Fifth of FTSE 100 firms have no women on board

British boardrooms will have to make massive leaps in recruiting women to their boards if they are going to adhere to new anti-discrimination guidelines. A government inquiry headed by former trade minister Lord Davies is calling on the country's 350 largest public companies to ensure that 25% of their directors are female by 2015. However, the latest figures show that 18 FTSE 100 firms have no women on their boards, while only 16 blue chip companies can boast an executive director who is not male. When asked to explain the absence of women in its boardroom, a spokesman for FTSE 100 miner Antofagasta, said that the company considers if candidates have "sufficient time to devote to the role". In the FTSE 250 there are currently only 24 female executive directors, 3.97% of the total, according to corporate governance group, Manifest. A spokesman for PartyGaming, a FTSE 250 group with an all-male board, said: "Is there a strict rule that you've got to have women on the board? If women are right for a particular role they'll be there." FTSE 100 companies without a female director Vedanta Resources Essar Energy Amec Antofagasta Associated British Foods Autonomy Bunzl Randgold Resources African Barrick Gold Aggreko Hammerson Invensys Kazakhmys Weir Group Wolseley Fresnillo Xstrata International Power Source: Cranfield University School of Management