Gender equality in the boardroom is the subject of a roundtable dinner as part of The Edge – the official fringe festival of IFB2016.
The dinner is sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a company committed to supporting HeForShe – the UN initiative promoting gender equality worldwide, and hosted by Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).
Taking place at 60 Hope Street on Tuesday 28 June, attending will be senior business leaders from companies such as PwC, Trinity Mirror, BAE Systems, KPMG, Siemens, and Ernst and Young.
Recent high profile research by business advisor Grant Thornton on the economic impact of gender inequalities in big business around the world reveals that the profit foregone – the opportunity cost – by companies with male only executive boards amounts to $74 billion in the UK alone; whilst the overall impact of the FTSE 350 universally moving to mixed boards could be as high as a three percent boost to GDP nationally.
Robert Hough, Chair of Liverpool City Region LEP, said: “We are very much hoping that those attending this dinner will pledge a commitment to increasing female board membership by, for example providing more support, mentoring and career development for young businesswomen.
“By targeting young talent now, and training the next generation of female executives, we have a much better chance of meeting our aspirations for genuine and sustainable gender equality in leadership and boardroom positions.”
Grant Thornton’s Emma Stoddart, partner and head of audit in the North West, said: “Despite the proven benefits women bring to the boardroom, as highlighted by our research, a third of businesses still have no women at a senior management level.
“Since joining Grant Thornton as a trainee 20 years ago I’ve benefitted from excellent development opportunities and mentorship along with the flexibility and support to develop my career while raising a young family.
“Organisations need to do more to ensure they have the right level of flexibility to allow mothers to enjoy both their career and their family and allow them to manage the demands that doing both brings. I believe that if they do so those mothers will have the same opportunity to develop as their colleagues and it may result in more women taking up senior management roles.”
The initial timescale is two years, and the intention is to hold events at around the same time at the end of each year to assess how far pledges have come and how to move forward.