LONDON — A high-level British minister warned businesses Wednesday that the government might have difficulty maintaining its opposition to quotas for women on company boards after a report showed that the steady advance in female representation at the highest levels of British corporate life might have ground to a halt in the last six months.

Britain has been trying to stave off European proposals calling for quotas for women on boards. But Vince Cable, the British business secretary, said Wednesday that if the biggest publicly traded companies failed to meet a British government target that 25 percent of board seats be held by women by 2015, it would be hard for officials to defend its stance.

“Government continues to believe that a voluntary-led approach is the best way forward,” he said. He added that the latest report by the Cranfield School of Management tracking companies’ efforts to advance women put attainment of the government’s goal in question.

“Today’s report also serves as a timely reminder to business that quotas are still a real possibility if we do not meet the 25 percent target of women on boards of FTSE 100 companies by 2015,” Mr. Cable added.

The Cranfield report found that while many of the largest British companies had been on track to meet the 25 percent goal, progress had stalled over the last six months.

“When we consider the year-on-year figures, the increases and rates of appointment look good,” the report said. “However, in the past six months the momentum has alarmingly decreased, and little progress has been made since October 2012.”

Women now hold 17.3 percent of all director positions, up from 10.5 percent in 2010, the report said. A quarter of the FTSE 100 companies have already hit the 25 percent target.

The report singled out Burberry as the only FTSE company to have two women as executive directors: its chief executive and chief financial officer. In second place was the beverage giant Diageo, where 4 of the 11 directors, or 36 percent, are women. Sharing third place were Capita, GlaxoSmithKline and Standard Life, with women holding 33 percent of board seats.

Mr. Cable said that 94 out of the 100 firms listed on the FTSE had women on their boards, as did two-thirds of all FTSE 350 companies.

“However, the momentum appears to be slowing and there has been much less progress in executive appointments at the top,” he said.

Britain has argued within the European Union that quotas were not necessary in part because the issue was being tackled at a national level.

A spokesman for David Cameron, the British prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party, later tempered Mr. Cable’s warning to business by reiterating that Mr. Cameron “does not favor quotas.”

Last year Mr. Cable, who represents the Liberal Democrats, the smaller party in the governing coalition, helped organize a letter signed by nine European countries opposing Union-wide quotas. He said Wednesday that he continued to back that position.

“Our view is that it is best to make sure that business in the United Kingdom addresses this issue rather than to have regulation coming from Europe,” said a spokesman for Mr. Cable, who asked not to be identified by name in line with British government policy.

Viviane Reding, a vice president of the European Commission, has proposed a measure that would impose procedures for the selection of board members at companies with revenue of €50 million, or $65 million, until they reached a quota of 40 percent of women as board members. Firms would have until 2020 to reach the 40 percent target.

Mina Andreeva, spokeswoman for Ms. Reding, said the developments in Britain illustrated that regulatory pressure worked.

“The cracks are starting to show on the glass ceiling,” she said. “And look at Britain, where the debate on women in economic decision making is now more intense than ever before. We have got the ball rolling.”

In a statement, Roger Carr, president of Confederation of British Industry, a business lobbying group, said that if obstacles to developing female talent were to be removed, “business leaders must roll up their sleeves and redouble their efforts to improve recruitment, mentoring and succession planning.”

“Tokenistic E.U quotas will do nothing to address the root causes of this issue,” he added. “It is critical we nurture a diverse talent base right from the bottom to the top of our companies to hone our competitive edge.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/business/global/britain-warns-of-loss-of-momentum-on-naming-women-to-boards.html?partner=rss&emc=rss