Report shows more women needed in senior business roles

A new report has shown that the UK's push for gender equality in top business jobs has slowed down.

According to research published by The Pipeline, there are not enough women occupying senior executive roles on committees and corporate boards. Since April, the number of women in roles such as these has stalled at sixteen percent. The number of companies with no women on their executive committees has actually risen since last year. The damning report comes after a push by the British government to encourage more female representation in the top jobs of the corporate world. The numbers of women in positions such as these has in fact dropped from thirty-eight percent to thirty-five percent since this time last year. Not only would a greater gender balance encourage more women to apply for these jobs, but it would also mean greater financial success for these companies. According to recommendations put forward by The Pipeline, the more women there are in senior managerial roles, the more profitable the company is.

"Adding one more woman in senior management or on a corporate board, while keeping the size of the board unchanged, is associated with 8 to 13 basis points higher return on assets."

Similarly, the companies that are embracing gender equality in the workplace are more likely to have high financial returns, according to the group. The study also found that once in senior executive roles, women have a tendency to promote more women to other senior positions over men. This would further bridge the gap between men occupying far more senior positions than women in the financial world. The report recommends that by 2020, FTSE 350 companies should have at least thirty-three percent female representation on their boards. It also asks that companies voluntarily publish the numbers of women in high positions every year.