Cranfield University School of Management published a report monitoring the progress of the UK's largest companies in appointment of women to boardrooms. It refers to the report of the Government Agent Lord Davies from February which called the largest companies quoted on the stock exchange for voluntary participation of 25% of women on boards until 2015. It turned out that companies have made some progress but it needs even more effort to achieve this objective. The government does not tell companies how they should act. Discussion on the introduction of compulsory quotas unless this requirement is met, however, still exists.
Report from Cranfield University School of Management, called Women on boards six-month monitoring report, notes that women accounted for 22.5% of newly appointed directors in FTSE 100 companies this year. (Last year it was 13.3% and 14.7% in 2009). Number of companies with purely male boards of directors declined to 13 from last year's 21. For the first time in history, purely masculine boards form only a minority of the FTSE 250 boards of directors.
Significant is the finding that the number of women on boards rises, even though 72% of the newly appointed female directors in FTSE 250 companies has no previous FTSE experience.
Professor Susan Vinnicombe, co-author of the report from Cranfield University School of Management, points out that the appointment of women to boards of directors still too strictly requires banking and financial experience. According to her, companies should attach the same weight to the experience from other areas as well. Minister for equalities Lynne Featherstone repeated her call on companies to understand that the representation of women in top management is a question of improving performance - not just diversity.
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