Significant milestone
The traditional, all-male FTSE 100 board has finally been consigned to the history books with Glencore's appointment of Patrice Merrin, a Canadian former mining executive, as a non-executive director. The proportion of FTSE 100 board directors who are female has risen from 12.5% in 2011 to 21.6% this year.
One in five FTSE 100 board directors is female
Writing in
The Telegraph, Helena Morrissey CBE describes Merrin's appointment as a significant milestone, not just for those campaigning for better gender balance, but as an indicator of a broader shift in mindsets since the financial crisis.
Morrissey, who is Chief Executive of Newton Investment Management and Chair of the Investment Management Association (IMA), as well as founder of the 30% Club (launched in 2010 with a goal of 30% women on FTSE 100 boards by end 2015), said: "Just as boards comprised entirely of men now look strangely retro, smart forward-looking companies are adjusting other aspects of their culture
– in tune with what society now expects from the corporate world." The Telegraph opinion piece Victory for self-regulation
The milestone shows the virtues of self-regulation, writes
Financial Times columnist Mrs Moneypenny. "The relentless progress from 21 female-free FTSE 100 boards in 2010 to zero was achieved without legislation," she said.
Mrs Moneypenny praises the recent launch of the Davies FTSE 350 Accreditation Process, a voluntary code of conduct for executive recruitment firms that recognises firms that achieve a higher level of female appointments to FTSE 350 boards. The criteria for accreditation include recruitment firms that have supported the appointment of at least four women to the boards of FTSE 350 companies over the last year. In 2011, Lord Davies, on behalf of the Government, set FTSE 100 boards a target of 25% female representation by 2015.
"This new accreditation process is another step on the road to real change without needing more laws, and I applaud it," said Mrs Moneypenny.
Financial Times article (paid subscription required) A long way to goTrue equality for women in the boardroom remains a long way off, blogs Fiona Hotston Moore in
The Huffington Post.
Hotson Moore, a senior partner with accountancy practice Ensors, wrote: "Before we string out the bunting it is worth noting that the arrival of Patrice Merrin to the top table is in a non-executive role. In other words, one without real power or responsibility."
She points out that, on the same day, research commissioned by wealth management firm Bestinvest found that only 7% of funds are run by women.
"There is what psychologists describe as 'unconscious bias' governing a behaviour which is proving a drag on equality," said Hotson Moore. "I have routinely had to challenge decisions made about the careers of women which have been based on assumptions about their life choices, not evidence."
She calls for the introduction of quotas to force boards and executive recruitment agencies to tackle the problem.
HuffPost blog Against quotasDame Stephanie Shirley, however, does not think quotas are the answer. "I don't want to be considered for something because I'm a woman. I want to be measured by the same criteria as men," she told the Telegraph Ways With Words festival.
The retired business leader and philanthropist claims working women can no longer complain about legal discrimination, and that this generation of women is "lucky" compared with those before them. The peer urged women to learn to work within the culture of business and change it.
"There's very little in this country that is legally overtly discriminatory. It's all cultural issues that you cannot legislate against," said Dame Stephanie. "We as women and individuals have to learn to work within that culture and perhaps to change that culture."
The Telegraph article
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