The Women and Equalities Committee is
to follow up its work on women in executive management by
examining the results of the Davies and Hampton-Alexander
Reviews.
In the last Parliament, the Committee launched an inquiry into the
under-representation of women in senior executive roles,
examining the barriers for women in reaching senior executive
positions within companies and the actions Government was
taking to improve the pace of change.
Since then, the Government has set up the Hampton-Alexander
Review. This independent review, commissioned by the Government,
looked at ways to ensure that talented women at the top of
business are recognised, promoted and rewarded.
The Review’s initial findings,
published on the 8th November 2016, set a
voluntary target to achieve 33% representation for women in
leadership teams by the end of 2020. The most recent report,
published on 9th November 2017, set out the
progress made against the recommendations in the original 2016
report.
This one-off evidence session will consider the reviews and
progress made so far.
Committee Chair MP said:
“While these reviews show that progress has been made, it is
clearly not fast enough. We run real risk of missing the 33%
target by 2020 and both businesses and Government should take
responsibility. Too many companies are risking their performance
by failing to ensure gender diversity on their Boards and among
their executive managers. We will be looking at the findings of
the reviews, considering the current figures and asking what more
needs to be done to make sure the most senior positions in
companies are as often held by women as by
men.”
Witnesses, at 1020:
- Professor Sue Vinnicombe CBE, Cranfield School of Management
- Professor Ruth Sealy, University of Exeter Business School
- Denise Wilson OBE, CEO, Hampton-Alexander Review
