The pressure to appoint is mounting

The pressure for more women to be appointed to leadership bodies is mounting. So far, North West England hosts the best and worst diversity record in the recent Local Enterprise Partnership appointments:

Cheshire and Warrington LEP has four women amongst its business appointees, while Liverpool's 15-strong LEP is exclusively male.

At a national level, last month Lord Davies of Abersoch former head of Standard Chartered bank, gave Britain's 100 biggest companies five years to double the number of women on their boards from the current average level of 12.5% to a quarter, or face mandatory quotas. Davies made his recommendations following a review ordered by the government and while some campaigners had hoped for quotas, the recommendations were widely welcomed as a step in the right direction for gender equality.

Internationally, European Commissioner, Viviane Reding has announced that she will consider legal action to get more women into boardrooms if companies do not rapidly improve their gender balance.

'One of the major reasons behind the gender pay gap is the serious underrepresentation of women in decision-making at all levels and in all sectors', comments Cecile Greboval, Programme Director at the European Women's Lobby ( EWL ). 'When 60% of university graduates are women and yet they predominate in lower valued and lower paid occupations, there is clearly something wrong.'

According to the European Commission , the share of female board members in the EU has increased by just over a half a percentage point per year over the last seven years, and stands at 12% today. At this rate, unless action is taken, it will take another 50 years before there is a reasonable balance (40% of each sex) on company boards .

'Self regulation has evidently not worked' concludes Ms. Greboval . 'We need a binding measure at EU-level , with appropriate sanctions, to make the equal representation of men and women in political and economic decision making a reality.'

Source: European Women's Lobby website www.womenlooby.org ,11.03.11