According to the latest research from Spencer Stuart for 2024, the number of women in the UK’s top companies is continuing to increase, with a rise from 40% this year to 43%.
Executive search and Leadership consultancy found that although 53% of non-executive directorships are held by women, 81% of executive directors are men.
In 2023, only 53% of companies had reached the target of 40% women on board. Now, two-thirds (67%) have achieved this.
As of 30 April 2024, 29 of 150 boards had achieved gender equality, up from 18.
The FTSE Women Leaders review and Financial Conduct Authority proposed 2022 new targets to increase the number of female board members. The FTSE Women Leaders Review and the Financial Conduct Authority proposed new targets in 2022 to increase the number of women on boards.
According to the Spencer Stuart Board Index for 2024, 71% (up from 60% and 51% respectively in 2023) of the top 150 FTSE listed companies have at least one female in each of these roles. A board has not appointed a woman to all four roles. In contrast, 43 boards were dominated by men in all four positions.
In 2024, four companies, Croda Diageo Hargreaves Lansdown Severn Trent, had three women in the leadership roles of these four companies, while 24 boards only had two.
The report stated: “Gender equality among other board roles remains a long distance away, even though it is moving in the right directions.” In the last two years alone, 22 chairs have been appointed.
“This year six of the chairs were female, two more than the previous year. This brings the total number to 22.
The number of women chairs has not changed from year to year due to the fact that four companies have female chairs who dropped out of the top-150 and two new women replaced outgoing female chairpersons. The number of female CFOs and CEOs (to 31 and 18 respectively) has increased.
Diversity of ethnicity on board
The Parker Review established a goal for FTSE250 boards to include at least one director with a background of a minor ethnicity by December 2024. The Parker Review set a December 2021 deadline to have at least one director from a minority ethnic background on the boards of FTSE 250 companies. Spencer Stuart discovered that 11 out of 150 top companies hadn’t yet appointed a director.
The number of directors with a self-declared ethnic minority background has remained constant: 12.5% (186 of 1,515 directors) have a minor ethnic background. This compares to 13% in 2020 and 12% in 2012.
The report revealed that 58% are non-UK citizens: 26% were US citizens, 14% Canadians, and 9% were Indians.
Only seven of the 196 directors who were appointed between April and May this year came from an ethnic minority background (4%)
The report’s authors have stressed, however, that it has become more difficult to provide comprehensive information about the ethnicity of directors who are minorities. This is because many directors do not self-identify. Reporting is inconsistent, and companies increasingly report the total number of minority directors rather than the individual directors.
