60% of people employed by the retail industry are women. 85% of all retail purchases are made or influenced by women. Yet only 20% of executive teams, and just 10% of executive boards are women claims a recent gender report.
Looking at these stats from the gender report, you have to ask the question: how can UK retailers say they really know their people or their customers at all…?
The recent demise of some of Britain’s most iconic retailers has been attributed to them losing touch with their customers. Customers who are ~85% women. Would this have been the case if their executive team had better gender balance? Or if they had had a woman at the helm? We can’t help but wonder…
We have interviewed over 70 senior executives, both men and women, across 44 UK retailers, and all of them agreed that gender (as well as other forms of ) diversity leads to better business results. Yet when asked specifically about gender balance inside their own companies, 72% of them felt that their company is still not doing enough. And everyone agreed that more can be done.
Read more gender reports here.
