Companies with a female boss have nearly twice as many women board members, new report reveals

But women are still largely underrepresented on corporate boards, despite continued efforts to improve diversity

Female chief executives and chairs could 'spur greater diversity', according to the report (Design Pics Inc/REX/Shutterstock)

Companies with a female chief executive or board chair have almost twice as many female board members as those led by men, a new report shows.

Research by professional services firm Deloitte found that women constituted 29 per cent of board members in companies with a female chair or chief executive, compared to 16 per cent with a male chair and 15 per cent with a male chief executive.

Overall, however, women are still largely underrepresented on corporate boards, despite continued efforts to improve diversity, according to the report. The findings show that there has been only a modest improvement in overall numbers, with female boardroom representation up to 15 per cent from 12 per cent from Deloitte’s last report two years ago.

Senior managing director for Deloitte corporate governance Dan Konigsburg admitted that many would find this rate to be “unacceptably low” but added that the increase could be seen as “significant” given the slow turnover among many boards.

Nick Owen, chairman of Deloitte North West Europe, said that more female chief executives and chairs would “spur greater board diversity”, but warned against “token representation”, stressing the importance of “active participation by women on boards”.

In the UK 20 per cent of board seats are held by women, placing it 12th out of the 64 countries worldwide included in the report. Norway heads the list, with women representing 42 per cent of the country’s board members.

Nicki Demby, partner and leader of Deloitte UK’s Women on Boards Development Programme, said that the UK had made “good progress on women’s representation on boards without using quotas”.

“One of the greatest achievements of the past few years is that business no longer asks why women’s representation is so important, but rather how they can make gender diversity a reality,” added Ms Demby.

In July 2016, the Hampton-Alexander review set a target of 33 per cent of women directors serving on FTSE 350 boards by 2020.

The UK met its target of achieving at least 25 per cent representation of women on FTSE 100 boards by 2015, set by the Davies review in 2011.