AIM-listed companies stall on gender diversity
AIM-listed companies have been accused of having their “head in the sand” when it comes to ensuring gender diversity on company boards after new research revealed representation to have stalled.
The number of women holding directorships in AIM companies remained at one in six over the last year, according to an annual gender diversity report from Addidat and Indigo Independent Governance.
FTSE 350 firms have a voluntary target of 40 per cent female board representation, which the study found only 11 per cent of AIM-listed companies would currently hit.
Meanwhile, the number of all-male boards on London’s junior stock market increased, with 38 per cent having no female directors.
Indigo founder Bernadette Young said the results were “disappointing” and AIM companies “need to consider adopting clearer diversity ambitions”.
“Gender diversity transformed over the last few years in the FTSE 350 and reporting has been a big driving factor,” Young told CityAM.
She called for transparent search and selection processes to “eliminate unconscious bias”.
‘It doesn’t cost any more to recruit a woman’
Addidat’s chief executive, Nina Spencer, said despite more firms having two or more women on their boards, the percentage of firms with no women increased.
Young added: “High performers indicate it can be done – size should not be a barrier.
“It doesn’t cost any more to recruit a woman than a man.”
The findings reveal 72 per cent of AIM companies still have no women in key leadership positions with five per cent having more than one woman in a senior board role, which Spencer said risks perceptions of “box-ticking” and “tokenism”.
Real estate showed the worst performance on gender diversity with three quarters of companies having no women on boards – although a slight improvement from 81 per cent in 2024.
AIM utilities firms scored highest with 26 per cent female board representation, though still trailing behind the FTSE350 target of 40 per cent.
Spencer highlighted some “slow but positive change” with the number of firms with more than one female director up three per cent to nearly three in 10, but reiterated “the overall picture remained poor”.