The government says that despite a major drop in the number of top companies with all-male boards, there are many that are still refusing to move with the times.
It has released some of the worst explanations that firms have made for not having women among their top employees:
| “I don’t think women fit comfortably into the board environment” |
| “There aren’t that many women with the right credentials and depth of experience to sit on the board - the issues covered are extremely complex” |
| “Most women don’t want the hassle or pressure of sitting on a board” |
| “Shareholders just aren’t interested in the make-up of the board, so why should we be?” |
| “My other board colleagues wouldn’t want to appoint a woman on our board” |
“All the ‘good’ women have already been snapped up” |
| “We have one woman already on the board, so we are done - it is someone else’s turn” |
| “There aren’t any vacancies at the moment - if there were I would think about appointing a woman” |
| “We need to build the pipeline from the bottom - there just aren’t enough senior women in this sector” |
| “I can’t just appoint a woman because I want to” |
The team behind the government-backed Hampton-Alexander Review are challenging all FTSE 350 companies to make sure at least a third of their board members and leadership are women by 2020.
Business minister Andrew Griffiths said: “It’s shocking that some businesses think these pitiful and patronising excuses are acceptable reasons to keep women from the top jobs. Our most successful companies are those that champion diversity.
“Thankfully, there has been great progress in recent years and through our modern Industrial Strategy and the Hampton-Alexander Review we are determined that everyone has an equal opportunity to reach the top.”
Chair of the Hampton-Alexander Review Sir Philip Hampton added: “Around a third of FTSE 350 companies still have very few women either on their boards or in senior leadership roles. We used to hear these excuses regularly a few years ago, thankfully much less so now.
“However, leaders expressing warm words of support but actually doing very little to appoint women into top jobs - or quietly blocking progress - are really not much better.”
The explanations have been published ahead of the announcement of the latest figures for the number of women on FTSE 350 boards on 27 June, which will mark the halfway point of the independent Hampton-Alexander Review. Tackling the gender pay gap is a key part of the government’s modern Industrial Strategy.
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