LONDON, March 1 — Britain’s biggest-listed companies together have boards consisting of 40 per cent women, hitting a government-backed target three years early, a survey showed yesterday.
Nearly half of board positions at the 350 biggest companies trading on the London FTSE stock market were held by women at the end of last year.
This exceeded a 2025 voluntary target set by the FTSE Women Leaders Review.
Some firms had more women board members than men, including at mobile phone giant Vodafone and fast-food chain Greggs, the report showed.
It also had Britain in second place behind France when compared internationally with 11 countries seeking to improve gender balance in boardrooms.
“I’m pleased to see that FTSE 350 companies have surpassed this target, showing that change doesn’t always require top-down interventions but can occur when everyone is pushing in the same direction,” said Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative government’s women and equalities minister.
“This progress is very welcome, and I’d urge business to keep up this momentum to achieve better balance in leadership positions as well as in boardrooms.”
Only nine per cent of companies on London’s top-tier FTSE 100 index have women chief executives, including Alison Rose at NatWest bank and Emma Walmsley, head of pharmaceuticals group GlaxoSmithKline. — AFP
