FTSE Women Leaders Review

The FTSE Women Leaders Review is the successor of the Hampton-Alexander Review and the Davies Review, all aimed at increasing focus on gender diversity at board and senior leadership level by Government, companies, and investors. The Review focuses on the FTSE 350 but over the past two years it has also looked beyond the largest listed companies to examine diversity in leadership at 50 of the largest private companies and partnerships in the UK.

The 2024 report, published in February, leads with the news that women now hold over one third of all leadership roles in FTSE 350 companies.

Key findings include:

• FTSE 350 companies met the target of women holding on average 40% of board positions last year, three years earlier than the target of December 2025. Women now hold 42.1% of board roles, with some companies targeting gender parity. There are no all-male boards remaining in the FTSE 350.
• This means the UK is second globally in terms of percentage of women on boards, behind only France at 44.7% which operates a quota system rather than the voluntary system in the UK.
• In respect of the four senior board roles, being Chair, Senior Independent Director, CEO and CFO, there has been continued progress in representation in the role of the SID where women now hold 47% of positions in the FTSE 350. Women hold one in six Chair roles.
• However, the number of women in executive director roles is lagging this, with only 15% across the FTSE 350. Churn in CEO positions has led to no change in the number of women in this role over the past year, at 21.
• There has been progress in the number of women in the executive committee and their direct reports, which now stands at 34.5% for the FTSE 350, and at 28.2% on the executive committee itself (2022: 33.5% and 27%)
• In respect of the top 50 private companies and partnerships, board representation for women stayed at 31%, the same as in the 2023 report. However there has been an increase in the number of women in the executive committee and their director reports, to 36%, up from 34% in the previous year. 46 out of the 50 companies that were approached submitted data to the Review.

The Review notes that although the rate of appointing women to senior roles in the largest listed companies is rising, in 2022 more than six out of ten available leadership roles still went to men.

The report can be found here.

For a global perspective, Deloitte has recently published the eighth edition of Women in the Boardroom. The report finds that globally women hold less than a quarter of board seats and, if the current rate of change holds steady, it is unlikely that gender parity on boards will be reached before 2038.

Read Women in the boardroom, eighth edition

Parker Review

The Parker Review was first commissioned in 2015 and set its first targets in 2016, for FTSE 100 companies to have at least one ethnic minority director on the board by December 2021 and for FTSE 250 companies to meet the same target by December 2024.

Last year, the Review announced that it was extending its scope to senior management, asking the FTSE 350 to set targets for 2027, and to the top 50 private companies and partnerships, with information published for the first time in this year’s report.

Key findings include:

• In the FTSE 100 this year, 96 companies met the 2021 target of at least one ethnic minority director on the board, with ethnic minority directors holding 19% of all board positions. (2022: 96 companies, 18%)
• In respect of senior roles on the board, ethnic minority directors held 12 CEO positions and 7 Chair positions.
• In the FTSE 250 this year, 70% of companies met the 2024 target of at least one ethnic minority director on the board, with ethnic minority directors holding 13.5% of all board positions. (2022: 60% of companies, 11%)
• This was the first year in which the Review looked at the proportion of ethnic minorities in senior management positions, which stood at 13% for the FTSE 100 and 12% for the FTSE 250. Where companies reported to the Review that they had set 2027 targets for the proportion of ethnic minorities in senior management positions, these averaged out at 17% for the FTSE 100 and 15.5% for the FTSE 250. 44 companies out of the FTSE 100 and 50 companies out of the FTSE 250 shared these targets.
• In respect of the top 50 private companies and partnerships invited to participate in the Review, 61% of those that shared their data had already met the target of having at least one ethnic minority director on the board (the target the private companies have been asked to meet by December 2027). 36 out of the 50 companies that were approached submitted data to the Review.

The report also includes case studies, FAQs derived from company queries, an article on terminology which explores the benefits of referencing distinct ethnic minorities separately, an article on the evolution of executive search and an article from the Change the Race Ratio initiative.

The report can be found here.