Unlock Editor’s Digest Lock for Free
FT editor Roula Khalaf will select your favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
According to a government-backed campaign that supports women’s representation, the UK’s largest listed company aims to have 40% of women in the top executive role by 2025.
In a review of FTSE female leaders, 35.3% of female leadership roles (defined as executive committees and senior management positions below that level) were defined above the FTSE 350 in 2024, with a target of 40%. You can miss it. this year.
The UK’s biggest company is “within a notable distance” to achieve its target of increasing executive female representatives from 24.5% in 2017, but the pace of change has been “slow” and reviewed annually The report said Tuesday.
According to the report, the target said, “It may not be achieved until after 2025. The end of this year is the deadline for five years of reviews.
Companies are making better progress by increasing the number of women on the board. The campaign said 43.4% of the board of directors at FTSE 350 companies were held by women last year, up from 25% in 2015 to just 9.5% in 2011.
The FTSE Women Leaders Review was launched in 2021 as the successor to the Hampton-Alexander and Davies Reviews. In addition to increasing board targets, expanded authority was granted to look into the role of senior executives.
Women account for 32.7% of the role of the FTSE 100 Executive Committee, starting from 30.4% in 2023.
Marks and Spencer is the FTSE 100 company with the most women in its leadership team, followed by education company Pearson and retailer.
Meanwhile, the Mining Group Frezniro and Game Workshop Group ranks the fantasy game Warhammer as the lowest percentage of women in leadership roles.
“There was a push through many initiatives to reach this mark. The optics look good, but there are still some real challenges,” said Pavita Cooper, chairman of 30% Club UK. states. Executives that increase gender diversity at the board of directors and senior management levels. “Women aren’t playing the right role to move on to get top jobs.”
Cooper said women in executive committee roles often carry out “support” functions such as compliance and HR, rather than owning the entire finances and business sector, leading to a “power gap.” I added.
The report, published separately by headhunter Russell Reynolds Associates on Tuesday, shows that female leaders face “double bindings” when they do top jobs.
“That’s really an obvious double standard,” said Laura Sanderson, co-head of Europe, the Middle East and India at Russell Reynolds.
The report examines more than 20,000 news stories covering nearly 750 chief executives of the FTSE 100, S&P 500 and EuroNext 100 companies, and includes commentary from analysts, shareholders and policymakers, and includes women’s claims that it is more negatively perceived by the public.
“Society often expects women in leadership to walk the tightrope between being seen as capable.
Russell Reynolds’ report, which shows women represent just 11% of the total appointments of CEOs and 6% of CEOs in 2024 in 2024, attracting media attention I discovered that it was.
The female CEOs received 1.25 times more mentions than men when they left the role, and attracted 1.7 times more attention, due to the number of articles. About 18% of the stories about male CEO departures were negative, but for women it was 28%.
