Women and Work - The Facts - Achievements

There are a number of studies that show a link between gender distribution in a company's management and its profitability.  Research from Catalyst  ( The Bottom Line Connecting Corporate Performance and Gender Diversity Catalyst USA 2007 ) in the USA shows companies with the highest representation of women on their top management teams delivered 35.1% higher return on equity and 34% higher total return to shareholders than companies with lowest representation.

Women in the workforce

• 46.7% of the UK labour force is female (3)
• Out of the 27 European Union countries, the UK has the fourth highest employment rate for women, after The Netherlands, Finland, and Estonia (4)
  
  

Women have the skills employers need

• 63.4% of girls and 53.8% of boys achieve 5 or more GCSEs grades A*-C (5)
• 56.6% is the proportion of first degrees that are obtained by women (6)

Women are achieving the most senior positions

• 28% of all directors are women (7)
• 11% of FTSE 100 directorships are held by women (8)
• 27.5% of the civil service top management are women (9)
• 21.2% of local government chief executives are women (10)
• 18.7% of all judges are women (11)
• 9% of police officers ranked as chief constable, deputy chief constable or assistant chief constable are women (12)

Bibliography and PDF of full report