Senior women are better represented in the FTSE 100 than their counterparts in the S&P 100, according to leadership advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates, even though only 12 firms in the UK’S flagship index have achieved gender parity in their senior leadership teams.

Russell Reynolds Associates’s analysis found that one third, 32% of the senior executives in the FTSE 100 are women, so they are underrepresented by 61% when compared to the UK population. In terms of chief executives, men are eight times more likely to be CEO in the FTSE 100 than women, with just 11 FTSE businesses currently led by women. In addition, one quarter of FTSE 100 companies are led by C-suites with fewer than 25% women, and 13 have one or no women.

Women are especially underrepresented among the roles that matter most for CEO succession pipelines according to the analysis. The research comprises C-suite leadership roles including chief financial officer, chief operating officer and senior leaders with responsibility for P&L, running business units, regions or lines of business, which are key incubators roles for future CEOs.

“Gender diversity at the executive level is significantly behind progress within boards,” added Russell Reynolds. “Women hold 42% of board seats in the FTSE 100 following voluntary initiatives to improve representation.”

Laura Sanderson, co-head of Europe, Middle East & India at Russell Reynolds Associates, said in a statement that establishing a cohort of skilled women leaders should be a business imperative as there is evidence that companies with gender balanced senior leadership teams are more innovative, more profitable, more socially responsible, and provide higher-quality customer experiences.

“Boards must take active steps to manage their talent pipelines,” said Sanderson. “At its core, achieving gender balance in business leadership is an indicator of organisations’ succession and talent planning success.”

However despite the UK’s record it still leads the US in most senior roles according to Russell Reynolds, as women in the FTSE 100 experience better overall representation than their counterparts in the S&P 100.

S&P 100

Russell Reynolds Associates also analyzed the C-suites of the top 100 companies in the S&P 500.

“Compared to our 2022 gender diversity analysis, we are no closer to overall parity,” said the report.

In the S&P 100 Men are 2.5 times more likely than women to be executIVES, and and 10.2 times more likely to be chief executives. Only six S&P 100 firms have achieved gender parity on their senior leadership teams

“Women hold a mere 9% of the CEO roles in the S&P 100,” said Russell Reynolds.  There needs to be 5.7x the number of women CEOs to be at parity with the population benchmark.

The research found that eight of the 35 men who were a COO in 2022 have been promoted to CEO or President at their same organization and one left their organization for a president role elsewhere.

“But of the four women who’d held the COO role, none had been promoted—and three out of four left their operating roles to pursue boards/advisory work,” said the report.

Markets Media’s 10th-annual Women in Finance Awards program will be held on Thursday, November 21, at the Hard Rock Hotel.