These are the 102 big companies stepping up on women's equality in the UK
The list names those making progress on the pay gap, parental leave and women on boards.
A new list has revealed more than 100 large companies in the UK making measurable progress on gender equity.
The Women in Work 100 list names employers — including Apple, Tesco, IKEA and Lush — who meet standards for board representation, gender pay balance and sharing parental leave offerings publicly.
They all have at least 33% women on the board, a gender pay gap of less than 15%, and parental leave policies that are shared online. The measure only assessed whether policies are shared, rather than what they include.
Women in Work, which advocates for inclusive workplace policies, assessed over 400 large employers and found 102 of them made the list.
They include Channel 4, which launched the world’s first pregnancy loss policy in 2023, providing two weeks of paid leave and other support; and Diageo, the world’s biggest spirits company, which has a board made up of 73% women and offers employees up to £10,000 towards fertility treatment.
Scroll down for the full list of companies.
The Female Lead polled 10,000 women and found 60% felt their company was not doing enough to close its pay gap and promote equality in leadership roles, while 49% felt their company’s female and family policies were not relevant to them or their generation.
Edwina Dunn, founder of The Female Lead which is a partner for the Women in Work Summit 2024, said: “We welcome this initiative. It signals the beginning of original thinking, a chance for women’s voices and choices to be noted and valued. Because understanding women is not a nice-to-have, it’s a business imperative.”
Of the 400 companies studied by Women in Work, more than three quarters (79%) had a board made up of more than a third women, 58% had a pay gap of less than 15%, and almost half (47%) of the 400 companies made their parental leave offering transparent and searchable, including how many weeks they offered at full pay.
Food and drinks companies were among the best performing, though all sectors looked at had some companies that made the list.
Having a male CEO was not a barrier to progress, as 61% of the male CEOs ran companies that had achieved two out of three of the WiW measures.
Women in Work called on company leaders to benchmark where they are and “commit to move the dial faster”.
Mariella Frostrup, broadcaster, author and co-founder of Women in Work said: “We need leaders who truly question how we make work work for all genders.
“Our research shows how large employers have the power to eliminate inequities for women in work – within our lifetime.”
The WiW 100 List in full
Accenture (UK)
Admiral Group
AF Blakemore & Sons
AG Barr
Amazon UK
Anglian Water
Apple
Arup
Asda
AstraZeneca
Autotrader
Babcock International
BAE Systems
Barclays
Barratt Developments
BBC
Biffa
BP
British American Tobacco
Britvic
BT Group
Burberry Group
C & C Group
Circle Health Group
Coca-Cola HBC AG
Colt Group Holdings
Costain
Croda International
Deliveroo
Deloitte LLP
Dentsu (UK)
Diageo
Direct Line Insurance
E.ON
Entain
Ernst & Young LLP
Estée Lauder
Experian
Financial Times
Flutter Entertainment
GlaxoSmithKline
Greencore Food to Go
Haleon
Hargreaves Lansdown
Hays
Hilton Foods
IKEA
Intercontinental Hotels
Intertek
Ipsos
ITV
J Sainsbury
John Lewis Partnership
Johnson Matthey
Kingfisher
Laing O’Rourke Corp
Lego
London Stock Exchange
Lush Retail Limited
Marks & Spencer
Meta/Facebook
Microsoft UK
Mitie Group
Mondelez International
Mobico Group
National Grid
Nestlé UK & Ireland
Ofcom
PageGroup
Pearson
PepsiCo UK & Ireland
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
PZ Cussons
QinetiQ Group
Rely
Rolls-Royce Holding
Safestore Holdings
Sage
Severn Trent
Shell
Smiths
Sodexo
Spirax-Sarco Engineering
Spire Healthcare
SSE
TalkTalk Telecom
Tate & Lyle
Taylor Wimpey
Tesco
The Co-operative
The Rank Group
Transport for London
Travis Perkins
Unilever
Unite
United Utilities
UPS
Virgin Media o2
Vodafone
Volvo
Weir
Whitbread
The Female Lead is a partner of the Women in Work 2024 summit