Boards may have to hire more women
FTSE 100 companies could be forced to appoint morewomen to their boards under proposals being considered by Lord Davies, the former business minister.
Lord Davies, who has been looking into why men still hold most of business’ top positions, is considering a quota of up to 40 per cent in the boardrooms of FTSE 100 companies in a bid to more than double the female presence.
Cranfield business school data show 12 per cent of directors in boardrooms are women.
The former chairman and chief executive of Standard Chartered, said this weekend he was considering a range of options.
Davies, who will make recommendations to the government that will be turned into a “business strategy” by February, told the Sunday Times: “There is a range of options. One of them is to bring in a direct quota or a timeline that leads to a quota. My view is that to say 20 per cent of people on a board should be women is not enough. It has to be 30 per cent to 40 per cent to make a real change.”
Earlier this year France introduced a new bill, which will force the country’s biggest firms to have boards which are at least 40 per cent female.