The Review is the successor of the Hampton-Alexander Review and the Davies Review, all aimed at increasing focus on gender diversity at board and senior leadership level by Government, companies, and investors.

The Review focuses on the FTSE 350 but over the past two years it has also looked beyond the largest listed companies to examine diversity in leadership at 50 of the largest private companies and partnerships in the UK.

The 2024 Review, indicates that women now hold over one third of all leadership roles in FTSE 350 companies and includes the following key findings:

• FTSE 350 companies met the target of women holding on average 40% of board positions last year, three years earlier than the target of December 2025. Women now hold 42.1% of board roles, with some companies targeting gender parity. There are no all-male boards remaining in the FTSE 350.
• This means the UK is second globally in terms of percentage of women on boards, behind only France at 44.7% which operates a quota system rather than the voluntary system in the UK.
• In respect of the four senior board roles, being Chair, Senior Independent Director (SID), CEO and CFO, there has been continued progress in representation in the role of the SID where women now hold 47% of positions in the FTSE 350. Women hold one in six Chair roles.
• However, the number of women in executive director roles is lagging this, with only 15% across the FTSE 350. Churn in CEO positions has led to no change in the number of women in this role over the past year, at 21.
• There has been progress in the number of women in the executive committee and their direct reports, which now stands at 34.5% for the FTSE 350, and at 28.2% on the executive committee itself (2022: 33.5% and 27%)
• In respect of the top 50 private companies and partnerships, board representation for women stayed at 31%, the same as in the 2023 report. However there has been an increase in the number of women in the executive committee and their director reports, to 36%, up from 34% in the previous year. 46 out of the 50 companies that were approached submitted data to the Review.

The Review notes that although the rate of appointing women to senior roles in the largest listed companies is rising, in 2022 more than six out of ten available leadership roles still went to men.

The full Review is available on the FTSE Women Leaders website.