Three-quarters of boardroom appointments are still going to men, according to new research that suggests gender parity will “never be reached” at the top of the world’s biggest companies. Egon Zehnder, the global search company, examined board and senior executive roles at 1,610 public companies worth €7 billion or more in 44 countries. It found that just over a fifth of board seats were held by women, a 2 percentage point increase on 2016, but more than seven in every 10 appointments were still going to men. “With the rate of progress towards parity decelerating…fully balanced boards will never be achieved without a significant increase in the hiring of female directors,” said Jill Ader, who chairs Egon Zehnder. Companies needed to recognise the impact that a “critical mass” of women on the board and the executive committee made, and take steps to bring that about, she said.

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Financial Times