Ratio of women to men on public company boards held down by newcomers to the stock market
The ratio of women to men in UK boardrooms is being kept down by newcomers to the stock market, according to a study by online daily news service Financial News.
Women account for only 11.5 percent of the directors of the 17 companies that held IPOs in the UK last year, the study notes. By comparison, women account for 20.4 percent of directors of FTSE 100 companies and 15.1 percent of directors of FTSE 250 companies. Half the boards of companies that launched IPOs in the UK last year had no female non-executive directors and one in three had no female members at all, the study adds.
If the statistics hold true this year, the overall ratio of women to men on public companies could grow even more slowly in 2014, despite efforts in the UK and Europe to boost it, as the number of IPOs in the UK and worldwide is expected to rise this year thanks to the budding economic recovery.
In the UK the Davies Steering Committee pushes for a minimum female-male boardroom ratio of 25 percent/75 percent, while the European Commission proposal that may reach the European Parliament this year would see women accounting for a minimum of 40 percent of the boards of large public companies.
The percentage of women on UK boards has increased steadily in recent years, but a 2013 report by recruitment agency Spencer Stuart cites a dearth of women in the executive pipeline. ‘While there is progress in the number of female non-executive directors, the number of women reaching the upper echelons of executive management – an important source of potential non-executives – continues to cause concern,’ the report states.
A rise in IPOs of companies with boards that are heavily dominated by men could further lower the prospects of female senior executives holding non-executive positions on an outside board.
