Partner Article

Glass ceiling 'still in place'

There are still not enough women in the influential worlds of business and politics, according to a report from the Equal Opportunities Commission. According to the figures, women make up just 10% of directors in the UK’s top 100 companies, and 20% of MPs.

The commission believes that 6,000 women are “missing” from top positions in industry and public life. It said that the pace of change at the top in many areas of British life remains “painfully slow” and in some cases has gone into reverse, despite a huge increase in the numbers of women in work. The EOC said that to break the “glass ceiling” holding back women, thousands more female judges, senior police officers, council leaders, MPs, House of Lords members and company directors should be appointed.

Jenny Watson, Chair of the EOC, said: “Today’s troubling findings show just how slow the pace of change has been in powerful British institutions. They suggest it’s time not just to send out the head-hunters to find some of those ‘missing women’, but to address the barriers that stand in their way. Thirty years on from the Sex Discrimination Act, women rightly expect to share power. But as our survey shows, that’s not the reality. “We all pay the price when Britain’s boardrooms and elected chambers are unrepresentative. Our democracy and local communities will be stronger if women from different backgrounds are able to enjoy an equal voice. In business, no one can afford to fish in half the talent pool in today’s intensely competitive world.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .