A lack of necessary skills, not the glass ceiling, is making it hard for women to break into Britain’s top boardrooms.
 
A report published this week found women need to concentrate on upskilling and improving their confidence if they are to become “board ready”.
 
But other trainers working with females say the glass ceiling is still firmly in place because the search net put out by companies looking for directors does not fall wide enough in terms of gender and age.
 
The Glass Ladder, published by Bird & Co, an executive mentoring company, interviewed 36 executive and non-executive directors of FTSE companies, public sector and not-for-profit organisations. It found there were not enough women gaining experience in running businesses as they progressed up the financial ladder and as a result too few in the top executive roles.
 
It concluded providing training and mentoring for female senior executives so they would feel confident working in UK boardrooms was the best way to broaden the available talent pool.
 
“Women have not had experience on boards, and if the only way to gain that experience is to be on a board then it is a vicious circle,” said Kathleen O’Donovan, Bird & Co founding partner.
 
“We believe there are women out there with enough experience who when mentored and specifically developed in this area will be classed as board ready.”
 
Her company aims to coach, mentor, train and prepare 24 senior female executives this year through its Glass Ladder programme, which it hopes will prepare 100 women for board level positions over the next four years.
 
But, Toni Eastwood, training director of everywoman, a 35,000 member strong training and support service for women in business, believes the glass ceiling remains a real obstacle for some women. She said: “The survey does resonate with what we are hearing from the women we work with, but there is definitely still a glass ceiling and there are a large number of women who do have ambitions to obtain a directorship and feel they are overlooked.
 
“The search net often doesn’t go wide enough because the profile for candidates is white males aged between 50-70 years old and yet there may be a lot of women who are younger and hungrier for that sort of role out there who are clearly demonstrating that they want it but are not being picked.”
 
Nevertheless O’Donovan insists the report shows the glass ceiling is a distraction from the real challenges facing women. She said: “We’re not saying the glass ceiling is a myth or whether it exists for some women or not for others. We are saying let’s just move on and look at what will get us there, lets put the debate to one side because it is a distraction from what we need to do. We’ve been told there is a demand for women and we’ve been told it is a supply side issue, lets deal with that.”

Subscribe to TJ news bulletins:

| Subscribe to our L & D RSS Feed

Related News

• Employers urged to recognise migrant and refugee talent
• Coaching: survey respondents have their say
• ‘Inpats’ increasingly being used by organisations to bridge skills gaps

Related Discussion Topics

• Thank you - Career Coach for Student
• Why a coaching approach? Ideas please...
• A national skills gap database

Latest News

• New award recognises organisations that invest in employee wellbeing
• Employers failing to Integrate talent management and diversity
• Health sector workforce skills need to be utilised more effectively, report finds
• Millionth worker completes training through Train to Gain
• Last week to apply for cash in return for help in NEET survey