The final Davies’ report released today will see the target for the number of women in boardrooms rise from a quarter to 33%.
Lord Davies first called for an increase in women in boardrooms back in 2011, and since then the voluntary target of 25% has been met across the top 100 FTSE companies.
The percentage of women in boardrooms has now reached 26.1% but the UK is still seventh across the main international stock markets, behind Norway and France. There are also currently only three female chairmen throughout the FTSE 100, and InterContinental Hotels and Unilever are the only company boards with an equal gender split.
In his five-year summary report, which has been backed by the government, Lord Davies is expected to call for the further rise in female boardroom members to be reached by 2020. He is also expected to encourage those in the FTSE 350 to reach the target, rather than just the top 100 companies.
Davies said, “The next five years should see substantive and sustainable improvement in women’s representation of boards of FTSE 350 companies. Following five years of significant effort on the part of the biggest FTSE boards, all FTSE-listed companies should be taking action.”
The report is just one of a number of measures being raised by the current government to improve equality. Other measures include passing a law so that companies with over 250 employees have to publish their pay difference between genders. It comes as it has been announced that large companies will have to publish the amount of bonuses awarded to both male and female employees.
Speaking on gender equality, women and equalities minister, Nicky Morgan said that the government was “going further than ever before to ensure true gender equality in the workplace.”
You can download Lord Davies’ ‘Women on boards: 5 year summary’ report here.
