Companies without women in senior boardroom roles are at "a competitive disadvantage" and should ask themselves where their talented employees have gone, says Kitty Ussher.

在富时100指数成分股公司的顶级职位中，女性只占2%。男女平等运动人士预计，以这种情况看，尽管男女在员工总数中几乎各占一半，但要让董事会中的女性比例与男性持平，尚需40年时间。而且，据称在伦敦金融区中心，骚扰和性别歧视仍很常见。法庭上经常出现一系列涉嫌"金融城大男子主义"的案例。

With women counting for just 2 per cent of the top jobs in FTSE-100 companies, equality campaigners have forecast that it will take 40 years before they reach the same level of representation as men in the boardroom despite accounting¹ for almost half the workforce². And, in the heart of London's financial district, it is claimed that harassment³ and sexual discrimination remain commonplace. The courts have seen a string of alleged⁴ "sexism in the City" cases.

虽然没有谈及法庭案例，但厄谢尔指出，至少有一位首席执行官曾经提出，女性在英国公司高层代表名额不足是个"需要解决的问题"。"我对这个问题的看法一向如此，公司招募到最佳人才并且留住最佳人才，才会有最佳表现，"她表示。"如果它们不能留住某些人才，就会让自己处于劣势。"

Ms Ussher, though steering⁵ clear of the court cases, said at least one chief executive had raised the under-representation of women at the top of UK companies "as something that needs to be addressed". "My view on this has always been the same, which is that companies will do best if they recruit the best talent and they keep the best talent," she said. "And, if they're not keeping some of their talent pool, then that puts them at a disadvantage."

"如果我是CEO，当我发现有人（绝大多数是家有小孩的父母，但不全是）在人生的某个阶段决定离职时，我就会说：'我们为什么要失去这个人才？'"

"If I was a CEO and I found people, predominantly but not totally mothers and parents of young children, deciding to leave at a certain stage in their life, I would say, 'Why are we losing the talent?'

"反过来看，还有一个社会某些领域缺乏信誉的问题。为什么某些具有特定种族背景或特定性别的人无法取得企业家那样的成功？其实并没有什么事实证据表明他们的能力较差。"

"If you flip⁶ it around the other way, there's also an issue about certain sectors⁷ of society not getting access to credit. Why is it that people from certain ethnic⁸ backgrounds or a certain gender⁹ are not succeeding so well as entrepreneurs and there's actually no factual evidence that they are less capable?"