Women directors: why I've changed my mind | Julia Finch

For 20 years I rejected the idea of forcing firms to put women on their boards. But nothing has changedIn 1991 Kathleen O'Donovan was named the first female finance director of BTR, once the British Tyre and Rubber Company and then one of the UK's top 100 public firms. Such was the significance of her appointment that the Financial Times carried a large and suitably glamorous picture of Ms O'Donovan on its front page. It was regarded as a turning point: she would surely be the first of many, as the have-it-all generation of women stormed the highest echelons of business.Fast forward 20 years, and where are we now? There are just five female bosses of FTSE-100 companies, and three of them are Americans who had held boardroom jobs outside the UK.We have had endless reports about how to

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