The number of women appointed to the boards of UK's top companies increased significantly last year. While in 2010 women accounted for 12.5% of board members of the largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange (FTSE 100) and 7.8% of board members of the FTSE 250 companies, today they account for 16.7% of the board positions (FTSE 100) and 10.9% of the board positions (FTSE 250). Since March this year, women accounted for 44% of newly appointed board directors in the FTSE 100 companies and 40% of newly appointed board directors in the FTSE 250 companies.
These results are significantly influenced by the creation of the Voluntary Code of Conduct for Executive Search Firms. It was exactly one year ago when the Code was created in response to the report by Lord Davies, a government attorney, from February 2011. The report appealed to the UK's largest listed firms to voluntarily reach 25 per cent female representation on boards until 2015. The leading companies in the field of executive search have accepted the Code. The Code contains seven principles aimed at supporting companies to hire more women for top managerial positions.
Trade Minister Vince Cable considered the role of the Code as a key one. According to him, last year clearly showed that the voluntary approach to increasing board diversity in collaboration with executive search companies works. Lord Davies praised the successful efforts of the executive search companies as well and called for further promotion of this model of recruitment for the highest positions in companies.
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