Midlands Engine Quarterly Economic Briefing to focus on women in leadership

On 18 March, the Midlands Engine Partnership will hold their Quarterly Economic Briefing (QEB), with confirmed speakers including:

• Theo Clarke MP, Member of Women and Equalities Commons Select Committee
• Jigna Varu CEO, Home Fresh
• Dr Ewa Truchanowicz, MD of Dignio UK
• Suzy Verma, Head of Business Development, HSBC

They, along with Midlands Engine partners, will take the briefing as an opportunity to celebrate women in leadership positions across the region, as well as identify areas where barriers to leadership opportunities can be identified and addressed.

Register for the briefing here ➡️  https://bit.ly/3sS7Xfj

The event follows the publication on International Women’s Day of the Midlands Engine’s impactful report, Women in Business Leadership in the Midlands, authored by Dr Samia Mahmood and Professor Silke Machold of the University of Wolverhampton.

The report’s research aimed to better understand the current representation of women on boards and women-owned businesses in the Midlands region, identify barriers to gender diversity and inclusivity, and provide recommendations to promote gender diversity in leadership. It offers offers proposals for interventions to promote women into leadership at the individual level, such as tackling biases and allyship; at the organisational level, such as flexible working hours and targets towards gender balance; and at the regional level, such as support networks and targeted resources.

Among the findings of the report were:

• Women hold 15.8% of directorships in the top 350 public and private companies in the Midlands, which is lower thanin the UK’s large public companies.
• Women hold only 7.8% ofexecutive directorships in the Midlands largest 350 companies, compared to 13.7% and 11.3% in FTSE100 and FTSE250 companies respectively.
• Amongst the Midlands350,there are 169 companies with male-only boards which equates to 48% of the companies.
• Women-led businesses are least prevalent in the East and West Midlands. Only 17% of all UK small businesses are women led, and only 1.4% and 1.2% of these are in the West and East Midlands respectively, which is a lower proportion than the rest of England.