DIVERSITY


Not just US The UK is not alone in facing severe gender gaps that are in danger of worsening. Figures for 2015 collected by US campaigning organisation Catalyst show that progress has stalled in US boardrooms, too. Catalyst’s annual survey of S&P 500 companies found the number


of women holding board positions unchanged in 2015 from its 2014 level. Women held 19.9 per cent of board roles in 2015, and were appointed into 26.9 per cent of new directorships. “Our new 2015 Catalyst Census: Women and Men Board Directors


shows little progress has been made at the board level, and even less progress has been made in the pipeline for women officers and directors,” said Deborah Gillis, president and CEO of Catalyst, when the latest research was unveiled in June. “Men continue to be overrepresented, holding more than their fair share of board seats and, in some cases, all the board seats.”


EU too Further building the evidence base around progress and challenges at country level, the European Women on Boards (EWoB) network released the findings of its five-year study in April. Realizing Europe’s Potential: Progress and Challenges revealed


that, while female directorships in the EU’s 600 largest firms had increased from 13.9 per cent to 25 per cent over this period, the trends driving growth were not delivering sustainable change. Among the STOXX 600 enterprises it surveyed, the report


found that the trend towards greater gender diversity on boards had been driven “in particular” by women “materially increasing their presence as independent non-executive directors”, said Marie- Ange Andrieux, co-chair of the EWoB and co-leader of the study. Rachel Davis, deputy CEO of Armstrong Craven, a global talent


consultancy, reflected this observation in relation to the UK’s latest female senior representation data in August. “The figures did not paint a true picture, as the vast majority of the female roles were non-executive and often the same group of successful women were holding positions on a number of different boards. “It is also the case that a large proportion of the female executive


board roles are either HR director or company secretary, rather than the full breadth of executive positions.” Dr Ruth Sealy, senior lecturer at City University and Female


FTSE Board Report 2016 co-author, said, “For change to be sustainable, we must focus on the pipeline and ensure progress through senior management ranks. Only 19.4 per cent of FTSE 100 executive committee members are women, and women hold only 10 per cent of the most import senior executive and operational roles on these committees.”


Going beyond the quick win The findings suggest that, while the quota or informal target approach has paid dividends in some respects, it has failed to increase the talent pipeline consistently. These factors also explain the persistent gender pay gap, particularly for women educated to higher levels. Commenting on why the gender pay gap is still an issue, Chris


Rowley, professor of human resource management at Cass Business School, said, “The Equal Pay Act has been in effect for over four years,


and successive governments’ initiatives have tried to deal with the underlying issues of unequal pay – initiatives such as flexible working, improving part-time worker rights, more-affordable childcare, and shared parental leave – in response to concerns childcare responsibilities impact on female careers. “These actions will be joined by upcoming rules forcing larger


employers to analyse and publish pay gaps, as transparency is a great driver of equality.” Professor Rowley also highlighted continuing gender imbalance


in senior posts and promotions, which, he said, was due to poor ‘signalling’ of success for female directors and structural issues. “This signalling,” he explained, “comes in the form of networks and nomination-process bias, role-model and mentor shortages, work- family balance, legal ambiguity and policies, and cognitive behaviour.” Concluded Professor Rowley, “Research shows gender diversity


actually delivers better financial results, organisational cultures and decision-making. The benefits of part-time working should be recognised, measured and rewarded better by management, in terms of pay and supporting career paths and patterns that are not the typical ‘linear’ ones.” The European Women on Boards study echoes findings from


global human resources consulting company Mercer’s latest analysis of gender diversity at senior roles across 42 countries. Published in February after its launch at the Davos World Economic Forum, the research, based on 600 companies, pointed to weak female talent pipelines as a key factor in delivering on targets rather than making sustainable change. Alongside female representation at middle management levels, it


found that culture and female presence in senior commercial profit- and-loss roles were key indicators of better long-term gender-parity performance. Mercer’s study also found that, globally, women were one-and-


a-half times more likely than men to be hired at executive level. However, they were leaving organisations from the highest rank at 1.3 times the rate of men. This not only undermines gains at the top, but also suggests that organisational cultures need to change and adapt.


Closing the gaps for good Latin America topped Mercer’s global ranking for engagement of middle managers on diversity and inclusion, as well as women occupying above-global-average levels of profit-and-loss roles (47 per cent, compared with 28 per cent globally). It is also the region that is going to come close, all things being


equal, to gender parity by 2025, according to Mercer’s analysis. Taken together, the increasing weight of evidence available globally


suggests that the pressure on the glass ceiling is mounting. Cracks are beginning to appear, but it has yet to shatter completely. The data also suggests that, if employers and leaders truly


get behind the issue, turn up the heat, and make fundamental changes across workplace culture, mindsets, data capture and talent development, as well as learning lessons from across national borders, real change will come.


36 | Re:locate | Autumn 2016


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