Glass ceiling remains firmly in place in FTSE 100 boardrooms – and beyond

We might have women leading governments in the UK and Germany and the prospect of Hillary Clinton becoming the first female president of the United States, but the corporate glass ceiling still hasn't been quite broken.

According to a collaborative research project between KPMG, Why Women Work, YSC and the 30% Club, there has been no increase in female participation in executive committees for more than two years among FTSE 100 companies.

Responding to the findings, Darina Barrett, a partner at KPMG in Ireland, said that while progress is being made in Irish businesses, "we have long known that women are under-represented at board level".

“A bottleneck remains for women at executive committee level and various barriers must be overcome if women are to advance in Irish business. Measures such as monitoring and openly reporting the progress of women in organisations may help to encourage a process of change.”

It seems that among the FTSE 250, the number of senior female executives at executive committee level in the UK has remained static at 17 per cent. The number of women holding roles in the ranks immediately below this level increased by 2 per cent to 25 per cent in 2016.

So how does KPMG Ireland shape up in terms of gender diversity? Of the 94 partners (who own the firm) listed on its website, 16 are women. That’s 17 per cent of the total, putting the firm bang in line with the figure for the representation of women at executive committee level at FTSE 250 companies.

Meanwhile, KPMG’s transparency report for 2015 shows that of the 10 leadership roles within the firm, just one was filled by a woman – Darina Barrett, head of markets: financial services and a member of the global markets steering group.

Managing partner Shaun Murphy is the latest in a long line of men that have led the firm since the foundation of Stokes Brothers in 1876. The old Fianna Fáil election slogan of "A Lot Done, More To Do" comes to mind.