Britain’s biggest companies are experiencing a “devastating” lack of women in top management roles despite overall progress in the recruitment of women into management roles, according to a survey.
Women make up almost 40 percent of directors at companies at the top of London’s FTSE 100 stock index, but the figure is skewed by the large number of middle managers who are not managing directors or CEOs, accounting group EY said in the report.
“There is an alarming lack of advancement of women into executive positions and the most powerful positions in companies,” says the results of the survey, which was compiled with the help of Cranfield University.
Nine women in the top positions of the FTSE 100 in the UK
Only nine women are in senior management in the UK’s top 100 FTSE companies and 18 women hold the chair of the board.
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“The research shows that FTSE companies are increasingly meeting their targets for women’s participation,” said Alison Kay, director of corporate services at EY in the UK and Ireland, in the report.
“On the other hand, they are not achieving the goals when it comes to the most powerful positions that would ensure the better distribution of power and influence necessary to achieve real gender equality.”
Female CEOs of FTSE 100 companies include Alison Rose of NatWest Bank, Emma Walmsley of pharmaceuticals manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, and Alison Brittain of hotel chain Whitbread.
