Firm gives its reasons for difficulty in hiring senior female staff
Rolls-Royce blamed the lack of women studying science, technology, engineering and maths as the reason for its difficulty in hiring senior female staff as it published an update on the Lord Davies review on women in boardrooms.
Although Davies, the former chairman of Standard Chartered, stepped back from recommending mandatory quotas in his report in February, he said FTSE 100 companies should aim for their boards to be 25% female by 2015.
Rolls-Royce, singled out by Labour leader Ed Miliband this week as a "good" company, issued a stock market announcement to say that it would seek to increase its boardroom diversity by 2015.
While it did not spell it out in the statement, its 14-strong board contains one woman ? Helen Alexander, the president of the CBI, who has made it clear that she does not support the idea of quotas.
Sir Simon Robertson, Rolls-Royce chairman, said the company was "committed to improving diversity at all levels of leadership ? and to making appointments based on merit at the most senior levels of our organisation".
He added: "We will take opportunities to increase boardroom diversity and will seek to make demonstrable progress towards this goal by 2015."
It is believed that 11% of Rolls-Royce apprentices are women which compares with data from the Royal Academy of Engineering which says they make up only 6% of engineering staff across the UK.
The company did not provide details of the ratio of female staff at lower ranks but said the "demographic profile of those participating in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects and careers continues to present challenges in this area, and requires a long-term and holistic response".
The most recent official data from the higher education statistics agency, covers 2009/10. It shows that 39% of maths students in higher education are women and 63% of those studying biological sciences are women. The proportion studying engineering and technology is 15%.
Robertson said: "We continue to work actively with schools and universities to encourage diversity, including gender diversity, among those taking STEM subjects and we are taking a number of steps to ensure that females have every opportunity to maximise their potential in our organisation."
Davies called on the chairmen of FTSE 350 companies to publish "aspirational goals" for boardroom diversity within six months of his February report.
The Association of British Insurers published a report this week showing that Davies was having an impact, albeit slow, on boardroom diversity. The investor group said that of all the non-executive directors appointed in 2011, 22.7% were women in the FTSE 100 and 17% in the FTSE 250. This helped the number of women in FTSE 100 boardrooms increase from 13.4% in 2010 to 14.2% in 2011.
The ABI called for improved disclosure as it said that only 19% of companies in the blue chip index had provided a "material statement" on boardroom diversity.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/sep/29/rolls-royce-and-hiring-senior-women
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