Women’s representation at the top of British business is tracked by an unusually rich official record: the government-backed FTSE Women Leaders Review reports every February, the House of Commons Library updates its economy and politics briefings each March, HM Treasury reviews its Women in Finance Charter every spring, and the Cabinet Office publishes Civil Service Statistics each July. This page pulls the headline numbers from those sources into one fully cited reference — boards, chief executives, senior management, financial services, the Civil Service and Parliament — with the data period stated next to every figure. It covers representation only: differences in pay between men and women are measured separately through the Office for National Statistics’ annual gender pay gap release and sit outside the scope of this page.
Key facts and figures
- 43% of FTSE 350 board roles were held by women as at October 2025 — up from 9.5% in 2011.
- 44.4% of FTSE 100 directorships were held by women as at October 2025.
- 8% of FTSE 350 chief executives are women; just nine FTSE 100 CEOs are women (2025 data).
- 15.4% vs 49.5% — women’s share of FTSE 350 executive director roles versus non-executive roles (October 2025).
- 36% of FTSE 350 leadership roles are held by women, up from 32% in 2021.
- 42% of new FTSE 350 board appointments went to women in 2025 — down from 46% in 2024.
- 49.2% of the Senior Civil Service are women (31 March 2025), up from 38.9% in 2015.
- 263 women MPs — a record 40% of the House of Commons — were elected in 2024.
These are the latest figures available as of July 2026; the main refresh is the FTSE Women Leaders Review, published each February with data as at the previous October.
What percentage of FTSE board positions are held by women?
Women hold 43% of board roles across the FTSE 350, according to the FTSE Women Leaders Review 2026, published on 24 February 2026 with data as at October 2025. When the review’s predecessor began measuring in 2011, women held just 9.5% of FTSE 350 board seats — so representation has more than quadrupled in fourteen years, without a single statutory quota.
The House of Commons Library’s Women and the UK economy briefing (March 2026) puts the same picture in index-by-index terms: 44.4% of FTSE 100 directorships and 42.7% of FTSE 350 directorships were held by women as at October 2025. In absolute numbers, the Department for Business and Trade’s February 2025 announcement counted 1,275 board roles held by women across the FTSE 350 (43%, boards data as at January 2025), alongside 6,743 leadership roles (35%, as at October 2024).
One milestone is worth stating plainly: there have been no all-male boards anywhere in the FTSE 350 since 2020. In 2011 the all-male board was commonplace; today it is extinct in the UK’s 350 largest listed companies.
Has the UK met the 40% women on boards target?
Yes — in aggregate. The FTSE Women Leaders Review set a voluntary target of 40% women’s representation on FTSE 350 boards by the end of 2025, and the average now stands at 43% (October 2025 data). At company level, 69% of FTSE 350 companies have already reached 40% or more, and 88% have met the target or are within reach of it (FTSE Women Leaders Review 2026).
The UK’s approach is voluntary and business-led rather than quota-based — there is no legal requirement to appoint women to boards, and positive discrimination remains unlawful under the Equality Act 2010, though proportionate positive action is permitted. That makes the 2026 report’s warning sign notable: the share of new FTSE 350 board appointments going to women fell to 42% in 2025, from 46% in 2024. Sustaining a 40%-plus board average requires roughly four in ten new seats to keep going to women, so a falling appointment rate is the earliest indicator that progress could stall.
How many female CEOs are there in the FTSE 100 and FTSE 350?
Only 8% of FTSE 350 chief executives are women, per the FTSE Women Leaders Review 2026 (data as at October 2025) — and just nine of the FTSE 100’s chief executives are women. Boardroom parity, in other words, has not yet reached the corner office.
The review tracks four ‘key roles’ — chair, chief executive, finance director and senior independent director — and the 2026 data shows how unevenly they are shared. Women are 17% of FTSE 350 chairs, 21% of finance directors and 61% of senior independent directors (October 2025). The senior independent director role is the only one past parity; the three roles with the most executive power — chair, CEO and finance director — all remain overwhelmingly male. Around 67% of FTSE 350 companies now have at least one woman in a key role, which means a third still have none.
Why does the boardroom outpace the executive team?
The single most quotable contrast in the UK data: women hold 49.5% of FTSE 350 non-executive director roles but only 15.4% of executive director roles (FTSE Women Leaders Review 2026, data as at October 2025). The modern FTSE board is near gender parity — but that parity was achieved almost entirely through non-executive appointments. In the executive seats on those same boards, women remain roughly one in six.
One layer below the board, progress is real but slower. Women hold 36% of FTSE 350 leadership roles — executive committee members and their direct reports — up from 32% in 2021 (October 2025 data). The Review’s 40% leadership ambition therefore remains unmet, and at the 2021–2025 rate of roughly one percentage point a year it would take until around 2030 to get there. Part of the reason the pipeline narrows is that mid-career attrition falls hardest on women — the career stages where maternity discrimination and unequal caring loads bite are exactly the stages that feed executive appointments.
| Role (FTSE 350) | Women’s share, Oct 2025 | Note |
|---|---|---|
| All board roles | 43% | Up from 9.5% in 2011 |
| Non-executive director roles | 49.5% | Effectively at parity |
| Executive director roles | 15.4% | Roughly one in six |
| Leadership roles (exec committee + direct reports) | 36% | Up from 32% in 2021 |
| Chief executive | 8% | Nine women CEOs in the FTSE 100 |
| Chair | 17% | One of the four ‘key roles’ |
| Finance director | 21% | One of the four ‘key roles’ |
| Senior independent director | 61% | The only key role past parity |
All rows are from the FTSE Women Leaders Review 2026, published 24 February 2026 with data as at October 2025.
