Number of female directors in region ‘depressingly low’

The 9.3 per cent figure, equal to 78 female non-executive and executive directors out of a total of 838 across Yorkshire’s top 150 public and private companies, is described as “depressingly low”.

It has risen over the last five years though and compares to 9.5 per cent in 2011, 7 per cent in 2010, 6.3 per cent in 2009, 6.2 per cent in 2008 and 7.4 per cent in 2007.

Liz Barber, director of finance and regulation at Yorkshire Water, whose board is made up of six men and five women, warned that Yorkshire firms are “missing out on all sorts of talent”. Dorothy Thompson, of Europe’s largest coal-fired power plant Drax, is the most powerful female chief executive in Yorkshire by market capitalisation.

According to recent data, 15.6 per cent of FTSE 100 board directors are female, with the percentage dropping to 9.6 per cent for FTSE 250 companies.

Fourteen per cent of the total 45,000 members of the Institute of Directors are women – a figure which the organisation suggests may reflect the broader situation, given that there are more than 4.8 million private enterprises in the UK, 99 per cent of which are small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Research by McKinsey & Co shows that strong stock market growth among European companies is most likely to occur where there is a higher proportion of women in senior management positions.

Diverse boards make better decisions, it is thought, and by ‘diverse’ this does not only encompass gender, but factors such as ethnicity and background.

Heather Jackson, founder of the high level women’s network The Two Percent Club and the Women’s Business Forum in Harrogate, said: “It’s a business issue. It’s nothing to do with inequality.”

And chief executive of Yorkshire Water, Richard Flint, said the even mix of men and women on the organisation’s board means that no one way of thinking can ever dominate.

“Consequently, every decision we make benefits from an open and unbiased approach, which helps us to make the right decisions.”

He said his approach is to ensure he has the best people for the job and the even representation of women and men on the board was not “in any way planned”.

Meanwhile, European justice commissioner Viviane Reding has been pushing the idea of compulsory quotas, attracting opposition from the UK and some other member states.

Last week, the European Commission set out proposals for there to be at least 40 per cent women non-executive directors on the boards of publicly listed companies, with the exception of SMEs, by 2020.

EU lawyers had previously warned compulsory quotas might not be enforceable, so the plans instead set out a 40 per cent “objective”.

Gender quotas have already been introduced in domestic law in France, Italy, Spain, Iceland and Belgium – and Norway, not an EU country, has had a 40 per cent minimum boardroom requirement for women for a decade. “I’ve yet to meet a woman who agrees with quotas,” said Yorkshire-based Jo Haigh, a partner in fds Corporate Finance Services and the fds Group, who described the regional figure as “depressingly low”.

Currently non-executive director of six companies, Mrs Haigh said: “I think we all want to be there because we deserve a seat at the table rather than we are filling a quota. However I think there are some halfway houses.

“One would be that in terms of the process of recruitment that if you’re going to shortlist eight people, 50 per cent have to be women, and then at least you’ve got a fair chance.”

On a recent visit to Leeds, Liz Bingham, Ernst & Young’s managing partner for people, advocated the internal setting of targets.

“I’m a big fan of targets with teeth. But these for me they need to be somewhat self-regulating rather than imposed with quotas.

“But self-regulating does mean being accountable to stakeholders, whether it’s shareholders in a public company or investors in a private company, whether it’s partners in a partnership.”

Ernst & Young has recently announced that by 2015 30 per cent of its new partners, whether internal promotes or external hires, will be women, and 10 per cent will be black and minority ethnic.

Currently the Big Four professional services firm has 18 per cent female partners in the UK.

The question as to why there are significantly fewer women on boards than men remains a difficult one to answer.

Mrs Haigh spoke about the difficulties of balancing children with a high-powered job. Back at work within five weeks of all her children being born, which she described as “far, far too early”, Mrs Haigh said: “Throughout my career I’ve always been in the wrong place. You end up trying to do a little bit of everything. You have to make some sacrifices.”

Even in the “most enlightened households” generally the women are still the people doing most of the nurturing, she said, adding: “I think the other issue is one of confidence. The research that I’ve been reading for example would show that a woman would read an advertisement and say ‘I can only do 80 per cent of that so I won’t apply”, but a man would read the same advertisement and say “I can only do 20 per cent of that, maybe I’ll have a go”.

“I think there’s a huge confidence issue amongst a lot of women that they almost expect not to succeed, and therefore don’t put their hand up for the opportunity.”

Some argue that it is the culture of workplaces that puts off women, but Ms Jackson said that women themselves are not entirely blameless and they must put themselves forward for senior positions. There is a leak in the talent pipeline, she says, whereby there are many women joining corporates at entry level, but few reaching the top.

“For too long, we’ve just blamed it on the fact that it’s women and children, and women and families, but actually... what has become apparent is that there are plenty of women leaving and it’s not anything to do with children.

“This isn’t just an organisational problem, nor is it just a male problem... women themselves have got to recognise there is no glass ceiling. We need to build confidence and self-belief.”

The Yorkshire figures in relation to women on boards were supplied by accountancy firm BDO and are based on the top 150 companies in the region by revenue.

More are getting on board

IT is predicted that by 2015, 26.7 per cent of directors on FTSE 100 boards will be women, and 36.9 per cent by 2020. Cranfield School of Management made the predictions in its 2012 report into women on boards follow-ing the Davies Report 2011.

Lord Davies recommended that FTSE 100 companies should be aiming for a minimum of 25 per cent female board member representation by 2015. He also said FTSE 350 companies should be setting their own challenging targets.

Cranfield said that its forecasts exceed the targets set in the Davies report in 2011, but will only be achieved if the momentum for changing the gender balance of boards continues.