February 6 2007 - An Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) survey has found that women
make up just 10 per cent of directors of FTSE 100 companies and barely 20 per cent of members of parliament.
Sex and Power: Who Runs Britain? 2007 is the last annual survey of senior women in the public and
private sectors before the EOC is disbanded in autumn 2007 after 30 years. The report describes the pace of change as "painfully slow" and found some examples of it going into reverse.
The survey found that ethnic minority women are particularly poorly represented at the top. They make up 5.2 per cent of the population and 3.9 per cent of the labour market. While this growing percentage is increasingly well-qualified, ethnic minority women account for just 0.4 per cent of FTSE 100 directors and 0.3 per cent of parliamentarians. An EOC survey of employers in areas with above average black and Asian populations found that two-thirds of those who employed women from these communities had none in senior roles.
To illustrate the ongoing challenge of the glass ceiling, the EOC has calculated that nearly 6000 women are 'missing' from the total of more than 33 000 top positions included in the survey.
These include:
- 78 from 194 senior judges
- 101 from 269 senior police officers
- 162 from 449 local government council leaders
- 197 from 646 parliamentarians
- 217 from 914 top managers in the civil service
- 233 from 751 members of the House of Lords
- 448 from 1130 directorships in FTSE 100 companies
- 3067 from 21 103 public appointments
Jenny Watson, chair of the EOC, said that the findings:
"... show just how slow the pace of change has been in powerful British institutions. They suggest it's time not just to send out the head-hunters to find some of those 'missing women', but to address the barriers that stand in their way. Thirty years on from the Sex Discrimination Act, women rightly expect to share power. But as our survey shows, that's not the reality.
"We all pay the price when Britain's boardrooms and elected chambers are unrepresentative. Our democracy and local communities will be stronger if women from different backgrounds are able to enjoy an equal voice. In business, no one can afford to fish in half the talent pool in today's intensely competitive world.
"As the EOC enters its final year, we are calling for change to make it possible for men and women to share power in the future. Asking for flexible working still spells career death for too many women in today's workplace, and as a consequence women with caring responsibilities all too often have to 'trade down' to keep working. Extending the right to ask for flexible working to everyone in the workplace would change that culture and enable more women to reach the top. And political parties need to continue to take full advantage of the laws that allow positive action to enable more women to be selected as candidates at national level to ensure that the progress made here doesn't go into reverse."
The EOC is calling for:
- The extension of the right to request flexible working to all and the availability of more high-quality, well-paid flexible and part-time work at higher levels.
- Political parties to continue to take positive action before the next election to improve women's representation.
- This year's survey shows that women are only 10 per cent of the senior judiciary, 10 per cent of directors at FTSE 100 companies, 12 per cent of senior police officers, 14 percent of local authority council leaders, 17 per cent of editors of national newspaper, and 20 per cent of MPs (with only two ethnic minority women).
- While women are reaching 'critical mass' in some areas, including as heads of professional bodies (33 per cent) and national arts organisations (33 per cent), in most fields the pace of change remains painfully slow and there has been little change since the EOC first published the survey three years ago.
- The EOC has calculated that at the current rate of progress, it will take another 20 years to achieve equality in the civil service top management, 40 years to achieve an equal number of senior women in the judiciary, 60 years to achieve an equal number of female directors at FTSE 100 companies (up from last year's projection of 40 years due to this year's decline in female FTSE directors), and up to 200 years - another 40 elections - to achieve an equal number of women in Parliament.
- The UK currently ranks 59th in terms of women's representation in Parliament, and is out performed by Rwanda, Afghanistan and Iraq.
- This year's survey marks the final Sex and Power the EOC will produce before it is absorbed into the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) in Autumn 2007. As it will be well placed to not only look at women's representation, but the extent to which women at the top are diverse (including ethnic minorities), the EOC hopes the CEHR will continue to press for change and continue to publish statistics about Who Runs Britain.
