Specialist recruiter Randstad Financial & Professional’s has found 94% of women attending its roundtable event, High Achieving, Inspiring Women, do not think mandatory boardroom quotas are the answer to underrepresentation in industry.
The figure comes despite Ranstad also releasing figures showing that 43% of full time accountants in the UK are women.
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Randstad Financial & Professional managing director Tara Ricks suggested this was because women would rather be successful on their own merit, adding "nobody wants to be the token on the board just because of their gender."
The discussion also focused on why women were not better represented, to which 73% listed "self doubt" as the main reason and 18% said "emotion," whilst just 8% said "too nurturing".
Formula One test driver Susie Wolff, who spoke at the event, noted "you have to keep on fighting for your ultimate goal and for that self-belief is vital."
The majority of attendees (58%) said women at the top were good at guiding other women up the ladder. However, 50% of those polled said women should actively promote other women.
When asked what the key attribute that women bring to the business world, 61% said empathy was the greatest strength, 16% suggested teamwork was the key strength while 14% said men and women brought the same attributes to the table.
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