It is International Women’s Day today and while lot has happened for the progress of women, a lot still needs to be done.
As per a recent research conducted by Drapers, there’s stagnation in the representation of women on boards of some of UK’s top fashion retailers and brands.
The analysis of 20 top fashion and footwear retailers across the country showed that just 27.5 per cent of board positions are presently led by women. That’s less than a third!
Notably, it is much below than 33 per cent average at FTSE 100 firms found by UK Government-supported study from Hampton-Alexander Review, which was published in February 2020.
The data analysed clearly showed that while Debenhams, which is on the verge of closing down, has no women on its board, others like Boohoo, Joules, Laura Ashley and Quiz had just one woman on their board.
French Connection and Shoe Zone too had only one woman in their board, which reflects the growing stagnation in the representation of women in their firm.
In fact, in another research that was released earlier this month by headhunter Korn Ferry, it was distinctly stated that only 8 women bosses were employed in retail industry in 2020 – a fall from 2019, when only 11 women leaders were hired.
Even some other retail bigwigs like Frasers Group, Ted Baker, Sosandar and JD Sports Fashion have just 2 women on their board that has a total of 7 board members – a bit worrying scenario.
But it is not all that bad! The research shows that Burberry and Next have 45.5 per cent and 40 per cent representation of women in their board. Even N Brown Group has 4 women on its board of 11 members, which is 36.4 per cent of women representation.
Efforts are there to include more women in top management across the globe, but there’s still a long way to go, especially in fashion and retail sector.
Happy International Women’s Day!
