Women in Business

Figures from 2008 relating to FTSE 100 companies show that:

• 11.7 per cent (131) of directorships are held by women
• 4.8 (17) per cent of executive directorships are held by women
• 14.9 (114)per cent of non-executive directorships are held by women
• 5 Chief Executive Officers are women
• 8 women directors come from minority ethnic groups, none of these are executive directors
• There are 113 women holding directorships
• 86 per cent of these occupy 1 seat, 11 per cent occupy 2 seats, 2 per cent occupy 3 seats, and 1 per cent occupy 4 seats
• The average age of a woman director is 54 compared to 57 for a male director
• 16 companies have female executive directors – an increase of 3 from the previous year
• 78 companies have at least one female director
• 39 companies have more than one female director
• 22 companies still have fully male boards.
• The Alliance Trust is the first company to have both a woman Chair and a woman CEO The Alliance Trust has the highest percentage of women on its board with women constituting 43 per cent of its members. AMEC is second with 33 per cent and Marks & Spencer is third with 33 per cent
• Of the 149 appointments made only 10.7 per cent (16) were women, 12 of these had not previously held directorships in FTSE 100 companies

Self-employed women in 2008:

• 28.8 per cent of self-employed people were women compared to 28.3 per cent in 2000.
• The highest proportion increase has been in Scotland where it increased by more than 40 per cent A significant amount of the increase in self-employed women is due to part-time self-employment

What’s going on internationally?

In January 2008 it became mandatory for Norwegian corporate boards to comprise of at least 40 per cent women.

Sources: The Female FTSE Report 2008, Women in Business (Office of National Statistics).