David Cameron last week warned that the lack of women in board roles is undermining the economic recovery. He pointed to “evidence” that promoting more women to executive roles would boost business performance. What can be done, then, to remedy this and strike a better gender balance in UK boardrooms?

The government has taken a relatively gentle approach to this issue to date. Early in 2011, businesses in the UK were set a voluntary target to increase the number of women on boards by at least 25%.

I mentioned in a post last year that there had been signs of encouragement. In truth, progress looks to have been slow. At last count there was a modest increase of just over 1.5% year on year. This means that women make up just 14% of the boards at FTSE 100 companies. It is clear that the target will not be met at this rate.

The big question really is; should the government take a more hard line stance on this? Other EU countries including Spain, Iceland and Norway have introduced compulsory quotas for businesses.

I’m not sure this is the right solution for UK business though. It seems too simplistic. We need more understanding as to why there is such an imbalance before we can find a solution. The proportion of women working in mid-manager level is far higher. So this is perhaps where we need to focus in order to reform working practices and career progression in search of better balance…