Vince Cable: City passivity and prejudice is still sidelining women

Vince Cable writes for the Evening Standard:

One important dimension of effective boards is their ability to tap into big talent pools. In the past, these pools have been shallow and stagnant, unrepresentative of wider society. In particular, a mixture of prejudice and inertia has kept women down to derisory levels of representation: barely one in 10 of board directors.

This Government is not afraid of tackling the status quo and the Home Secretary and I are taking this issue very seriously. Eighteen months ago, we asked Lord Davies to drive a process of increasing the share of women on boards of FTSE companies to 25 per cent by 2015. The aim was not to introduce political correctness into the boardroom but to ensure that business benefited from hitherto unused talent…

Having more women on boards isn’t just good for the culture of business, it’s also good for business. A growing body of evidence shows clear links between diversity, financial performance and stock market growth.

Recent research by Catalyst found that companies with more women on their boards outperformed rivals with a 42 per cent higher return in sales, 66 per cent higher return on capital and 53 per cent higher return on equity.