A diversity and inclusion survey has revealed that the number of women working at board level in UK retail and foodservice wholesale has increased from 11% to 20% over the past six years.
However, the research also revealed that equal opportunities formed the biggest disparity between male and female responses, with only 57% of females agreeing that “all people can succeed in my organisation”, compared with 80% of men.
Agreement to the same statement was just 50% amongst people with a disability. Meanwhile, 60% of women agreed that that they “trust my organisation to be fair to all employees”, versus 80% of men.
Read more: Women in Wholesale launches diversity and inclusion survey
Commissioned by Women in Wholesale (WiW) and conducted by TWC, it looked into the progress made since the launch of the WiW initiative and the figures were shared at the WiW Annual Conference in London, where more than 250 delegates from wholesalers and their suppliers gathered.
“Diverse organisations grow faster and are more profitable,” said Tanya Pepin, managing director at TWC. “That’s why it’s so important to have this industry-specific insight which will help to get some important conversations around diversity and inclusion started in our sector.”
“This ground-breaking study shines a positive light on the progress being made in our sector – as well as helping us to identify where we can improve,” said WiW Founder, Elit Rowland.
Last week’s conference saw record attendance, with numbers up 39% since pre-Covid.
