Companies across the East Midlands are being urged to strengthen female leadership after new research from De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) revealed that almost half of the region’s top firms have no women at board level.

A new report by Dr Marian Chijoke-Mgbame, from the Institute for Responsible Business and Social Justice at DMU's School of Accounting, Finance and Economics, examined the top 500 companies in the East Midlands and found that, on average, women make up just 19 per cent of board members, and that female representation in the top leadership roles is even lower.

The East Midlands Top 500 Female Board Report looked at the board make up of 493 of the region’s highest-turnover companies across sectors including manufacturing, retail, construction, automotive and business services.

Its findings show:

• 47 per cent of companies had no female board members at all
• Seven companies had a female CEO
• Four companies had a female chair
• Ten companies had a female CFO

In the report Dr Marian Chijoke-Mgbame argues that improving gender diversity is not simply a social issue but a business issue linked to governance, innovation and competitiveness.

Among the region’s biggest companies, the report found that several major firms had no female board representation, including Boots UK, Sytner Group, Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) and Bloor Investments.

However, the report, supported with DMU’s Higher Education Innovation Funding, also highlighted examples of companies performing strongly on female representation, including Dunelm Group, which recorded 40 per cent female board representation, and several firms where women made up more than half of board members.

Dr Chijoke-Mgbame said: "The East Midlands has an opportunity to position itself as a leader in inclusive business leadership, particularly as companies compete for talent and investment."

The report recommends that businesses:

• develop stronger female leadership pipelines
• introduce mentoring and board-readiness programmes
• publish gender diversity data more transparently
• create regional forums to share best practice
• encourage larger companies to lead by example on inclusion targets.

The study notes that sectors such as retail and “other services” performed better on female representation than construction and wholesale, suggesting that progress across the regional economy remains uneven.

The report was supported through DMU’s Higher Education Innovation Funding.

DMU's Institute for Responsible Business and Social Justice aims to bring together the leading international research strengths and researchers across Leicester Castle Business School and Law.

Posted on Monday 6 July 2026