A decade ago, women held just one in 10 of all board positions in the FTSE 150. Have things changed? 

In 2007, only 10% of board positions across the FTSE 150 were taken by a woman. By 2017, that had jumped to one quarter, according to executive search firm Spencer Stuart’s 2017 UK Board Index.

While this means that boards are still heavily dominated by men, it does at least paint a picture of rapid change.

However, look below the topline figures and you are left with a very different impression, as progress is heavily skewed towards non-executive roles.

Here, women hold just over a third (34.7%) of all roles, up from 16.7% in 2007. In 2012, they held just 18.7% of non-executive director roles, pointing to a significant uptick in the past five years.

Conversely, just 8.9% of executive director roles are held by women, up from 3.2% in 2007.

And at the very top, women are even more scarce: across the FTSE 150, only 5.4% of chief executives and 4.6% of chairmen are women.

Across the 12 retailers included in the FTSE 150, just one group chief executive was female: Véronique Laury at Kingfisher.

RetailerChairmanCEOCFOExecutive directorNon-executive director
ABF         2 of 6
B&M         1 of 5
Booker         1 of 4
Burberry     Y   4 of 8
Dixons Carphone       Regional CEO 2 of 4
JD Sports         1 of 4
Kingfisher   Y Y   2 of 6
M&S     Y Group secretary 2 of 6
Next     Y Sales and marketing director 2 of 6
Sainsbury’s         3 of 6
Tesco         3 of 9
Travis Perkins         2 of 5

Katie Bickerstaffe, boss of Dixons Carphone in the UK and Ireland, was the next most senior woman.

Four of the 12 retailers had female chief financial officers: Burberry, Kingfisher, M&S and Next.

Of retail’s 69 non-executive directors, 25 were female.

Seven of the 12 retailers only had women in non-executive positions: Primark owner Associated British Foods; B&M Bargains; Booker; JD Sports; Sainsbury’s; Tesco; and Travis Perkins.

B&M Bargains had the lowest proportion of female non-executive directors, with just one of five positions going to a woman.

Retail Week’s Be Inspired campaign aims to promote female leadership within the retail sector and to inspire women to reach their potential.

Find out all about the Be Inspired campaign, including the big names already backing it, and find out how you can get involved at Retail-week.com/BeInspired.