Newsflash – FTSE Women Leaders Review 2023 report

The FTSE Women Leaders Review has launched its 2023 report: Achieving Gender Balance

The FTSE Women Leaders Review is the successor of the Hampton-Alexander Review and the Davies Review, all aimed at increasing focus on gender diversity at board and senior leadership level by Government, companies, and investors. This year the Review has looked beyond the FTSE 350 to examine the diversity in leadership at 50 of the largest private companies and partnerships.

Key findings include:

• FTSE 350 companies have already met the target of women holding on average 40% of board positions, three years earlier than the target of December 2025. Women hold 40.2% of board roles, up from only 9.5% in 2011. 77% of FTSE 100 companies have four or more women on their boards.
• This means the UK is second globally in terms of percentage of women on boards, behind only France which operates a quota system rather than the voluntary system in the UK.
• However, the number of women in executive director roles is lagging this, with only 13.8% across the FTSE 350.
• There has also been progress in the number of women in the executive committee and their direct reports. The FTSE 100 reported 29% women on the executive committee and 35% in direct reports, a combined percentage of 34.3% (2021: combined percentage of 32.5%). The FTSE 250 reported 26% women on the executive committee and 34% in direct reports, a combined percentage of 33% (2021: combined percentage of 30.7%).
• In respect of the four senior roles on the board, being Chair, Senior Independent Director, CEO and CFO, there has been progress in particular in the role of the SID where women now hold 37% of positions in the FTSE 100, perhaps setting the stage for more women taking on Chair roles in future.

The Review explains that over the next three years, the work is “to make sure women are not only at the board table, but also appointed in greater numbers to the four biggest roles, Chair, SID, CEO and Finance Director.” These are the roles companies will be required to report in their diversity statement under the FCA’s new Listing Rule, increasing the level of ongoing scrutiny.

The review notes that although the rate of appointing women to senior roles is rising, in 2022 almost six out of ten available roles still went to men.

In terms of the largest private companies, key findings include:

• 44 out of 50 companies approached to contribute data did so voluntarily.
• Although the representation of women on the boards of private companies stood on average at 31.8%, there is a greater range than in the FTSE 350. 19 boards reported either one or no women on the board, whilst almost a third had 40% or more women on the board.
• 32% of executive directors on the boards of these private companies were women.
• In terms of women’s representation in leadership, this stands at 34.3% which is encouraging and is at a similar level to FTSE 350 companies.

The report can be found here.

The Department for Business and Trade has also published a press release on the report’s launch.