HR Industry News

Women still missing from top jobs

— 7 March 2007 —

Women are still not getting top jobs in the UK – according to a new study by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC).

In its report, Sex and Power: Who Runs Britain? 2007 the EOC describes the pace of change as painfully slow and highlights only 10% of women are directors of FTSE 100 companies and 20% are MPs.

The chair of the EOC, Jenny Watson, said that the findings show just how slow the pace of change has been in powerful British institutions. And, thirty years on from the Sex Discrimination Act, she said women rightly expect to share power, but as its survey shows, that is still not the reality.

Its research calculated that nearly 6,000 women are missing from the total of more than 33,000 top positions in the public and private sectors. The survey found that ethnic minority women are particularly poorly represented at the top with just 0.4 per cent of FTSE 100 directors and 0.3 per cent of parliamentarians.

This report is the last annual survey of senior women before the EOC is disbanded in autumn 2007 after 30 years.

This report has highlighted the painfully slow progress of government and organisations to create a culture of diversity that supports women in the workplace. Working life and the structures of work have been built around men, and until organisations develop flexible working cultures which acknowledge and support the needs of working mothers, women will continue to be underrepresented and marginalised at higher levels.

James Slater, LifeWorks Project Director at Ceridian UK Ltd.

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