Near gender parity on retail boards, shows BRC report

Retailers have made huge strides on gender equality in the boardroom over the last five years according to the latest report from The British Retail Consortium and The MBS Group.

While women made up less than a third (32%) of boardrooms five years ago, that number has now almost reached parity, at 47% in this year’s report.

Many retailers have focused on training up the next generation, creating a clear pipeline of future leaders within their businesses. Other initiatives include appointment of D&I leaders, support for those going through menopause, mentoring, and employee-led initiatives.

However, the report also shows that not everything is rosy. Leadership representation for people with other characteristics such as a disability and from lower socioeconomic backgrounds saw slow progress. And, despite the whole retail workforce seeing greater ethnic representation, the number of leaders from these minority groups fell. While 12% of retail Boards had representation from a minority group last year, it was only 8% this year.

The report also reveals the industry has much further to go to foster an inclusive workplace culture that is felt by everyone. In the report’s ‘Employee Inclusion Index’, employee feelings of belonging and inclusion are generally low, especially for those who selected “prefer not to say” under gender, those with a disability, and those identifying as Black/African/Caribbean.

Other key statistics include:

• 90% of retailers have a coordinated D&I strategy in place (2024: 98%)
• 75% of retailers have at least one senior leader from a lower socioeconomic background (2024: 70%)
• 58% of businesses could identify at least one senior leader from the LGBTQ+ community (2024: 67%)
• 15% of businesses could identify at least one disabled leader (2024: 11%)

The impact of a difficult economic backdrop and cost pressures on retailers coupled with the increasingly challenging external conversation around D&I is clear in the report’s findings. But the report shows a reassuring determination from many retailers to not allow these factors to interfere with their mission in creating a truly equitable, productive workplace.

Retailers must continue to persevere and build on their hard work so far. They need to reflect on what is, and what is not, working and find solutions. The report identifies just how crucial CEO accountability and buy-in is for moving inclusion forward, especially CEO engagement with the wider workforce.

In 2021, alongside the first edition of this report, the BRC launched its D&I Charter. Nearly 90 retailers are now signatories and have pledged to improve D&I by focusing on six areas – CEO oversight, recruitment, progression, reporting, inclusivity, and responsibility. The Charter helps retailers to challenge their culture and biases holistically, learn from one another and embed greater D&I into their business.

Helen Dickinson OBE, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium, said, “Retailers should celebrate the enormous efforts made to ensure more women have a seat at the executive table. More than half of retail customer bases are women, so having their perspective is essential to success.

“But, if this year’s results have shown us anything, it is that we cannot rest on our laurels as progress can quickly fade. There is little point in having more diverse leadership if this does not translate into the lived experience of people within a business. All employees must feel a sense of belonging to be productive and power a business to a successful future.

“The work on achieving true diversity and inclusion must not stop until we get where the industry needs to be.”

Elliott Goldstein, Managing Partner at The MBS Group, said, “For the fifth year, MBS is proud to have partnered with the BRC to continue to move the dial on diversity and inclusion in the retail industry.

“Although we have seen real progress since our research began in 2021 – more than half of all direct reports into the executive committee in retail today are women – progress in moving the dial on ethnic diversity in leadership has been less encouraging. To ensure lasting change, retailers must continue to put their heads above the parapet to drive forward initiatives and commit to building work environments that are truly inclusive – particularly with the backdrop of today’s geopolitical environment.”