Skip to content

12 July, 2025

  • Saved Articles
  • My Account
  • Subscribe
  • Log In
  • Log Out

Board Agenda

  • Governance
  • Strategy
  • Risk
  • Ethics
  • News
  • Insight
    • Categories

      • View all
      • Governance
      • Strategy
      • Risk
      • Ethics
      • Board Expertise
      • finance
      • Technology
    • EU sustainability

      Omnibus package must not undermine EU sustainability

      Now is the time for Europe to speed up green transition, rather than slow it...

    • high pay

      Pay gap transparency needs to be better

      It’s not unknown for a CEO to earn 500 times as much the median employee,...

    • executive pay

      Executive pay trends in 2025

      Opposition to remuneration reports has grown sharply, according to Georgeson’s analysis of voting outcomes in...

  • Comment
      • View all
    • EU sustainability

      Omnibus package must not undermine EU sustainability

      Now is the time for Europe to speed up green transition, rather than slow it...

    • high pay Pay gap transparency needs to be better

      It’s not unknown for a CEO to earn 500 times as much the median employee,...

    • future-proof governance levers How to future-proof your business

      For boards to bolster resilience and create value in a polycrisis, a combination of hard...

  • Interviews
      • View All Interviews
      • Podcasts
      • Webinars
    • UK Corporate Governance Code Board meetings ‘are not up to scratch’

      Nearly three-quarters of board members believe the board’s performance in meetings needs improvement, an expert...

    • financial sanctions Tariffs chaos drives boardroom focus on resilience

      Business leaders will prioritise the resilience of their organisations in the face of economic upheaval...

    • supply chain oversight Act now on supply chain oversight, boards warned

      Board directors need to critically engage with the business’s supply chain activity, a panel of...

  • Board Careers
  • Resource Centre
      • White Paper Downloads
      • Book Reviews
      • Board Advisory & Corporate Services
    • C-suite barometer: outlook 2025 – UK insights

      Forvis Mazars draws UK insights from its global study and looks at UK executives’ strategic...

    • Talent Management 2025 Mind Gym

      Talent Management in 2025

      From rethinking leadership to wrestling with AI, MindGym's report reveals the trends shaping talent strategies...

    • Korn Ferry CHRO 2025 (Copy)

      On The Highwire: Being a CHRO in 2025

      Korn Ferry surveyed 750 senior HR leaders (including 450 CHROs) to understand their key priorities...

  • Events
  • Search by topic
    • Governance
    • Strategy
    • Risk
    • Ethics
    • Regulation
    • ESG
    • Investor Relations
    • Careers
    • Board Expertise
    • finance
    • Technology

Hampton-Alexander report highlights lack of women on executive teams

by Gavin Hinks on February 24, 2021

With improved gender diversity on boards, the latest report from the Hampton-Alexander Review turns its attention to female leaders.

non-executive director

Image: GaudiLab/Shutterstock.com

The latest report from the Hampton-Alexander Review on the progress of women in UK boardrooms—with targets happily reached and exceeded—offers much to celebrate. But there is no mistaking its note of disappointment over the movement of women into leadership roles in executive teams.

The numbers speak for the themselves. Both the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 have reached their 2020 targets of 33% of board roles being occupied by women. But when it comes to women in executive and direct report positions, the latest Hampton-Alexander report shows that targets have been missed.

Women now occupy 36.2% of FTSE 100 boardroom positions, significantly up on 2017’s 27.7%. In the FTSE 250 the figure is 33.2%, up from 22.8%.

But the ascendancy of women to executive jobs and the tier below lags behind. The FTSE 100 fell short of 33% this year with 30.6%, up from 28.6% last year. For the FTSE 250 the comparable figures are 28.5% and 27.9%, a near standstill in terms of year-on-year progress.

According to Denise Wilson, chief executive of the Hampton-Alexander Review, gains have to be made in leadership roles.”The supply of capable experienced women is full-to-overflowing. It is now for business to fully utilise a talent pool of educated experienced women to their own benefit and that of the UK economy,” she says in an introduction to the report.

Sir Philip Hampton, one of the joint founders of the review, agrees that more women in executive roles is now required if the presence of women at the highests levels is to be maintained.

“The progress has been strongest with non-executive positions on boards, but the coming years should see many more women taking top executive roles. That’s what is needed to sustain the change made,” he says.

‘A re-doubling of efforts is needed’

The explanation is that while turnover in board positions has been high, at around 30%, the appointment rate of women to senior leadership has been relatively low—36% in the FTSE 100 and 34% in the FTSE 250.

With two-thirds of all available leadership opportunities handed to men that “in part explains slow progress overall”, the report says.

