Abstract:
The Government Equalities Office (GEO) commissioned Cranfield School of
Management to examine the issue of diversity on boards of directors in the
private and public sectors.The project sought to addresses two main questions:
Why are there so few women and other under-represented groups on public and
private sector boards? and What is being done in order to increase diversity on
boards? The report is published in two parts: Part I considers the available
evidence on diversity on boards. It examines academic and non-academic
literature in the field, in the UK and internationally, and reviews available
evidence concerning the factors accounting for the absence of diversity on
boards. Part II maps out current practices aimed at increasing board diversity
based.The review of evidence reviewed revealed a persistent under-representation
of groups such as women, ethnic minorities and disabled people on both public
and private sector boards. However, most evidence in the UK and internationally
focused on gender rather than other underrepresented groups.
