Representation of women on private sector boards: research findings

Background

1. Scotland's Economic Strategy (Scottish Government, 2015) sets out the Scottish Government's purpose " to create a more successful country, with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish, through increasing sustainable economic growth". One of the four priorities of the strategy is Inclusive Growth, with a focus on addressing long-standing barriers to equality and diversity in the labour market .

2. With Scotland's first gender balanced cabinet, the First Minister has challenged all public, private, and third sector organisations to commit to take action on gender inequality with the launch of a voluntary Partnership for Change commitment to achieve a 50/50 gender balance on boards by 2020.

3. Partnership for Change builds on the ongoing work of the Public Boards and Corporate Diversity Programme. The programme has three strands:

• Strand 1 - To improve the percentage of women and other under-represented groups in leadership roles in Scotland, by fostering an enabling environment and securing a commitment to improved diversity by 2020.
• Strand 2 - To make Ministerial public appointments more diverse reflecting broadly the general population in Scotland by 2020.
• Strand 3 - To make Scottish Government's senior leadership more diverse reflecting broadly the general population in Scotland by 2020.