10% of FTSE directors are now women

The number of women occupying seats in Britain's top company boardrooms has hit one in 10 for the first time.

Four years ago, women held only 5.8 per cent of directorships at companies in the blue- chip FTSE 100 index.

Today's figures show they are making slow but steady progress with about one in six of new board appointments this year being female candidates.

They included former Competition Commission deputy head Denise Kingsmill, who joined BA as non-executive director, and former Coca-Cola Great Britain boss Penny Hughes, on the boards of Vodafone and Trinity Mirror-The statistics from the annual Female FTSE report were welcomed by Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt, who is also Cabinet minister for women.

She said women were still " woefully under represented" but the situation was "gradually getting better".

But the report, from Cranfield-School of Management, reveals 31 FTSE 100 firms, including Next, William Hill and ITV, do not have a single woman director.

And there is still only one female chief executive, Marjorie Scardino at Pearson, and one chairwoman, Baroness Hogg at 3i.

Most women are appointed to non-executive or part-time roles with limited influence. There are still only 17 fulltime executive directors - the same as last year - making up four per cent of the total.

Ms Hewitt also announced plans to increase the number of women and people from ethnic minorities on shortlists for 4,000 government vacancies each year. Headhunters will have to draw up a "diverse list" of candidates, though there will be no set quotas.