“Although the drive to increase women in leadership started later than the focus on boards, it is clear a re-doubling of efforts is needed, in particular in the FTSE 250,” the report adds. “There is more to do on executive committees, in key function roles—the financial director, the chief information officer and the all-important top job, the CEO.”

Those who have campaigned for improved representation on boards agree there is more to be done. Fiona Hathorn, chief executive of Women on Boards, says: “We now know that scrutiny and focus on diversity measurements can lead to significant progress.

“This is welcome, particularly as the alternative approach of mandatory quotas, being employed in some European countries and the US states has many drawbacks to my mind.

“However, now is no time to take our foot off the gas. New appointments are still majority male; female representation is far from where it needs to be in executive teams, and that is to say nothing of the inching progress of ethnic diversity.”

Leadership success stories

Some companies have fared better when it comes to finding women for leadership jobs. At Next, the fashion retailer, women occupy 53.8% of combined executive and direct report roles. Burberry, another fashion brand, is not far behind on 50.4%.

However, FTSE 250 real estate company Shaftsbury does even better, with 61.3% of women holding executive jobs or direct report roles.

The Hampton-Alexander report does not hold back from naming those who have done badly. Of those, mining giant Glencore scores worst, with just 10.6% of leadership jobs held by women.

On an international basis, the FTSE 100 is mid-table for boardrooms as a whole. France leads with women holding 43.8% of board jobs in the CAC 40. Norway’s OBX 25 is on 39.5%. Both France and Norway operate mandatory quotas. Germany’s DAX 30 trails the leading European countries with 30.2%.

Female representation on boards has been transformed in the years since 2010 when the Davis Review set a 25% target of women on boards. When the Hampton-Alexander Review was launched in 2016 representation was at 26.6%. The target of 33% overall has now been reached. But female representation among executive teams and their direct reports still has some way to go. While this may be the last year of the Hampton-Alexander review, there remains a job of work to be done.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • Mail

Related Posts

  • Women blocked from FTSE 100 CEO career path
    December 12, 2023
    ceo career path

    Nearly half of chief executives progress via the role of divisional head, but less than a fifth of divisional leads are female, study finds.

  • Parliamentarians push for more women execs
    October 24, 2023
    women execs

    An all-party parlimentary committee on ESG seeks a 40% target for female executives in the top 500 UK companies.

  • Women hold only 13.7% of executive director roles in FTSE 100
    February 24, 2022
    Businesswoman with tablet looks out over London

    While 37% of all board directors are now women, just six FTSE 100 companies have female CEOs—none of whom are from an ethnic minority group.

  • FRC report calls for more diversity on nominations committees
    July 22, 2021
    Business meeting

    Nominations committees must be more diverse themselves if they are to boost diversity in their organisations, says a report for the Financial Reporting Council.

Search


Follow Us

Register Free

Stay in the know! Register to access the latest governance news; plus receive updates about our events and podcasts – Sign up here

 

Most Popular

Featured Resources

wef global risks 2025

The Global Risks Report 2025

The 20th edition of the Global Risks Report reveals an increasingly fractured global...
Supply chain management cover

Strategic Oversight in Supply Chain Management: A Guide for Corporate Boards 2025

Supply chains have become complex, interdependent and opaque and—according to research...
OB-Cyber-Security

Cyber Security: What Boards Need to Know

Maintaining firewalls, protecting servers and filtering malicious emails rarely make...

The IA’S Principles Of Remuneration 2024 2025

This guidance from the Investment Association is aimed at assisting remuneration...
Diligent 2024 leadership tech cover

Leadership, decision-making & the role of technology: Business survey 2024

This research report by Board Agenda and Diligent sheds light on how board directors...

Director Reference Guide: Navigating Conflict in the Boardroom

The 'Director Reference Guide' on navigating conflict in the boardroom provides practical...
Nasdaq 2024 governance report cover

Nasdaq 2024 Global Governance Pulse

This Nasdaq survey gathered data from more than 870 board members, executives, and...

Becoming a non-executive director (4th edition)

Board composition is the subject of much debate, while the role of the non-executive...
art & science brainloop new cover

The Art & Science of Creating an Effective Board

Boards are coming under more scrutiny and pressure than ever before from regulators,...
SAA First time NED guide

First Time Guide for Non-Executive Directors

The role of the non-executive director has never been more vital: to advise, support,...

Register Free

Stay in the know! Register to access the latest governance news; plus receive updates about our events and podcasts. Register


  • Editors & Contributors
  • Editorial Advisory Board
  • Board Advisory & Corporate Services
  • Media Marketing Solutions
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Board Director Network
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
|

Copyright © 2025 Questor Media Group Ltd.

  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap