Boards ‘need’ to be filled by more women

Irish companies need to ensure more women are represented on their boards if they’re to keep pace with other countries which are recognising the need for gender balance in running big business.

That was the message by a keynote speaker at a Women Mean Business (WMB) conference in UCC yesterday.

Professor Susan Vinnicombe, director of the Cranfield School of Management in Britain, said the EU Commission had recommended that 40% of company boards should be filled by women by 2020.

Norway already employs a 40% quota, while Britain has set a target of achieving 25% by 2015.

The professor said latest figures from Britain’s 100 top companies revealed 17.3% of board members are women, which is up nearly 5% in the last two years.

“That is much higher than Ireland which I understand currently stands at 9%,” Ms Vinnicombe said.

This progress in Britain, she said, “was only accomplished by putting pressure on the system” to change its attitudes to women.

“Two years ago Mothercare didn’t have a woman on its board. I’m glad to see that’s changed. If companies run markets where there are lots of products for women it’s obvious they need female input on their boards,” she said.

The conference — sponsored by UCC and a number of companies including the Irish Examiner — heard politicians and senior Irish businessmen needed to copy their counterparts in Britain to ensure women played a bigger role in commerce.

Ms Vinnicombe said women are ambitious, do have enough experience, will take risks which are sometimes needed in business and have leadership styles just as good as men.

Ann McGee of McGee Pharma International said women needed to be flexible and adaptable in business as in life.

She said the attitude to women in senior positions was changing for the positive since the 1980s.

“You can do anything you want. It’s about hard work, determination and self-belief is absolutely critical,” Ms McGee said.

Mary Good, a Cork-based vice president of PepsiCo, spoke about the difficulties of balancing her life and career and how she became the first female member of its board.

The mother of two young girls said the key for her early on was having credibility and “finding my voice” on the board.