MPs move ahead with proposals for all-female short-lists for business roles

11th Apr 2014 10:55

UK MPs have taken a step forward with proposals to gain legal clarification on all-female short-lists for business positions in a bid to boost the number of women in Britain's boardrooms. A letter has reportedly been sent to the government's equality body calling for a ruling on whether the proposal would be legal, according to Sky News. The UK's Equality Minister, Jenny Willott, said clarification on the issue "should help make the recruitment process easier" for companies and executive search firms. "In turn, it could also help enable businesses to increase gender diversity on their boards and could be vital in helping us achieve the 25% target for women on boards of FTSE 100 companies by 2015."Currently, just two out of Britain's top 100-listed companies are chaired by women, namely Shire and Land Securities, while Glencore Xstrata's board doesn't include a single female member. The five chief executive positions on the FTSE 100 currently occupied by women is set to soon fall to four when Burberry's Angela Ahrendts departs. The drive to improve the situation comes as part of the government's scheme to increase the representation of women on corporate boards.Citing evidence that companies with a strong female representation at board and top management level perform better than those without, in 2011 it called for FTSE 100 boards to aim for a minimum of 25% female representation by 2015. At the time of the target setting, when the percentage of women on FTSE 100 boards was just 12.5%, the government said it would have taken 70 years to achieve gender-balanced boardrooms in the UK at the then rate of change. NR