WIREDGOV

• 19% of directors are female (up from 12.5% when Lord Davies reported in February 2011 and 17.4% in May 2013). Of this
  • 23.8% of non-executive directors are female (up from 15.6% in February 2011 and up from 22% in May 2013
  • 6.1% of executive directors are women (up from 5.5% in February 2011 and up from 5.6% in May 2013)
• 24% of board appointments since 1 March 2013 have been women. In May 2013 this was 12%
• in order to reach Lord Davies’ target of 25%, FTSE100 companies need to appoint 66 more female directors in the next 2 years

I’m glad the number of women at the top of our most successful companies continues to rise. Businesses are clearly still striving to get the right mix of talent around their boardroom table and we must not lose that momentum.

We have until 2015 to reach our target of 25% of women on the boards of listed companies which Lord Davies set us 2 years ago. With today’s encouraging figures, I am confident we can get over the finish line.

But appointing more women as non-executive directors is not an end in itself. This is about more talented women getting executive experience, so that they will not only advise, but run this country’s great companies.

These figures are a sign that we have come a long way since our original report in 2011. The target of 25% in the FTSE100 by 2015 was rightly ambitious but the increase in the figures is a sign that businesses are not letting the issue pass them by.

However, this is no time to get complacent and think that the job is nearly done. We have still got a long way to go but at least these numbers are moving in the right direction after stalling earlier in the year.

Businesses are making real efforts to find and appoint capable women to their boards and I will continue to champion their efforts. We have now moved to a place where it is unacceptable for the voice of women to be absent from the boardroom.

• 14.9% of directors are female (up from 7.8% in February 2011 and up from 13.8% in May 2013). Of this;
  • 18.6% of non-executive directors are women (up from 17% May 2013)
  • 5.4% of executive directors are women (down from 5.7% in May 2013)
• there are 199 boards with females on them, up from 188 in May 2013

1. The latest figures can be found at http://www.boardsforum.co.uk/boardwatch.html

2. The original Lord Davies Women on Boards report from 2011 can be found at ‘Women on boards February 2011’

3. The latest annual report from April 2013 can be found at ‘Women on boards 2013: Two years on

4. Details on Charlotte Sweeney’s appointment can be found at ‘Cable announces review of executive search code of conduct’

5. The government’s economic policy objective is to achieve ‘strong, sustainable and balanced growth that is more evenly shared across the country and between industries’. It set 4 ambitions in the ‘Plan for Growth’, published at Budget 2011:

• to create the most competitive tax system in the G20
• to make the UK the best place in Europe to start, finance and grow a business
• to encourage investment and exports as a route to a more balanced economy
• to create a more educated workforce that is the most flexible in Europe