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Women have failed to make an impression among the elite group of rich and powerful people who control Britain's boardrooms and public bodies, according to a disturbing report published today by the UK's Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC).
Thirty years after women won the right to equal treatment at work the so-called 'glass ceiling' remains impenetrable to 6,000 women politicians, judges, and company executives leading to a worrying waste of female talent.
Unless there is a dramatic change in recurutiment and promotion of women it will take 200 years to achieve an equal number of women in parliament, 60 years to win parity in FTSE 100 boardrooms and 40 years to reach equality among the senior judiciary.
Women make up just 10 per cent of directors of FTSE 100 companies and barely 20 per cent of Parliament, according to Sex and Power: Who Runs Britain? 2007, an influential survey looking at women in senior positions across the public and private sector.
The report warns the pace of change at the top in many areas remains painfully slow, and in some cases has even gone into reverse - despite the massive growth of women in work and public life.
If the 'glass ceiling' is to be shattered the EOC has calculated that nearly 6,000 women must find positions among the 33,000 top posts across the public and private sector included in the survey.
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." The EOC warns that the absence of women in key decision making posts means that democracy is at risk.
Ms Watson: "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."
The report says that at the very top, ethnic minority women are especially under represented, accounting for just 0.4 per cent of FTSE 100 directors and 0.3 per cent of Parliamentarians.
Ethnic minority women account for 5.2 per cent of the population and 3.9 per cent of the labour market and this percentage is growing and increasingly well qualified.
Yet, an EOC survey of employers in local labour markets with above average black and Asian populations found that two-thirds of those who employ black or Asian women had none in senior roles.
The counter the problem the EOC is calling for an extension of the right to request flexible working to all and the availability of more high-quality, well-paid flexible and part-time work at higher levels.
"Extending the right to ask for flexible working to everyone in the workplace would change that culture and enable more women to reach the top. And political parties need to continue to take full advantage of the laws that allow positive action to enable more women to be selected as candidates at national level to ensure that the progress made here doesn't go into reverse," says Ms Watson.
The EOC also wants Britain's political parties to continue to take positive action before the next election to improve women's representation.
- INDEPENDENT
