Never mind the numbers – the boardroom gender battle has barely begun

It’s the way the world’s going, but still it looks quite impressive that the number of women directors of FTSE100 companies has risen from 135 in 2011 (when Vince Cable, as Business Secretary, began agitating on the subject) to 349 today — representing a third of all blue-chip boardroom seats. It’s not long since that proportion was below 10 per cent. But is the corporate patriarchy truly in retreat, or is this still a matter of reluctant window-dressing by the old boys’ network who have prime responsibility for populating boards? I’m reminded of a FTSE boss I once lunched with who said: ‘Oh yes, Vince wrote us a pretty stiff letter but luckily we found a splendid girl to put on the board — [she’s] one of the boys really, loves her shootin’ and everything.’

Veteran businesswomen were as one this week in telling me that the real test of this culture change is at executive, rather than non-executive, level.