Men still outnumber women by four to one in the key decision making executive roles close to the top of Britain’s biggest listed companies, new research reveals today.
Despite rapid progress on the headline number for female representation in FTSE 100 boardrooms, this has been focussed on part time non-executive directorship posts and what are sometimes described as “softer” functions without direct P&L responsibility such as HR and marketing.
But of the most senior full time jobs on the career ladder to chief executive, such as divisional or regional heads, only 21% are held by women.
It is a similar story with the other major “feeder” roles that are often the springboard to the top job as only 28% of chief operating officers and 25% of chief financial officers are female.
This gender gap at the “pointy end” of the corporate pyramid helps to explain why still only 11% of FTSE 100 CEOs are women, according to the research by headhunters Russell Reynolds Associates’ Center for Leadership Insight.
The shortfall means that men are eight times more likely than women to become FTSE-100 CEOs.
GSK’s CEO Dame Emma Walmsley is a relatively rare example of progression to the top job through the divisional head route as she previously ran the pharmaceuticals giant’s consumer healthcare operation..
Laura Sanderson, co-head of Europe, Middle East & India at Russell Reynolds Associates, said: “Establishing a cohort of skilled women leaders needs to be treated as a business imperative as it supports all aspects of a firm’s performance.
“The evidence is mounting up that companies with gender balanced senior leadership teams are more innovative, more profitable, more socially responsible, and provide higher-quality customer experiences. Boards must take active steps to manage their talent pipelines. At its core, achieving gender balance in business leadership is an indicator of organisations’ succession and talent planning success.”
Across the FTSE-100 as a whole female boardroom representation has risen rapidly from just 12% in 2010 to 42% currently. However only 12 FTSE 100 members have achieved gender parity across their senior leadership teams.
One FTSE 100 senior leadership team is comprised of all men, and 12 have only one woman executive. Twenty-five C-suites have less than 25% women, and 42 are comprised of less than one-third women.
The study found that women have been much more successful in being appointed to senior roles without direct P&L responsibility such as human resources, marketing and legal counsel. almost 80% of chief human resources offices in the FTSE100 are women.
