Concerns continue to be raised about the number of female executives at the top of British business after the latest update on progress towards the government's target of a quarter of the seats in the UK's biggest boardrooms being held by women.
The business secretary, Vince Cable, said appointing non-executive directors was "not an end in itself" as data shows that the main area of progress is in non-executive appointments, with much slower improvement in executive posts.
The latest half-yearly report on the target set by Lord Davies for FTSE 100 boards to be 25% female by 2015 shows that the proportion of women has increased to 19%, up from 12.5% when the former banker first reported in February 2011.
Data compiled for the government by Professional Boards Forum BoardWatch shows the proportion of non-executive directors has reached nearly 24% – within a whisker of the Davies target and up from 15.6%. But the proportion of women holding executive positions at FTSE 100 companies is 6.1%, compared with 5.5% when the target was set. The number of all-male boards in the FTSE 100 has risen to six in the past six months, although there were 21 all-male boards when the target was set.
Despite the disparity between non-executive and executive appointments, Cable said the overall total was encouraging. "We have until 2015 to reach our target of 25% of women on the boards of listed companies which Lord Davies set us two years ago. With today's encouraging figures, I am confident we can get over the finish line. But appointing more women as non-executive directors is not an end in itself. This is about more talented women getting executive experience, so that they will not only advise but run this country's great companies," he said.
Heather Jackson, founder of the Women's Business Forum, which holds its fourth meeting this week, said: "Simply putting women on boards is a short-term, cosmetic solution. What we really need to be concentrating on is fixing and developing the leaking pipeline of female talent at middle management."
In the FTSE 250, the rung below the FTSE 100, the proportion of female directors is 15%, up from 7.8%, but the proportion of executive directors has fallen to 5.4% from 5.7% – and there are 51 all-male boards. Companies in the FTSE 100 would have to appoint an extra 66 women to reach the 25% target, and the FTSE 250 would need to attract an extra 202 women.
The number of female chief executives of FTSE 100 companies is down to just three: Angela Ahrendts of Burberry, Alison Copper at Imperial Tobacco and Carolyn McCall of easyJet. Their number has been depleted by the departure of Marjorie Scardino from Pearson and Cynthia Carroll from Anglo American.
The 30% Club, which campaigns for greater boardroom representation for women, has set up a mentoring scheme to try to channel the "pipeline" of women in middle management who might reach the top and push forward more women into executive rules.
Sir Roger Carr, the City grandee who is scheduled to speak at the Women's Business Forum, said : "After a fast start, the speed of female board appointments has become more pedestrian. We need to pick up the pace if British business is to benefit from diversity by choice rather than enforcement by quota."
Cable has already written to the bosses of the all-male boardrooms in an attempt to convince them to hire more women. He also appointed former banker Charlotte Sweeney to review the voluntary code of conduct adopted by headhunters who have pledged to ensure women account for 30% of the candidates on long-lists drawn up for company chairman.
But although some companies are still all male, 31 FTSE 100 companies have reached the 25% target – including betting firm William Hill, advertising group WPP and the National Grid – and 13 have achieved 30% or more, led by drinks group Diageo with 44% and consumer goods group Unilever with 36%.
Davies, a former boss of Standard Chartered and lined up to become a non-executive director of a branch network being spun out of Royal Bank of Scotland, said: "We have now moved to a place where it is unacceptable for the voice of women to be absent from the boardroom." Davies is leading a consortium that includes the Bank of England that is investing in the 314 branches being sold by RBS and which will eventually be floated off. The shadow board of the branch network, which will be known as Williams & Glyn's, does not contain any women although Davies has said this will be addressed. Cable and his ministers are to hold a series of meetings with FTSE 350 companies to try to tackle this issue.