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.

(Women in Work)

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