not needed and candidates are judged purely on talent.”

Lord Davies’ set a 25 per cent female participation rate in 2011, claiming that the target to be met this year.

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