The glass ceiling has become more like a "reinforced concrete barrier", with progress by women into top jobs slowing to a "snail's pace" and in many cases going into reverse, the Equality and Human Rights Commission said. Its annual study of women's progress in achieving positions of power and influence reported the biggest number of falls since the survey was launched five years ago. As a result, there were fewer female Westminster MPs, cabinet ministers, members of the Scottish and Welsh assemblies, national newspaper editors, senior police officers and judges, health and local authority chief executives, trade union general secretaries and heads of professional bodies. The proportion of women directors on the boards of FTSE 100 companies was one of the few areas to show an improvement, rising from 10.4 per cent to 11 per cent. But even here it would take 75 years at current rates of progress to achieve gender equality. On the same basis it would take 200 years - another 40 general elections - to achieve an equal number of women in parliament.
Financial Times