One of the City’s top female bankers today called on women to be picked for senior roles ahead of equally qualified men.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s The World at One, Ana Botin, chief executive of Santander UK said: “Other things equal, we should give a chance to women. That’s what I try to do.”
She added that “positive discrimination” should be considered but it needed to be done in the “right way”.
“It’s also not good for women to get appointed just because you are a woman,” she stressed.
Ms Botin also advocated offering women “personalised” support from employers during their careers. Business Secretary Vince Cable has asked for legal advice from the Equality and Human Rights Commission on all-women shortlists for board appointments to FTSE 100 and other smaller companies.
Just over a fifth of FTSE 100 company directors are women.
