Harriet Harman has been accused of ‘rank hypocrisy’ (FT: 26 February 2010). Last year she mounted several attacks on sexism in the city, but it now emerges that she has presided over a fall in the proportion of women on Boards in the public sector, an area that she has been responsible for leading on.

The proportion of Board positions for women fell to 32.6% last year, compared with 37.5% in 2004. The Treasury, for example, was one of the poorest performing departments, with only four of the twenty five people that the department appointed to public bodies being women. This was replicated in other departments, including, for example, at the Department for Innovation and the Export Credit Guarantee Department, that appointed women to fewer than a fifth of Board positions.

Accusations have been made against Harriet Harman that she does not practise what she preaches. Lord Oakshott, Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, said:

‘This is rank hypocrisy – how dare Harriet Harman lecture the country on diversity when a Whitehall Old Boys Club packs more and more men onto public Boards?’

At the same time as a number of women within public bodies is reducing, the picture continues to be poor in other sectors. For example, the number of women on FTSE 100 Boards continues to remain at 12%, according to the latest Bellwether Annual Report from Cranfield University School of Management.

This is a dismal picture. Despite all the initiatives and press releases produced on the subject by the current Government over recent years, the position seems to have got worse rather than better. Does this area therefore need a new re-think, with positive action initiatives being taken, as in countries such as Norway and Spain; or will the various approaches being developed by Government start to bear fruit soon?