LONDON: The number of women on the boards of Britain’s top 350 listed companies has jumped by 50 percent in five years, a government-backed study showed Wednesday.

There were 1,026 female board members in January, compared with 682 in October 2015, according to a final annual report from the Hampton-Alexander Review.

“There’s been excellent progress for women leaders in business over the last 10 years or more, with boards and shareholders determined to see change,” said the report’s chair Philip Hampton.

“The progress has been strongest with non-executive positions on boards, but the coming years should see many more women taking top executive roles.

“That’s what is needed to sustain the changes made,” he added.

The organisation, which set out to promote higher female representation in the corporate world, added that 34.3 percent of board positions at the identified firms were held by women, compared with 21.9 percent five years earlier.

It showed also that females occupied 36.2 percent of board positions at the 100 firms listed on London’s top stocks index, up from 32.4 percent in 2019.

For the first time, two FTSE 100 firms have more women on their board than men — alcoholic drinks giant Diageo and water company Severn Trent.