Press Release

Thickening of the glass ceiling …

6 March 2008

Progress is still to be made for women in the business world, says ACCA on International Women’s Day (8 March 2008), focussing on four separate recently published research reports.

The figures from Cranfield International Centre for Women Leaders Project show that business leadership in the FTSE 100 is still the domain of men, but that improvements over the years are being made with some 11% of women now holding a directorship in 2006, compared with 5.8% in 2000.

And the government’s Annual Small Business Survey shows that in the world of small business, in 2006, only 14% of SME employers were women-led, slightly more that in 2005, when 12% of SME employers were women-led but far short of the target the Government set itself in 2003, to increase this rate to 20% by 2006.

But other research shows that both the UK plc and the small business sector are losing out as a result of this. A new report from Gauvurin called "Women Executives in the UK" shows that when women represent 30% of the Board of Directors, the profitability of a company increases three fold.

Research from Creditsafe, the business information provider, shows that women owned companies are better at paying bills. Their research reveals that companies run by women directors pay their invoices on average 49% quicker than those with just men on the board. An analysis of over two million firms shows that organisations with women-only boards paid invoices in less than 30 days, compared with almost 60 days for those made up of men-only. Additionally organisations with women-only directors are on average 51% more efficient at collecting debt compared to companies with male-only boards. With the endemic culture of late payment, higher rates of female owned businesses would, judging by these findings, make a positive impact.

Clare Minchington, Managing Director of Learning and Technical Policy at ACCA says: "These four highly credible sources of statistics throw a strong and searching spotlight onto gender issues in the workplace. It is clear improvement is needed in efforts to put women in the forefront of the business world – whether it is at FTSE 100 level or in the SME sector. But whether the Norwegian mandate model is used - a law passed in 2006 which demanded that 40 per cent of a corporate board must be given to women within a two year period - is a whole other debate which needs to be furthered. However one model we can certainly emulate is that of the US where the rate of female entrepreneurship is twice the rate to that of the UK."