Credit: Bogdan Pigulyak, iStock
Women who serve on the board of a prominent FTSE-100 firm are less likely to secure additional board roles, whereas men in the same positions are more likely to, finds new research from UCL School of Management.
In the paper, published in Administrative Science Quarterly, researchers from UCL School of Management, City St George’s and London Business School found that women directors in the FTSE-100 are 60% more likely than men to obtain additional board roles. This aligns with moves to increase gender diversity on boards. However, the team found that this advantage decreases and reverses as firm prominence increases.
The findings have implications for the maintenance of gender diversity on boards and for women directors’ career development, while firms may lose access to the most qualified women.
Co-author Professor Raina Brands (UCL School of Management) said: “Gender diversity on boards has been increasing over the last several years, but this on its own isn’t enough. Improving gender diversity is far more complex and nuanced than just redressing the balance in numbers. This research shows that recent improvements are not sustainable as women and men have vastly different experiences serving on the boards of more prominent firms.”
The researchers compiled a dataset from all FTSE-100 directors between 2010 and 2017, from 150 firms in total, 67 of which were in the FTSE-100 for the whole of the sampling period. They also collected board membership for each year that a firm was in the index, resulting in 2,94 unique directors, 19.8% of which were women.
The team measured each director’s new board appointments for the following year and assessed the prominence of their firms. Using statistical models and controlling for demographics, they compared men and women with similar education, experience, number of board seats, connection levels and of a similar age.
The researchers say this effect could be down to how women directors experience more prominent board roles in comparison to men. Women are still a minority in boardrooms and could experience more pressure, scrutiny and heightened informal demands such as stakeholder engagement.
FTSE-100 board membership by women has increased (by 2025) to 43.4%, according to the FTSE Women Leaders Review, equating to 1,275 roles, up from 27.7% in 2017. Whilst this is positive, the findings in this paper show that current progress isn’t necessarily sustainable, highlighting the need to address disparities in gendered experiences of high profile leadership roles.
