Backgrounder: female FTSE 100 FDs

The number of women in FTSE 100 finance roles has doubled recently. Increased
by a massive 100%.

Sounds impressive, until you realize that
Julia
Wilson’s appointment as 3i’s finance director has merely increased the
number from one – to two.

She joins
Jann
Brown of Cairn.

But it’s not all bad news; Lloyds TSB had Helen Weir, who no longer fills the
role because she is being
groomed
for the chief executive’s position, and has a more senior role as group
executive director of UK retail banking.

In an
interview
with Accountancy Age, Weir suggested it’s not something to get too hung up
on.

‘There are more women in senior positions in finance where you have a
professional qualification than in other areas. I think a qualification is
helpful to women in terms of progressing their careers,’ she said.

But given recent reports highlighting a
lack
of progress in women getting to the top across a whole range of careers, the
lack of top FDs is likely to provoke some soul-searching at least.

Recruiters
say there are plenty of talented women coming through the ranks, but not all
the data supports that.

The number of female qualified accountants still lags the number of men, and
the number of female partners at the top firms even more so, according to
Accountancy
Age’s top 50 (pdf).