10:12am Saturday 20th March 2010
By Reader's letter
The Government has recently called for some of Britain’s largest companies to recruit more women on to their boards and achieve greater diversity.
As director of the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology, I feel there is a significant need to highlight the importance of this call to action across the science, engineering and technology (SET) sectors, where women make up only nine per cent of total directorships of FTSE 100 companies.
This is significantly lower than the 12.5 per cent of females among non-SET directors.
There is a powerful business case for encouraging gender diversity at the highest levels of UK business.
Research highlights that where organisations have an influential female presence on the executive committee, and more than two women on the board, they outperform their competitors in terms of return on equity, operating profit and even stock price growth.
With the current economic challenges, there is both the need and the opportunity for businesses to consider the kind of changes that can have a significant impact on competitive advantage – especially in the SET sectors, which are often fuelled by innovation.
The UKRC is committed to significantly improving the participation and position of SET across industry and academia where there are significant skills shortages.
These shortages have an undoubted impact on the future of productivity in the UK.
I fully agree with Lord Davies’ comments and the UKRC is in support of a “new principle” of boardroom diversity in the UK Corporate Governance Code for listed companies.
Annette Williams, Director, UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology, Listerhills Park of Science and Commerce, Campus Road, Bradford.
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