By Lars Mucklejohn
The UK is more than a century away from achieving parity between male and female FTSE 100 chiefs, according to new research, as Britain lags behind its international peers.
Using current appointment trends across 12 stock indexes, advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates projected it would take 81 years to reach global gender parity among top bosses, with 87 per cent of CEO appointments going to men in 2023.
The FTSE 100 is set to take 117 years to reach gender balance, compared to 59 years for the US’ benchmark S&P 500, according to the study.
It added that France’s Cac 40 could be 17 years away, while markets like Germany’s Dax may never reach gender parity.
Figures published by EY last week showed the UK had slumped well behind European peers in appointing women to senior roles, with the number falling 28 per cent between 2022 and 2023.
Meanwhile, dozens of women have told the Treasury watchdog’s sexism in the City inquiry that the Square Mile remains an “old boys’ club” with inadequate systems for reporting sexual harassment.
Aviva chief Amanda Blanc, one of the few female bosses of a UK blue-chip company, told the inquiry last month that she had heard from “hundreds” of women describing their experiences of misogyny while working in the financial sector.
“Though 2023 saw more women appointed to the CEO role globally than ever before, the rate of change is still too slow if we are going to get to parity in a reasonable time frame,” said Laura Sanderson, UK lead at Russell Reynolds Associates.
“Last year, we saw women CEOs being fired at a much higher rate than their male counterparts. Today’s CEOs are expected to be more of a public figure than ever before, and the relative scarcity of female CEOs automatically gives them a higher degree of prominence.”
