The Guardian reports comments from Lib Dem business secretary Vince Cable, following evidence that the proportion of female appointments to FTSE 100 and 250 companies has reduced:

The Liberal Democrat business secretary and former chief economist at Shell is also clear that slow progress isn’t an indication of disregard for the agenda, instead he explains that the overall trend shows culture and practices are changing.

Earlier this year however, Boardwatch, part of the Professional Boards Forum, found that while female appointments to non-executive director roles are increasing, executive board promotions remain low. Cable admits this is a major issue and something that needs to be tackled jointly by business and government.

“Companies who are taking gender seriously are finding non-executive directors and that’s good in itself, but there is a much deeper problem in that senior managerial jobs are areas in general where women are not moving,” he says. “In some sectors of the economy, like retail, that is happening, but more generally there is a chronic deficit of women in top decision-making jobs and that’s something that can’t be remedied in the short term by the type of campaigns that we’re doing.”

He also wants to prevent the practice of one woman holding multiple non-executive directorships, to encourage more newcomers onto boards and prevent companies from box-ticking by employing the same small group of women. To achieve this, and to promote more women at executive level, requires solving the promotion and retention issues that plague almost every sector, and this falls to businesses themselves, Cable explains.

“It requires a building up of the pipeline over a decade or more, companies identifying high performing women and making sure they get the necessary support and that they move through middle and upper management. It’s a more difficult cultural change, but it’s terribly important.”

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