Lord Davies, a former business minister, was asked by Vince Cable, the business secretary, to look for ways to boost gender equality in UK boardrooms. In the UK only 12.5% of directors in FTSE100 companies are women, and there has been no significant improvement in the last 3 years.

An obvious answer would be to set quotas for a minimum percentage of women on boards. It worked in Norway, where in 2005 the government set quotas for women's representation on boards and they now almost 40% of board directors are women, from 6% in 2002. Spain and France have followed suit with quotas and last week Michel Barnier, the European Union's markets commissioner, said he was "open to the idea" of official targets.

Quotas can bring about a marked change...with speed, so the fact that it seems that Lord Davies will completely rule out quotas at this stage seems like a missed opportunity.

Instead, Lord Davies is expected to demand that:

- companies to set their own targets

- diversity should be as much a part of the annual reporting calendar as corporate social responsibility and;

- shareholders should play their part by asking what action the companies they invest in have taken, and also urge the FRC, to apply pressure.

I just hope that S.M.A.R.T KPIs are set against these conditions to measure how successful they are. And if targets are not met, then quotas should be reconsidered.

I also believe that for organisations and shareholders to be pro-active about increasing female representation, and to do this with genuine drive, they need to understand why diversity makes business sense and what’s the real impact on the bottom line of having more women on boards (there’s certainly enough research out there to support this!). I therefore hope that in Lord Davies full report, out later this month, there will be some form of 'education campaign' aimed at businesses and shareholders explaining the benefits of women in leadership!

Sandra