A new report has highlighted a significant gender disparity in business leadership across the UK, with London identified as having the lowest proportion of female directors.
The Women in Business report revealed that only 33% of London’s 1.2 million companies feature women in directorial roles. The statistics, compiled and analysed by Creditsafe, take into account all companies registered in the UK, from small businesses to FTSE 100 companies.
In contrast, the South West leads in gender representation, with 44% of its 120,000 businesses having at least one female director. The East Midlands and Scotland are also making strides, boasting 39% of businesses with female leadership.
However, the report underscores a persistent gap in achieving gender equality in business leadership across various regions. London and the North West are at the bottom of the list in terms of female representation, with 33% and 36% respectively.
While all regions across the UK had a higher proportion of male directors, the report also highlighted that male-owned businesses were more likely to go into insolvency in 2023 than those run by females, with 39% of companies more likely to become insolvent if their boards were male-dominated.
The report also outlined the best and worst sectors in the UK for women in leadership positions with ‘households as employers’ (which encompasses cleaners, tutors and secretaries) had the largest percentage of female directors at 60%. This was followed by sectors including ‘Education’ (56%), and ‘Health and Social Work’ (54%), the report found.
Drew Fahiya, Creditsafe’s data director, points out the statistics reveal a worrying contradiction between London’s reputation as a centre for opportunity and the reality of the situation, particularly for women:
“Our latest report shows that women are making steady progress in the boardroom, and in some regions and sectors they are starting to build up a real momentum.
“Delving deeper, we can see that when it comes to the nation’s capital, renowned as a hub for the global headquarters for big business, women are still very under-represented at senior level.”
Drew added: “Though it’s not possible to prove that women are better at running businesses over men, there’s mounting evidence suggesting that companies with female board members experience advantages such as heightened profitability and reduced failure rates”.
