Subscribe to RSS
Female leaders in the UK’s biggest firms are three times more likely than their male counterparts to have degrees from either Russell Group or Ivy League universities.
That’s according to preliminary findings from The Leadership 10k1 report from executive search firm Green Park, which found that 76% of the total employees in top 20 positions across the FTSE 100 who graduated from a Russell Group university are female, while 70% of leaders who graduated from an Ivy League university are female. Overall, this means that women are three times more likely to need a qualification from a prestigious university to gain a board position in the UK than men.
Further findings from The Leadership 10k show that while efforts by FTSE 100 companies to increase their number of female non-executive directors continues to show noticeable results, there is a further decline in the number of female executive directors in a board position. Just over a third (35%) of non-executive directors are women compared to 10% of executive directors.
When examining the diversity of the top 20 positions of each of the FTSE 100 organisations, utilities remains the most female-friendly sector with significant growth in the number of senior female employees (32.9%). For the second consecutive year, the health sector has seen a decline in the number of senior female employees at this level. Technology, engineering, consumer goods, construction and property, media and natural resources are all sectors that have shown significant improvements.
Raj Tulsiani, Co-founder and CEO of Green Park, said: “It’s encouraging to see further progress towards gender diversity on the boards of our biggest companies.
“However, the fact that the vast majority of leaders with an education from Russell Group or Ivy League universities were women shows that female leaders need to achieve more than men before they even start their careers. We must work harder to improve holistic gender equality in business.”
Print
Email
