More women in company boardrooms

Former Trade Minister Lord Davies of Abersoch headed a review in 2011 when the number of female board members in FTSE 100 firms was just 12.5 per cent.

He set a target of 25 per cent by 2015, and reported today that the figure stands at 20.7 per cent, showing “real progress”, with more women than ever before in boardrooms.

A separate report by the Cranfield School of Management confirmed the trend and revealed that just two FTSE 100 companies – Glencore Xstrata and Antofagasta – had all-male boards, compared to one in five in 2011.

Of the 1,117 FTSE 100 board positions, 231 are women, while 48 new female appointments need to be made to reach the 25 per cent target.

Lord Davies said: “The rate of change that we have seen at the heart of our biggest companies over the last three years has been impressive.

“The voluntary approach is working and companies have got the message that better balanced boards bring real business benefits. We are finally seeing a culture change taking place at the heart of British business.”

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: “These latest figures show that businesses are getting the right mix of talent around their boardroom table and understand the importance of this.

“Ninety-eight of the FTSE 100 boards are now made up of at least one woman and we need fewer than 50 new women appointments to FTSE 100 boards to reach our target of 25 per cent of women on all FTSE 100 boards in the next year. This is a huge improvement from where we started just three years ago.”