Will Halfords and Homebase set a trend of more women running retailers?

Two unusual things happened on Monday morning. At 9am, my boyfriend phoned to tell me an unexploded World War Two bomb had been unsurfaced at a building site next to our flat.

At 9:30am another bombshell dropped: Jill McDonald had been appointed chief executive of Halfords.

Jill McDonald’s appointment shouldn’t be a big deal but it is. As of May 11, she will be the 15^th member of a tiny club of FTSE female chief executives (nine from the FTSE 250, five from the FTSE 100).

Staggeringly, just two – Angela Spindler of N Brown and Veronique Laury of Kingfisher – are leading retailers.

Last night, the Cranfield School of Management published its latest female FTSE board report.

Just 8.6% of senior executives in FTSE 100 companies are female. This may seem small but it is an improvement from 6.9% a year ago. In the FTSE 250, the proportion is more like one in 20 after a second successive fall.  

Board level representation looks much better, having been bolstered by the appointment of non-executive directors.

Women now account for 23.5% of board positions in the FTSE 100 (compared to 20.7% a year ago) and in the FTSE 250 it is 18% (compared to 15.6% in 2014). The FTSE 100, at least, is within touching distance of meeting its 25% female representation by the end of this year.

Back in retail, Jill McDonald’s appointment came just days after Echo Lu was revealed as the new managing director of Homebase.

The former Tesco executive’s role is divisional but the stakes are no less high. Homebase is a turnaround where the potential collateral damage is headline grabbing: 18,000 jobs, more than 300 stores and a household brand name. I wasn’t privy to the search process but expect this may have deterred candidates less gutsy than Echo Lu.

Of course it is a coincidence that two senior female appointments were made within days of each other but it is also indicative of a shift in thinking.

Whether I’m speaking to FTSE 100 companies, professional services firms or private equity houses, the female agenda is real.

Where representation is light on boards – both at executive committee and non executive level – the chairs and chief executivs are keenly aware of it, deeply uncomfortable about it and, crucially, trying to fix it.

Encouragingly, their arsenal for tackling the problem is expanding.

As well as parachuting in female non executives and leaders such as Jill McDonald and Echo Lu, companies are starting to address the root causes of their pipeline problems by reassessing their stance on the big issues like maternity leave and pay.  

They are quietly setting their own targets for female representation at senior levels and displaying a more nuanced and thoughtful approach to improving the situation.

I was with one such company recently and it was refreshing to hear they don’t see this as a problem for ‘women to solve’ nor do they allow use of the term ‘female role model’ because, in their eyes, everyone at a top level needs to lead by example.

Instead this company is challenging and coaching senior male executives who, for years, have been hiring and sponsoring in their own image. They have also introduced a structured and rigorous sponsorship programme where both parties are held to account.

These seemingly little things, carried out by many, will make a difference.

They will create a strong pipeline and lead us to a place where a female appointment is not a bombshell at all – but just another person getting a new job.

• Kate Walsh is head of retail and consumer practice at Ridgeway Partners