Women hold 30 per cent of top jobs

Women occupy on average 30.9 per cent of top jobs across 11 sectors, research by BBC News has shown, including business, politics and policing.

The armed forces and judiciary have the fewest women in top posts - 1.3 per cent and 13.2 per cent respectively - while secondary education have the most at more than a third, or 36.7 per cent.

According to the findings, women represent 1.3 per cent of brigadiers or their equivalent and above across the Army, Navy and RAF; 13.2 per cent of the most senior judges; 14.2 per cent of university vice-chancellors; 16.6 per cent of the most senior staff in the police; and 34.7 per cent of the senior civil service.

Women are most strongly represented in secondary education, where they make up 36.7 per cent of headteachers, and in public appointments, where they account for 36.4 per cent, the analysis found.

The European Commission is considering new laws to get more women into top management jobs and a public consultation aimed at finding ways of increasing the number of women in top jobs - including mandatory quotas - ended yesterday.

EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding told the BBC it was “crystal clear” the issue needed to be addressed.

Barrister Cherie Blair backed quotas for women in the boardroom and Parliament in a speech last December.

She told the BBC: “The truth is that we have waited and waited and unless we do take special measures to look at the systemic reasons why women aren’t making it to the top, we are never going to succeed.”

But Edwina Currie, the former Conservative health minister, told BBC Breakfast that she opposed quotas for women.

“I would love to see more women at the top in all sort of posts, and particularly things like judges, where it really does matter,” she said.

“But I think the way forward is for us women to be as good as we can get and to go and bang on that door and say ‘Actually, you are missing really good talent here’.”

She added: “The moment you start having special arrangements, the people who come through have not acquired the talents and the skills that they will need for the majority.

“I used to say in Parliament, for example, that people who came in on the all-women shortlists, most of them were absolutely useless. Most people can’t remember who they were.”