Promoting women to top roles will boost economy by £58bn, report finds
Promoting more women to executive committees at Britain’s biggest companies will boost the economy by nearly £60bn, according to a new report.
The research found that having more women in top roles at FTSE 350 companies could yield an additional £58bn to the UK economy, equivalent to the UK’s school’s budget and more than what it spends annually on defence and policing.
The Women Count 2022 report, which was published by diversity consultants The Pipeline, said three-quarters of executive committee members at Britain’s top 350 listed companies are men, with a tenth of these companies having no women at all on their senior leadership committees.
It comes as watchdogs and ministers seek to boost diversity within the companies they regulate.
Listed companies have been told that they should have at least one woman occupying a top-four board position by 2025 under fresh proposals launched by the Government.
FTSE 350 companies were told earlier this year that they need to have a minimum of one woman in the role of chair, chief executive, finance officer or senior independent director by the end of 2025 amid concerns that top jobs continue to be dominated by men.
Lorna Fitzsimons and Margaret McDonagh, who co-authored the report, said: “The tragedy is not just for individual women who are blocked from fulfilling their full potential.
“The real tragedy is that businesses are cutting themselves off from a pool of talent and innovation, and forgoing an additional 2.5pc growth in GDP. It is now unarguable to state that businesses with diverse voices at the top, across gender, race and class backgrounds, do better.”
The report claimed that if companies with less than a third of women on their executive committee were to perform with the same profit margin as those companies with more than a third, this would create an additional £58bn in pre-tax profit for the UK economy.
It would also represent an additional £900m in pre-tax profit for each of these companies on average.
Ms Fitzsimmons, a former Labour MP, and Ms McDonagh added: “Our message is simple: recruit, retain and promote more women. If you want to prosper, take a hammer to the glass ceiling in your firm. Don’t just talk about it, act. The good news is, when companies make the necessary changes towards gender equality, they often see the benefits immediately.”
