"Despite much lip service about the importance of having women in top jobs, today's data shows we are still generations away from achieving anything close to equality," said Sam Smethers, chief executive of The Fawcett Society.

"We are wasting women's talent and skills."

The Society said its 2020 Sex and Power Index showed also "an alarming lack of women of colour across the top jobs in all sectors".

It noted that only six percent of companies trading on London's benchmark FTSE 100 stocks index were led by female chief executives.

"None of these CEOs are women of colour," it added.

And in parliament's lower House of Commons, 34 percent of MPs are women. "Women of colour now make up 17 percent of the women MPs, which is in line with the population as a whole," the Society said however.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2020