The number of women sitting on boards of top UK companies has risen 50 percent in five years. It means women now make up a third of the top jobs. That's according to a government-backed review, which says that, regardless of this apparent success, there is still work to be done.

Pavita Cooper is the founder of More Difference, a company that advises businesses on diversity, and a member of the steering committee for the 30% Club, a group that campaigns for female representation on boards.

Cooper says the progress, as presented, is falsely positive. "I mean, back in 2010, when we first started on this journey, we were sort of 12 percent. And as you can see, we've moved 50 percent just in five years. So it's been slow progress," says Cooper.

With more than 33 percent of board positions at FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 (the UK's top 100 and 250 companies by value) being held by women, the UK government has officially reached its gender target launched in 2016. And it did so without imposing quotas.

"We've always been very against quotas at the 30% Club, because we've always felt this has got to be an issue where men and women work together and come to it and it can't be about tokenism," says Cooper. 

"We wanted women to get them on merit and we've got them without quotas. So we think it's definitely the right way."

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Despite the vast improvement in representation, less than 33 percent of women fill leadership roles in the country's top 350 firms and women still struggle to get senior executive roles in smaller companies. 

"I think although we're celebrating this huge step forward when it comes to boards, the numbers below the board don't look as rosy," says Cooper.

Cooper believes there are still many obstacles in front of women on their way to the top. "It's issues such as culture, leadership, the environment women face when they want to take career breaks," she says.

The pandemic has disproportionately affected women, who are more at risk of losing their jobs and taking on a heavier burden of childcare and house care impacting their working arrangements, but Cooper believes lockdowns might at least have shown men "what it's like to be outside of the work environment for a long period and some of the anxiety you feel about going back."

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The barriers to women in the workplace, Cooper claims, are structural: "This is a world that's been created by men for men and they're the gatekeepers to key decisions and what's getting in the way of women being promoted at each of those key steps to the top."

These same barriers also prevent other categories of people, beside women, from holding top jobs in companies, including ethnic and religious minorities. Cooper's 30% Club is updating its representation targets to reach not only 50 percent of women at the boards of the UK's top companies, but also to include in this number a broader concept of diversity, interpreted in all its aspects.

"This is not about doing good just for the sake of society or for businesses, because organizations see better bottom-line results when they have greater diversity," she explains. 

"In the future, customers and employees will want to only be engaged with organizations that reflect the communities they serve."

Animator: James Sandifer. Video editor: Nuri Moseinco.