Great Britain: gender equality on corporate executive committees unlikely to be reached before 2036 (report)

According to the sixth Women Count 2021 report, men continue to dominate senior management positions in companies listed on the UK FTSE 350 stock market index. Only 15 of the 350 groups are currently led by women. This under-representation has consequences since, according to this study, a female CEO appoints on average four times more women to executive committees than does her male counterpart. The Women Count 2021 report points out that 78% of executive committee members are still currently men. While the percentage of females has risen by 2.5% in 2021, the increase is lower than in 2020 (+2.7%) due to the pandemic. As a result, the study predicts that gender equality will not be achieved in executive committees until 2036, four years later than the previous forecast of 2032 put forward in the 2020 annual report. Co-founders of The Pipeline group that produces the annual report and supports companies in their efforts to achieve gender parity, Lady Margaret McDonagh and Lorna Fitzsimons note, “The top of the UK’s major businesses are still an almost total male preserve. Times of crisis are moments that offer the possibility of major shifts away from established paradigms. Instead there has been a reversion to type with companies continuing to fail women.”