One of the largest investors in the UK stock market, Legal & General Investment Management, is stepping up efforts to improve the gender balance on corporate boards with a threat to target the chairs of companies where women are badly under-represented.
LGIM, which manages £1tn of assets, has announced it will vote against the chairs of FTSE 350 companies at annual meetings in 2018, if their boards are not at least 25% female. It has begun voting against all-male boards in the US.
This move by a major UK fund manager indicates how much more important gender balance has become to investors and will pile pressure on companies to tackle the underrepresentation of women in senior roles.
