Men 'dominate in every sector of society', says damning report

Males 'haven’t let go of the reins of power,' says Fawcett Society

Top jobs with the lowest proportions of women are in the business sector, study finds (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Positions of power in almost every sector in Britain are dominated by men, a damning new report has found.

Analysis of the top jobs in the art, business and public sectors found men made up more than 50 per cent of the workforce in every position apart from two.

More women than men were magazine editors, while the shadow cabinet was found to have equal numbers of men and women.

Top jobs with the lowest proportions of women were in the business sector, with women making up just 6 per cent of FTSE 100 chief executives and 9.8 per cent of other business executive roles.

Women were also underrepresented in the roles of supreme court justices, national newspaper editors, police and crime commissioners and council leaders, where they held less than 20 per cent of positions.

The Sex and Power 2018 report, by gender equality charity the Fawcett Society, said the figures made “depressing reading” and called for quotas to help fix the problem.

Chief executive of the charity, Sam Smethers, said: “When we see this data brought together it is both shocking and stark – despite some prominent women leaders, men haven’t let go of the reins of power and progress is painfully slow.

“Equality won’t happen on its own. We have to make it happen.”

The report called for a law requiring public bodies and the boards of large corporate organisations to use quotas for a fixed period. Those organisations who “cannot countenance” such a system should be obliged to set targets and publish an action plan to improve female representation, it said.

It also demanded the government legislate for all roles to be advertised on a flexible working basis, unless there was a business reason for them not to be, and said more jobs should be available on a part-time basis.

The review of the publicly available data came after companies were forced to reveal their gender pay gap earlier this month.

Men were paid more than women in 7,795 out of 10,016 companies and public bodies in Britain, the figures revealed.

Around one in 10 companies that should have reported on their gender pay gap had not done so a fortnight after the deadline.

The Equalities and Human Rights Commission is responsible for enforcing the law, but critics have said it lack powers and resources needed to make employers comply.