Companies Told Women Should Comprise Third Of Senior Directors By 2026

15 March 2019
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Dozens of companies, including Domino's Pizza, JD Sports and Greene King have been informed to put more females in their conference rooms.


The Investment Association, a financial sector trade body, and the government-backed Hampton-Alexander review wrote to 69 companies.


They have actually called on them to have 33% of their boards made up of women by 2020.


The review has actually threatened to brand them "red tops" as an alerting to financiers about their absence of .


They said it was "undesirable" that a person in five of the UK's most significant business in the FTSE 350 index are failing on gender diversity.


Of the firms singled out, 66 have just one female on their board, while three companies - residential or commercial property financier Daejan Holdings, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels and TR Property Investment Trust - have an all-male board.


'Unacceptable'


The Investment Association has 250 members which manage ₤ 7.7 tn in assets. Its boss Chris Cummings said that it is "inappropriate" that a person in 5 of the UK's greatest companies are failing on gender variety.


"Companies should do more than take the tokenistic step of selecting simply one female to their board and think about that job done.


"There is also compelling evidence that boards with greater gender balance surpass their less diverse peers," he said.


The Hampton-Alexander review was commissioned by the federal government in 2016 to handle business gender inequality and set targets for Britain's biggest companies.


Sir Philip Hampton, who chairs the evaluation, said the reality that business had actually failed to bring women into board rooms and into leadership positions "does not show the population of extremely gifted women efficient in making excellent contributions in boardrooms".


Rachel Reeves MP, chair of the company select committee, stated that the low number of women in executive positions can hinder development as gender pay spaces are greatest in sectors with few ladies executives.


She said: "The role of investors is crucial here too and they need to assert themselves to make sure that diversity is reflected more visibly at board level."


Other business on the list that just have one lady on their board consist of St James's Place, 888 Holdings, Just Group, Acacia Mining, Stobart, Restaurant Group and Softcat, to name a few.