Women in Business – Trends

Private businesses

66% of privately held businesses (PHB) in the UK have a woman in the boardroom – compared to 94% in the Philippines, 88% in Russia and 81% in China. The International Business Report (IBR) by Grant Thornton interviewed 7,200 PHBs across 32 countries and 22% felt the pay gap between men and women will never close.

Self employed women

There are approximately 1,013,000 self-employed women (7.6% of women in employment) and 2,706,000 self-employed men (17.4% of men in employment) in the UK. In the UK, women-owned businesses comprise approximately 16% of the business stock and women comprise approximately 27% of the self-employed population (Women’s Business Ownership, Professor Sara Carter, 2006).

Entrepreneurial women

There are 602,000 female owned businesses in the UK representing just 14% of all businesses (Annual Small Business Survey February 2008).

FTSE women

Research from Cranfield (August 2006) shows that women hold just 7.2% of all FTSE 100 directorships. Non-executive women directors are making slightly better inroads into male-dominated boardrooms, having achieved 10% of top non-executive seats. Only one woman has made it to CEO, and only one woman chairs a FTSE 100 board.

Unchallenged women

Accenture’s 2009 women’s research into 3,600 professionals (Untapped Potential: Stretching Toward the Future) found that almost half of female business professionals around the world — and a similar number of their male counterparts —believe they are insufficiently challenged, despite being confident of their skills and capabilities. Almost six in 10 women (59 percent) believe that their careers are successful or very successful. Additionally, nearly half (46 percent) of women who consider themselves very successful reported that they are in jobs that require them to stretch beyond their expected responsibilities.