Women representation on boards ‘disappointingly slow’

Statistics published by the Powerful Women initiative have found the progress of getting more women represented on company boards has been “disappointingly slow”.

The figures, published yesterday (16 May), detail the composition of boards in the top 80 UK energy companies and reveal that while there are “pockets of success”, progress at board level across the whole sector is slow.

It found that women occupy only 16 per cent of board seats, this represents a marginal increase from 13 per cent in 2018.

There was no improvement for executive board representation from last year with women accounting for just 6 per cent.

Meanwhile 42 per cent of the companies have no women on their boards at all, a small improvement from 50 per cent the year previously.

Ruth Cairnie, chair of Powerful Women, said: “It is clear that we still have a very long way to go to truly tap into the pool of female talent available in the energy sector so that it is fit to meet the challenges and opportunities of the energy transformation.

“The 2019 statistics show that progress is disappointingly slow and has even gone backwards when we look at progress towards targets.”

Meanwhile the Energy Leaders Coalition, which was established by Powerful Women, has also published its first annual report.

The coalition is made up of leaders from eight of the UK’s energy companies and represents 56,000 employees. Last May it made a commitment to improve the gender balance within their own companies and within the sector as a whole.

The Energy Leaders’ Coalition comprises the following eight CEOs:

• Keith Anderson, chief executive, Scottish Power
• Juliet Davenport, chief executive, Good Energy
• John Pettigrew, chief executive, National Grid
• Alistair Phillips-Davies, chief executive, SSE
• Simone Rossi, chief executive, EDF Energy
• Matthew Wright, managing director, Orsted UK
• Paul Cowling, managing director, Innogy Renewables UK
• Sinead Lynch, UK country chair, Shell

Its first anniversary report, entitled Positive Steps to Gender Balance includes a series of case studies showing initiatives that have been implemented to promote a better gender balance.

The report also found that the top three barriers to achieving gender balance at senior level were:

• A lack of ambition, targets and metrics
• A lack of visible senior female roles
• Systematic, unconscious bias

To tackle issues such as unconscious bias for example, the report recommends a range of actions including changing the language used in recruitment advertising and changing where the coalition searched for talent externally.

Keith Anderson, chief executive of Scottish Power, said: “The first year’s work of the Energy Leaders’ Coalition has been important in identifying the barriers to gender balance at senior level.

“We all know that a diverse workforce is the best way to drive success not just in our own business, but also for the sector as a whole.

“The energy industry is changing. If we are to overcome the challenges of becoming a net zero country by 2045 and make the most of the opportunities – of decarbonisation, digitalisation and changing customer expectations – we also need to make the most of the talent available. That means addressing the under-representation of women at senior levels.”

Juliet Davenport, chief executive and founder of Good Energy, said: “I am proud of the positive steps we have made on gender balance and the women who are already benefiting.

“But all of us on the Energy Leaders’ Coalition recognise that we have much more to do to move from unconscious bias to ‘conscious inclusion’.

“The latest statistics make that clear and we must work harder across the industry. Energy leaders should make a public pledge for positive change.”

In a Twitter post SSE said it is proud to be part of the drive for gender balance in energy.