Women: Board Membership

Baroness Seccombe Excerpts
Monday 10th March 2014

(10 years, 8 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Asked by
Baroness Seccombe Portrait Baroness Seccombe
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To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they are making towards their target of 25% of the membership of FTSE 100 company boards being women by 2015.

Baroness Northover Portrait Baroness Northover (LD)
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My Lords, women now account for 20.4% of board members in FTSE 100 companies. That is the figure from January 2014, which is up from 12.5% in February 2011. Although the figures are going in the right direction, we need to keep up progress to reach the 25% target. We need 50 new female directors to be appointed to FTSE 100 companies in order to reach the 2015 target.

Baroness Seccombe Portrait Baroness Seccombe (Con)
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My Lords, that is most encouraging news, but there is still a way to go to reach that 25%. Does my noble friend agree that independent and individual mentoring has helped to achieve this success? I am sure that we all know women who should have been appointed in the past but were always passed over.

Baroness Northover Portrait Baroness Northover
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I thank my noble friend for her encouraging comments. I am sure that mentoring has indeed helped, and I think that transparency and pressure have helped as well.