Women making great strides in boardroom diversity

The news comes two years after Lord Davies? Report ?Women on Boards?, which recommended that FTSE 100 boards should aim for a minimum of 25 percent female representation by 2015.
Women have long been underrepresented in the higher echelons of management and in the boardroom; organisations with women in top positions see the business benefits of increasing the number of women on boards. The Financial Skills Partnership (FSP) introduced a training programme called Through the Glass Ceiling, aimed at developing leadership skills among women managers as part of a wider initiative recently launched called Leadership 21st Century.

Liz Field (pictured), CEO of the Financial Skills Partnership, explains: ?The advantage of increasing the number of women on boards is clear; boards perform far better if people come from a range of diverse backgrounds. It is very important to work with business leaders to create avenues of growth to help lead a new generation of women to top boardroom positions.

?While there has been a significant increase in the number of women on boards since the Lord Davies Report was published, the UK hasn?t yet reached the level the report recommends be achieved by 2015, of 25 percent. Many businesses could still do more to ensure they attract and recruit board directors from a wider pool, improving gender representation and other forms of diversity on their boards.?

One such business is the William Hill Group. The UK bookmaker took home top awards at the the Financial Mail on Sunday?s Breaking the Mould awards, held in association with the Thirty Per Cent Club, a group of bosses committed to getting more women into boardrooms.
The awards were set up to celebrate those companies doing the most to create a pipeline of female leaders of the future, and William Hill secured a victory in the Medium Corporation Category at the inaugural ceremony. After making the shortlist back in December, it beat off beat off tough competition in the final to take the FTSE 250 award and joined Vodafone, BAE Systems, and the Bank of England, who also picked up category awards.