Focus on gender balanced boards ‘stifling broader diversity debate’

The current focus on appointing more women to UK boardrooms is sending out the wrong message on diversity at the top levels, a leading inclusion expert has warned.

Speaking at the first Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion (ENEI) annual conference, Dr Atul Shah told delegates: “Women are not the whole story in improving boardroom diversity.

“As Cranfield revealed that women now make up 15.6 per cent of UK FTSE 100 board members, there was no data that I could find on the number of ethnic minorities in boardroom posts. And if there are numbers they will be very small numbers,” he said.

“At the leadership level it sets the wrong example and you could say that boards do not comply with the spirit of the Equality Act. So we have quite a big challenge ahead.”

Shah, who is CEO of Diverse Ethics, has conducted in-depth research on boardroom diversity with senior experts in this field including Professor Binna Kandola, Anne Watts, former chair of the Appointments Commission, and Ruby McGregor-Smith, former chair of Race for Opportunity and chief executive of MITIE.

He said that during interviews for his research many experts expressed concerns about the narrow focus of the Lord Davies review.

“They said that by focussing on women, the Davies report, in a subtle way, puts a full stop on other areas of different and excludes them,” Shah explained. “It’s quite shocking at the time of the London Olympics, which we won because of our cultural diversity, that here is Lord Davies just focussing on women and not talking about wider cultural diversity.”

Shah was also critical of leaders who ask for a business case for diversity, and said: “To me, it’s arrogant for board members to ask for proof that diversity brings better performance.”