Abstract:

The benefits of gender diversity on boards and within senior management are well known. In the Davies Report, published in 2011, Lord Davies recommended that companies focus on increasing gender diversity within their companies, and in particular, improving access to board positions for women. This gender disparity continues amongst many Fortune 500 companies. It has been well documented that increased boards with increased gender diversity experience stronger growth and better profitability than boards lacking gender diversity. There are many ways in which companies can aim to increase gender diversity, ranging targeted training programmes and mentoring schemes for high-potential women to quotas on percentages of women represented on boards. In order for any of these methods to have any impact, attitudes towards women in senior positions and attitudes women hold themselves should evolve to widen access for women to senior positions. This submission seeks to look at what attitudes are standing in the way of gender diversification and what we stand to lose if this is not addressed.