Bored of women on boards debate? Me too. Here's the real problem

Denise Wilson, the chief executive of the steering group set up by Lord Davies and the Government, has warned the UK will likely miss the target at the current pace of change.

The numbers don’t look good. But there’s a danger we can become bogged down in the statistics, obsessing about the whether we will or won’t reach the 2015 target and forgetting what really matters.

Yet again, today’s figures show that the number of women appointed to executive – core – board roles hovers around the 6 per cent mark. This is pathetic compared to the non-executive equivalent; some 26 per cent of NED roles are now made up by women.

Why aren’t companies doing more to promote their own female talent into top roles? Why is little being done to nurture the so-called “leaky pipeline” on the way to the top, where women leave the workplace in droves after having children? How can companies help women acquire the right skills to get them board-ready?

These are the real questions we should be asking ourselves, not whether we will meet a self-imposed target that means little in practice.

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