Diversity Progress Slows on UK Boards as Female & Ethnic Minority Appointments Decline

• Political pressure from the UK and US is having an impact on corporate decisions regarding diversity
• UK-listed companies appear to be deprioritizing boardroom diversity targets
• The proportion of women appointed to board roles has declined to 50%

In the face of growing political pressures on both sides of the Atlantic, UK-listed companies appear to be quietly retreating from serious commitments to diversity. Recent numbers showing a dip in boardroom representation for women and members of ethnic minorities. Women made up exactly 50 percent of new appointments to boards in 2024, and members of ethnic minorities represented only 20 percent of new appointees.

Over the last decade, boardroom diversity has emerged as an increasingly central issue for global businesses, spurred on by the need to comply with requirements, the strong business rationale for inclusion, and more broadly the societal shift to equality. Women in leadership roles are viewed as key role models for other women and are agents of structural change in their companies when it comes to addressing barriers to career advancement for other women.

However, before a recent political backlash caught fire, the pace of progress at the UK level was slow. As early as the beginning of 2024, the warning lights were on regarding a backward step in some sectors. Governance-focused firm Indigo produced a report and found that AIM-listed companies were making only limited progress on gender data in governance. Although the proportion of boards with no female members had improved slightly (from 42 percent down to 37 percent), almost one in six AIM board seats were held by women.

Ethnic diversity has also regressed. In 2023, 23 percent of new appointees identified as being Black, Asian, Arab or other ethnic minority. By 2024 this figure had slipped to 20 percent, a figure approximately representative of the UK population, but not remotely close to tackling the imbalances that currently exist. Only 13 percent of UK board members currently identify as from a minority ethnic group (Spencer Stuart).

 Despite these regressions, Heidrick & Struggles' 2025 Board Monitor Report is cautiously positive. The report says FTSE 350 boards have mostly kept their commitments to gender equity and international experience. Kit Bingham, head of the firm's UK board practice, added that UK boards are "doing well in the areas that really matter".

Nonetheless, there is criticism that this optimism is misplaced. The UK is made up of 51 percent women, and to appoint women to half of all new board positions does little to fix the gender imbalance present. The Spencer Stuart report suggests that unless there is more meaningful action, the percentage of board seats occupied by women will remain an unimpressive 40 percent.

Furthermore, diversity efforts beyond gender and ethnicity remain opaque. LGBTQ+ representation is absent from the Heidrick & Struggles data, and with some leading companies recently limiting access to facilities for transgender employees, there is little evidence of progress toward inclusion in that space either.

Ultimately, while UK companies may claim to be maintaining progress on diversity, the data suggests a slowdown—and in some cases, a retreat—from genuine inclusion in board leadership.