The Independent – UK Boards Fighting First-Time Dip in Gender Diversity

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The Independent – UK Boards Fighting First-Time Dip in Gender Diversity

Just 29 percent of new UK board recruits were women in 2016, down from 32.1 percent in 2014 and 31.6 percent in 2012, reports The Independent, citing Egon Zehnder’s Global Board Diversity Analysis 2016. This marks the first time that the rate of improvement in gender diversity has declined in the UK since Egon Zender began collecting data in 2004. The analysis also revealed that the number of women on executive committees of FTSE 100 companies has also stagnated since 2015. Commenting on the results, Egon Zehnder’s CEO Rajeev Vasudeva said: “The momentum for achieving gender parity is simply not occurring at the pace of progress required.” Globally, there is an equally strong imbalance in executive roles: just 4 percent of chief executives and 11 percent of chief financial officers were women in 2016.

Full story: Ben Chapman: UK companies are recruiting fewer women to boardrooms as gender diversity progress stalls for first time in The Independent (7 February 2017).

Access international media coverage of Egon Zehnder's 2016 Global Board Diversity Analysis