Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps her Department is taking to tackle gender-bias as a barrier to leadership progression for women.

The Government is committed to supporting women to thrive in all areas of their lives.

Supporting women into leadership is vital to the economy. This is why the government has recently refreshed the Women’s Business Council (WBC) which works to maximise women’s potential in the workplace. It is a government-backed, business-led initiative which reports to the Minister for Women and Equalities. The WBC’s members are senior leaders who strive to boost women’s representation in the workplace, helping to boost productivity, innovation and leadership.

The Government also backs the independent, business-led FTSE Women Leaders Review which sets recommendations for Britain’s biggest companies to improve the representation of women on their boards and leadership teams. The scope of the Review covers the FTSE 350 and 50 of the UK’s biggest private companies. The FTSE Women Leaders Review report for 2025 shows that women now occupy 1,275 or 43% of roles on company boards and 6,743 (35%) of leadership roles at the 350 FTSE companies. This marks a year-on-year increase and means the target of 40% women’s representation by the end of this year continues to be achieved by FTSE350 businesses

The government is committed to commencing the Equality Act 2010’s provision requiring registered political parties to publish anonymised data relating to the diversity of their candidate selections. We are currently exploring when and how to commence the provision under section 106. Officials are also engaging with civic society on how to improve the participation of women and girls in politics.