How many women hold senior management roles in the UK?
Beyond the FTSE, the widest annual measure of the UK mid-market is Grant Thornton’s Women in Business series. Its 2026 edition (published 4 March 2026) found women hold 35.6% of senior management roles in UK mid-market firms, down from 36.3% the year before — and the share of mid-market chief executive roles held by women fell to 17%, from 24%, the lowest level in eight years. While listed-company boards were still edging forward, the mid-market moved backwards on both counts.
Financial services runs its own accountability regime. Across signatories to HM Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter, women held an average of 37% of senior roles in 2025, up from 36% in 2024, and 71% of signatories had either met their self-set targets or were on track to do so (HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter Annual Review, March 2026, reporting 2025 signatory data).
Private ownership tells a similar story to the mid-market: in the UK’s 50 largest private companies, women hold 30% of board roles and 37% of leadership roles (FTSE Women Leaders Review 2026, 2025 data) — well behind the listed FTSE 350 at board level. Retaining senior women is part of the challenge, and the evidence on why experienced women leave — including the impact of unsupported menopause symptoms on mid-career retention — is covered in our menopause in the workplace statistics page.
How many women lead in the Civil Service and Parliament?
The public sector is closer to parity at the top than the private sector. Women made up 49.2% of the Senior Civil Service as at 31 March 2025, up from 38.9% in 2015, and 54.6% of all civil servants, according to Civil Service Statistics 2025 (Cabinet Office); the 2026 edition is due in July 2026. On the current trajectory the Senior Civil Service will pass 50% women — a milestone no major UK listed-company leadership measure has reached.
In politics, a record 263 women MPs were elected at the July 2024 general election — 40% of the House of Commons — up from 220 in 2019 (House of Commons Library, Women in Politics and Public Life, updated 9 March 2026). It took until 2016 for the total number of women ever elected to Parliament to exceed the number of men sitting in a single Commons; 40% in one intake is a genuine structural shift, even if it still leaves the Commons short of parity.
How does the UK compare internationally on women on boards?
The UK ranks second in the G7 for women’s representation on major-index boards, at 43.4% for the FTSE 350, behind only France at 45.4% (Department for Business and Trade, February 2025, citing FTSE Women Leaders Review data). The comparison the UK draws from this is pointed: France’s figure is underpinned by statutory boardroom quotas, while the UK total was reached through a voluntary, business-led target regime — making Britain the strongest performer among countries that do not legislate for board composition.
The gap between board parity and executive parity, however, is an international pattern the UK exemplifies rather than escapes: like most G7 economies, its non-executive progress has far outrun the share of women actually running companies. On the measures that will decide the next decade — chief executives, chairs and the executive pipeline — the 2026 UK data (8% of FTSE 350 CEOs, 15.4% of executive directorships) shows how much distance remains. How discrimination and workplace culture feed that gap is covered in our wider workplace discrimination statistics page.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of FTSE 100 board positions are held by women?
Women held 44.4% of FTSE 100 directorships as at October 2025, according to the House of Commons Library’s March 2026 briefing. The Department for Business and Trade’s February 2025 release put the FTSE 100 figure at 44.7% (boards data as at January 2025) — either way, the FTSE 100 sits comfortably above the 40% voluntary target.
How many female CEOs are there in the FTSE 100 and FTSE 350?
Just nine FTSE 100 chief executives are women, and women hold only 8% of chief executive roles across the whole FTSE 350 (FTSE Women Leaders Review 2026, data as at October 2025).
Has the UK met the 40% women on boards target?
In aggregate, yes: FTSE 350 boards averaged 43% women as at October 2025, above the voluntary 40% target set for the end of 2025. At company level, 69% of FTSE 350 companies have reached 40% or more and 88% have met the target or are within reach — but the target has not been met by every individual company.
How does the UK compare internationally on women on boards (G7)?
The UK ranks second in the G7, with women holding 43.4% of FTSE 350 board roles, behind France on 45.4%. France operates statutory boardroom quotas; the UK is the strongest G7 performer with a voluntary approach.
Are there still all-male boards in the FTSE 350?
No. There have been no all-male boards in the FTSE 350 since 2020. In 2011, when tracking began, women held just 9.5% of FTSE 350 board roles and all-male boards were common.
Who publishes women in leadership statistics in the UK?
The core sources are the FTSE Women Leaders Review (every February), the House of Commons Library’s Women and the UK economy and Women in Politics and Public Life briefings (each March), HM Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter Annual Review and Grant Thornton’s Women in Business (spring), and the Cabinet Office’s Civil Service Statistics (July).
Related guides
- Workplace Discrimination Statistics UK: Tribunal Claims, Prevalence & Protected Characteristics
- Maternity Discrimination Statistics UK
- Menopause in the Workplace Statistics UK: Absence, Retention & Employer Support
- Shared Parental Leave Statistics UK
- Why Diversity Matters: Benefits at Work and in Society
- Equality Act 2010: The Complete UK Guide
Sources & references
- FTSE Women Leaders Review — Progress and annual report 2026 (published 24 February 2026)
- Department for Business and Trade — UK businesses lead the way with record numbers of female leaders (25 February 2025)
- House of Commons Library — Women and the UK economy (SN06838, March 2026)
- HM Treasury — Women in Finance Charter Annual Review (March 2026)
- Grant Thornton UK — Women in Business 2026 (4 March 2026)
- Cabinet Office — Civil Service Statistics 2025 (data as at 31 March 2025)
- House of Commons Library — Women in Politics and Public Life (SN01250, updated 9 March 2026)
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Mark writes about equality, diversity and inclusion, UK workplace compliance and accredited online training for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Training, part of Online CPD Academy.