Female directors rare, says LCC report

Women make up just 8 per cent of directors sitting on the boards of a selection of London’s creative businesses, according to a report by the London College of Communications.



Women make up just 8 per cent of directors sitting on the boards of a selection of London’s creative businesses, according to a report by the London College of Communications.


London Design is the first major study to be published by LCC’s new research department, the Creative Industries Observatory. CIO was established in January 2007.


It states that, despite the high proportion of women designers in the industry, there are only eight female directors on the boards of the biggest creative groups, compared with 102 male directors. The study measures the size of consultancies by turnover.


The report offers several possible reasons for the low number of women making it into the boardroom of design consultancies.


One such explanation is that many of the top 20 groups serve the construction industry, or are technical in nature. Almost half of all UK design businesses work in the male-dominated areas of communications, digital and multimedia design, according to the report.


The study makes comparisons with the number of female board directors in 12 other creative sectors in London.


Design came in third from the bottom in the league after software, at 3 per cent, and architecture at 6 per cent.


The creative sectors with most women at the top are the performing arts, arts and antiques, and computer games. About 18 per cent of board directors in these sectors are female.

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  • Attitude Design November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    We often think about the ratio of male/female designers in the industry – this article here highlights this fact :http://www.attitudedesign.co.uk/where-are-the-female-designers/ therefore it is of no surprise that there are not very many female directors…

  • Shona Maciver November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    I’m one of those rare women design directors. The next generation of young women designers should be prepared at college level and in CPD to combat a level of professional discrimination. And this includes hard hats and dynamite for the design industry’s (toughened) glass ceiling.

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