Women on Boards: as the public and third sectors do better than PLCs, is there anything to worry about?

In November I blogged on the possibility that Lord Davies’s independent review into Women on Boards would recommend mandatory quotas for boardrooms. Yesterday, Lord Davies’ report was launched; I opens with the bald fact: at the current rate of change it will take over 70 years to achieve gender-balanced boardrooms in the UK. However, his report does not recommend quotas. It recommends that FTSE 100 companies should be setting their own targets for a minimum of 25% female board member representation by 2015.

Lord Davies’ report also recommends that the Financial Reporting Council should amend the UK Corporate Governance Code to require listed companies to establish a policy concerning boardroom diversity. This would include how they would implement such a policy and require an annual disclosure summarising progress made.

Corporate Governance Code requirements usually flow through to the governance codes and requirements in the public and third sectors. Targets of 25% would not make sense in many organisations where women are well represented. (Last week I was presenting at a housing conference. When I started talking about gender balance on boards, one of the seminar participants pointed out that housing associations do much better than the 7.8% figure for women on the boards of FSE250 companies.)

While sectors such as housing associations may do better but there is no room for complacency when 37% of board members are women and only 21% of board chairs and chief executives.